A video by Bill Nye in which the “Science Guy” states, “fertilized eggs are not humans,” has drawn reaction from pro-life activists around the country.
“Women deserve more reproductive rights, not fewer,” says progressive video site Big Think, which re-edited, re-formatted, and posted the video Nye originally recorded in 2015.
“And scientific facts should inform our laws, says Bill Nye The Science Guy,” Big Think adds in the caption under the video.
Nye continues in the video that the notion that a fertilized egg is human reflects “a deep lack of scientific understanding.” He claims that human life does not occur until the fertilized egg is implanted in the wall of the mother’s uterus.
“You literally don’t know what you’re talking about,” he adds.
“If you say, ‘When an egg is fertilized, it has the same rights as an individual!’ who are you going to sue?” asks Nye in the video. “Every woman who’s had a fertilized egg pass through her?”
“It’s hard not to get frustrated with this,” Nye says in the video, shaking his head. “Nobody likes abortion. But you can’t tell somebody what to do.”
National pro-life leader David Bereit, however, has recorded a response to Nye in which he challenges the “Science Guy’s” actual scientific knowledge.
Bereit, who received an undergraduate degree in biomedical science and had experience in the medical science field before becoming a pro-life activist, quotes from the American College of Pediatricians:
The predominance of human biological research confirms that human life begins at conception/fertilization. At fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment in which to grow and develop.
“When a human egg is fertilized by a human sperm, a new human being is created,” Bereit, an advisor for Students for Life of America, summarizes. “That is scientific fact.”
He further takes Nye to task over his view that human life requires implantation in the uterine wall.
“If you really believe that, you would clearly oppose abortions occurring after implantation, which is nearly all abortions,” Bereit asserts. “Instead, you went on to advocate for abortion and condemn those of us who work to actually protect those lives implanted in their mother’s uterine walls.”
Bereit further challenges Nye and other progressives like him on his hypocritical statement, “You can’t tell somebody what to do.”
“Wasn’t that exactly what your video did?” he asks Nye. “You told us to disregard scientific fact about the beginning of human life; you told us to not pursue life-saving laws.”