Matthew Zeitlin would do well to be more careful with his terminology. In his column, he conflates three different terms critical to the abortion debate – fetus, embryo and fertilized eggs. His issue and column deal with the situation in Mississippi, specifically in the context of a fertilized egg. Here, an egg has fused with a sperm and they want to declare that a person. I agree with Zeitlin, this is a very extreme position to take. However he uses fetus and fertilized egg interchangeably. It is not until nine weeks later that a fertilized egg is called a fetus, calling a fetus a person would by no means result in birth control being called abortifacients.

These terms are important and as a columnist writing on the topic, Zeitlin should be expected to be familiar with them. He does a great disservice to the debate by conflating them. Not everyone who is pro-life thinks life starts at fertilization, though no one would think that after reading Zeitlin’s column. I consider myself pro-choice but think equating a 40 week old fetus not born yet with a fertilized egg is quite dishonest. I would hope we would agree, legalizing abortion of a 40 week old fetus is wrong and just as extreme as criminalizing birth control. Where that personhood line lies is a great and interesting debate for which I have my own beliefs. But you have done nothing to help your cause or further the debate here.

Ryan Hurtado

Graduate student in molecular biosciences