What Is A Person?
Every Human Life Deserves Equal Protection Under The 14th Amendment
The Question at the Heart of the Abortion Debate
The fight over abortion comes down to one simple but profound question: What is a person?
Students for Life advocates for the recognition of the inherent dignity and legal personhood of every human being, from the moment of conception.
The Humanity of the Preborn
Modern science leaves no doubt:
- At fertilization, a unique, whole, living human being exists.
- At three weeks, the baby’s heart is beating.
- At eight weeks, all their major organs are formed.
- At ten weeks, babies can feel touch.
- As early as 12 weeks, they can respond to pain and show facial expressions.
- Every week of development reflects a beautiful, undeniable truth:
Preborn children are one of us – living, human beings.
Constitutional Personhood: The 14th Amendment
"Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law..."
— 14th Amendment, Section 1
The 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection to all persons under U.S. jurisdiction. But who qualifies as a person?
Legal scholar and former SFLA student leader, Josh Craddock, powerfully argues that when the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, the word person was understood — in common law, legislative language, and public discourse — to include all human beings, born and preborn.
Craddock’s Core Points:
- Under common law, abortion was considered a criminal offense at all stages of pregnancy.
- The framers of the 14th Amendment were aware of the preborn child’s legal status— and did nothing to exclude them.
- State laws in the 1800s increasingly criminalized abortion, not just to protect maternal health but explicitly to protect fetal life.
- The term “person” in 1868 was synonymous with human being, and preborn children were widely recognized as human.
Therefore, to deny preborn human beings equal protection today is to distort the original meaning of the Constitution.