TV's 'science guy' takes aim at pro-lifers in YouTube video

Bill Nye, remembered as the “science guy” from his educational children’s show on PBS, weighed in on the abortion debate late last week with the release of his YouTube video, “Can We Stop Telling Women What to Do with Their Bodies?”

In recent years, Nye has spoken publicly in favor of secular evolution and published a book in defense of it. Earlier this month, Nye began answering a range of submitted questions through the YouTube channel Big Think. Described as “Dear Abby” for geeks, his videos have addressed topics from homosexuality to intelligent design.

The latest video dealt with abortion, a topic that has gained increased national prominence following the release of undercover videos alleging illegal fetal tissue sales by Planned Parenthood. The videos, produced by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), have prompted state investigations into abortion facilities and caused Congress to consider legislation to defund the abortion giant.

But Nye wants pro-lifers to stay out of it. “I think you should leave it to women,” he said. “Nobody likes abortion, but you can’t tell somebody what to do. She has rights over this.”

Nye said pro-lifers, particularly men of “European descent” who pass pro-life laws, ignorantly argue life begins at conception based on a “biblical” understanding that intercourse always produces a baby. He said most fertilized eggs do not implant in the uterus, meaning most fertilized eggs are not born. To say those fertilized eggs deserve the rights of an individual is “a reflection of a deep scientific lack of understanding,” he said. “You apparently don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But Donna Harrison, executive director of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, says all the ignorance lies with Nye.

“I wonder if he’s ever talked to anyone who’s pro-life?” she said. “He’s taken all the old, pretty moldy sound bytes and wrapped them up in a five-minute video.”

The scientific community has known for 200 years that “all mammalian life begins at sperm-egg fusion,” she said. The embryo exists about a week before it implants in a woman’s uterus. And once implantation occurs, nothing about the embryo’s human-ness changes.

“Whether you care about that human or not is a different question,” Harrison said. Nye’s statement that the Bible supports the unscientific idea that every instance of sexual intercourse leads to a baby is “manifestly false,” wrote James D. Agresti, president of Just Facts.

“Biblically based opposition to abortion is not rooted in unscientific fallacies but in principles about the value and uniqueness of each individual from the moment of conception,” he said.

Nye concluded his video with a plea for objectivity and for recognition that other problems are more important. But abortion is the greatest human rights issue of our time, Harrison said.

“It is comparable to defeating slavery in the 1800s and defeating the Nazis in the ’40s,” she said. “It’s time for Mr. Nye to get up-to-date on why people want to defend life.”