OPINION (CP) – A University of Chicago doctoral student says he was alarmed by the backlash he received after publishing the result of a survey showing a majority of biologists believe life begins at conception. Writing in Quillette last week, Steve Jacobs noted that soon after he was awarded his Ph.D, he was interviewed by several conservative news outlets about a working paper that was linked with his dissertation on balancing abortion rights and the rights of preborn babies,
in which he explored key questions that have dominated abortion politics in the United States for decades. His dissertation, which also sought to explain why the abortion debate continues and whether it could be resolved, was titled “Balancing Abortion Rights and Fetal Rights:
A Mixed Methods Mediation of the U.S. Abortion Debate.” Jacobs reported the data on the views of both pro-life and pro-choice Americans as it relates to various policies, including where their views overlap, such as restrictions on late-term procedures and improving the adoption process. Yet it was the responses of biologists from all over the world about when life begins — the overwhelming majority of whom indicated support for abortion — that proved most interesting to journalists. READ MORE
