As every year  on November 20th , World Children’s Day  was celebrated  , commemorating the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was approved on November 20, 1989, and signed by 196 countries. Children’s rights begin with the right to life of every human being from conception or the  unborn child . This undoubtedly requires us to protect motherhood, since women are the natural source of life.

The essence of womanhood lies in the possibility of motherhood; it is what makes us who we are, as  Aristotle said . Therefore, preventing a child’s life in the womb from continuing its development entails a denial of the mother as a woman. Modern feminism abandons women by denying their natural feminine essence and, moreover, has led them to believe that their role as mothers is nothing more than a patriarchal imposition from society that enslaves them and deprives them of freedom. These ideas are somewhat misleading because without bonds, there is no freedom.

Many feminists refuse to accept the scientific and ontological truth that a fetus is not part of the mother’s body; it is simply implanted within her, dependent on her, but a distinct entity that will become independent unless it is aborted. This idea is well expressed by a pregnant woman when she says “I am pregnant” rather than “my body is pregnant,” as  Julián Marías pointed out . The relationship of otherness that exists between the  unborn child and its mother does not transform into a relationship of identity. One could say that “the content and the container are not the same” because they are two distinct realities. Furthermore, the unborn child   ‘s dependence  on the mother does not make it a part of her body.

Because we are unable to appreciate life and motherhood in all their grandeur and dimension, we waste time and energy constantly debating whether the right to abortion should exist and whether it is a human right. We seem to forget that human rights are norms that recognize and protect the dignity of all human beings; they are inherent to everyone simply by virtue of existing and are therefore universal. For this reason,  speaking of the right to abortion as a human right is a  self-evident fallacy; it requires no proof, as a good mathematician would say. But accepting the obvious is not always easy or desirable. Furthermore, abortion may be a decriminalized and legal act, as  Alberto Sánchez Cámara , Professor of Philosophy at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid, explains, but it can never constitute a right. There cannot be a right to eliminate embryonic life, to end a human being. The right to kill does not exist.

On the other hand, it is easy to see that legal positivism transforms desires and ideological postulates into rights divorced from truth and devoid of all ethics. However, the  Code of Medical Ethics continues to state that the ethical duty to respect prenatal life takes precedence over the permissiveness introduced by the law , as it does not depend on the legal classification of the actions. The first abortion law severed the relationship between ethics and legality, a characteristic of the prevailing relativism of modern/postmodern culture.

Contrary to scientific, philosophical, and even common-sense criteria, abortion has been established in Spain as a right, as recognized by the Constitutional Court in its ruling 2/2024, dated June 18, 2024. This controversial ruling generated several dissenting opinions, including that of Ms.  Concepción Espejel Jorquera  , in which she provides ten irrefutable arguments against the Constitutional Court’s decision. First, she argues that instead of examining whether the challenged law was constitutional, the Constitutional Court created  ex novo  what it termed  ” a woman’s right to self-determination regarding the voluntary termination of pregnancy . “ Furthermore, she points out that this supposed fundamental right contradicts, harms, or infringes upon a constitutionally protected right, namely the life of the  unborn child , a vulnerable and defenseless being.

This judge, like many others, fails to understand why this right is being established to provide legal cover for identity groups that feel oppressed, without demonstrating why the freedom or dignity of women requires sacrificing the life of the  unborn child , relegating it to a mere unwanted appendage of the woman’s body. Furthermore, this new right  disregards the father ,  depriving him of the possibility of deciding  whether or not his child should be killed , since the decision rests exclusively with the mother . This contradicts the much-touted feminist defense of equality between men and women.

Another provision of the Constitutional Court’s ruling, which abandons women, is the elimination of mandatory prior information for women about their rights, benefits, and public support for motherhood, as well as the elimination of the three-day reflection period before an abortion.  Abortion without reflection is an insult to reason and human freedom , but it is typical of a society subjected to the tyranny of  woke culture,  which opposes the search for truth and the exercise of freedom, and promotes a single way of thinking. Denying people the possibility of being informed and thinking for themselves is a form of tyranny, and what is being sought is the imposition of a culture of death. Why aren’t they allowed to hear the heartbeat or see an ultrasound? Most people, before making important decisions, such as those affecting their health, seek information to help them make the best possible choice.

The right to life is the ” logical and ontological prerequisite  for the existence and specification of all other rights” enshrined in our Constitution. This right grants us the obligation to defend and protect human life, the principal asset for improving this world and guaranteeing our well-being. No human being accepts that another can kill them deliberately and for any reason.

The debate has also resurfaced regarding whether to include abortion as a right in the Constitution of the European Union and in those of other countries, with some arguing that the contrary violates women’s rights and integrity. Many women who have had abortions vehemently deny this argument, pointing out that they suffer lasting physical, psychological, and spiritual traumas that are not disclosed to them when they go to an abortion clinic, where they are not allowed to see their dismembered fetus.  There is no such thing as a safe abortion .

In short, guaranteeing  children’s rights begins with defending the rights of the unborn child , who will come into the world unless we kill them along the way. And, since a child is a social good,  it is the responsibility of governments and society to provide pregnant women with the necessary support so they can hear the joyful cry of their child at birth .