Women should have more abortions, because there’s too many people on this planet.

That’s what a group of college students said, dismissing a Students for Life education effort on their campus. The pro-life group recorded the students’ reaction on video. Watch it here.

It’s an argument that I read fairly often in online comments sections, too. People think abortion is a solution to reducing what they believe is a surplus population.

I’m not sure if the Students for Life people got the chance to respond to the students. The video doesn’t show it. But this is one of those arguments for abortion that’s not as complicated as it seems.

First, if you are pro-lifer in this situation, you don’t have to agree or disagree with the theory of overpopulation. I only know a little bit about it, but I think there are some great arguments for why more people doesn’t equal a bad thing for our planet. (Check out overpopulationisamyth.com.) But arguing about overpopulation doesn’t get to the heart of the issue.

Let’s assume for a moment that overpopulation is a problem. If the world is overpopulated, should women have the legal right to kill their 2-year-old toddler? What about a disabled person? Or an aging parent who can’t live on their own anymore? Their deaths would, after all, reduce the population, too.

But most people would say those deaths are wrong. So what is the difference between those things and abortion?

As pro-life advocates, we believe that none of these deaths are justified – not the preborn baby, the toddler, the disabled person, the elderly parent. Every one of them is human, and every human should have the right to life. That’s what the overpopulation argument really boils down to: whether the preborn are humans.

The answer to that question is something every pro-lifer should memorize. It’s a simple, scientific truth that is so powerful: A unique, new human life forms at the moment of conception, complete with its own genetic code.

Thanks to an episode of Life Report for laying out this argument.