I can’t believe we are still asking this question. Actually, I can’t believe it was ever asked to begin with. I may not be a genius, but having grown up on a farm, there are a few things that I know for sure.

If you have a bull and a cow, and they mate, the offspring from them will always be a cow.

If you breed a stallion and a mare together, their offspring will be a horse of one denomination or the other.

Same with dogs, cats, goats, sheep. You name it. If you breed two of a kind together, you’ll end up with another one of that kind.

Ask anyone who raises animals for a living and they’ll tell you the same thing. You start with pedigreed cattle, you’re gonna have more pedigreed cattle. Non-pedigreed, they’re still going to be cattle, but there are more variables as to size, color, etc., which is why pedigreed animals are so expensive.

You’ve heard people ask a pregnant woman, “Do you know what it is yet?”

The answer to this question is either girl, boy, or twins. You never hear, “Well, last time we had the cutest little chimp. This time we’re hoping for a pony.”

Never. Hear. That.

If you have a male human being and a female human being and the two of them get together, there is no chance that their offspring will be anything but human. Can’t happen. Now there may be a wide variety of factors as to hair color, eye color, height, weight, and all those happy things that will come out of the genetic woodwork and surprise us, but it will be human.

It has no choice. 

There is no possibility, that once conceived, the offspring from two human beings, two homo sapiens, will be any more or less than human. There are no alternatives. Once conceived, this little being will become a human being. It will share the genes from its parents to become a unique individual.

But it will be human.

Just like the thoroughbred mare, when bred to a thoroughbred stallion will have a thoroughbred foal, two human beings together will produce a human baby. It could be the next Einstein, or it could be mentally or developmentally challenged. It will still be human.

You cannot make it anything else, no matter how you try. This little clump of cells, which is rapidly growing and changing, will eventually be born as a beautiful little boy or girl. A human boy or girl.

So let’s stop this whole “it isn’t human until so many weeks.” You cannot use this to justify the taking of life. It will always be human, no matter the stage of pregnancy.

I’m not here to tell you whether abortion is right or wrong. That’s above my pay grade. You can take that up with someone else.

What I’m saying is that from conception to birth, there is going to be only one outcome. Don’t try to to make abortion sound better by claiming the fetus isn’t human until it has reached a certain stage of development. If you feel the need to justify the act or make yourself feel better about it, find another way to do it.

Whether it is technically human at a particular point or not, the only potential it has, if it reaches term, is to be human.

Not a monkey.

Not a chimpanzee.

Not an orangutan.

Not a gorilla.

Not anything else but human.

Like I said before, I’m no genius. I’m not a geneticist, or biologist, or any kind of scientist. I’m a farm girl, a mother, and a grandmother. From the time I was able to walk to the barn to watch the miracle of birth, there are a few things which have remained constant.

Horses yield horses. Cows yield cows. Goats yield goats. Eggs from chickens hatch into chickens and goose eggs into geese.

There are no surprises as to species.

Human beings yield humans. End of story.

But if someone out there gives birth to a unicorn, I’d be happy to adopt it.