Respect life? Then protect EPA
Termination of pregnancies can be linked to pollution
What would it mean for us to commit ourselves as a society to caring for the development of human life? What would be the best way to stop abortions and protect human life? As an embryologist, I’m glad to say that the interventions needed are low tech and readily available: Curb pollution and protect social safety net policies.
Unlike the brains of many other animals, human brains keep growing for about two to three years after birth as if they were still inside the mother. During early childhood, we generate millions of new nerve cells each hour, and forge more than a million connections between nerves per square inch of brain cortex. This early stage of childhood — when the brain is growing in a social environment — is the time when education, healthy surroundings and good parenting make the difference between fully developed brains and stunted brains.
It is during this time — during pregnancy and the first three years after birth — that interventions can raise intelligence and healthy behaviors for the rest of one’s life. This is why I believe that what matters the most in protecting what is “human” is how we nurture, protect and care for developing human embryos and human beings.
Specifically, an intervention that would be incredibly effective would be to stop polluting the environment. New research suggests that the greatest cause of aborted pregnancies, most of which are involuntary, is pollution. That’s right: Numerous studies, many published in government journals and readily available, have shown that pollution causes abortions, miscarriages and birth defects.
The protection of human development does not require costly and high-tech genetic fixes. Rather, it means ensuring adequate regulations on potential polluters, as well as good nutrition, health care, decent living conditions, and educational opportunities for babies, mothers and their families. Low tech, high value.
So, if you want more terminated pregnancies, allow your representatives to get rid of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act and end liabilities on companies making polluting products. Pursuing this path could cause the Trump administration to be the largest cause of abortions in U.S. history.
If, however, you want to protect human embryos and children, advocate to protect the Environmental Protection Agency. Make sure that your representatives know that you want to keep the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and other such safeguards. Support Planned Parenthood and other programs that give aid to poor families and their children. Take the low-tech, high-value route and strengthen those programs that make sure that children get adequate care and safe places to live during their first years of life.