Exposing Religious Nihilism: Abortion Bans

There has never been a viable ectopic pregnancy. Not one. Not in all of human history.

This is not a matter of debate, belief, or interpretation. It is empirical fact: when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus (usually in the fallopian tube), it cannot develop into a baby. It will rupture the tube, causing life-threatening hemorrhage if not terminated. Every single time.

Yet in multiple US states, laws influenced by religion now delay or deny care for ectopic pregnancies, forcing women to wait until they’re actively dying before doctors can intervene. The same pattern applies to incomplete miscarriages, septic miscarriages, and other non-viable pregnancies where termination is medically necessary to save the woman’s life.

This isn’t “erring on the side of life.” This is prioritizing abstract belief over empirical reality.

This is nihilism.

What Nihilism Actually Means

Most people encounter “nihilism” through pop culture and assume it means believing in nothing, caring about nothing. That’s the vulgar definition.

The philosophical definition is more precise: nihilism is the rejection or denial of what exists in favor of what one believes should exist. It’s elevating ideas above reality itself, making abstractions more important than the actual world.

When laws force women to carry non-viable pregnancies that will kill them, what’s being prioritized? Not the woman’s life (she exists). Not the embryo’s viability (it doesn’t exist). What’s being prioritized is the idea that all pregnancies must be carried to term, regardless of biological impossibility.

Ideas have become more real than reality. That is nihilism.

The Pattern Extends Beyond Pregnancy

This same nihilistic pattern operates across multiple domains:

• Women’s autonomy: The denial treats women’s capacity for self-determination as if it has no intrinsic value
• Family separation at the border: Children ripped from parents, some never reunited, all justified by Christian nationalism
• Climate denial: Empirical science rejected when it contradicts ideology
• Authoritarianism: Democratic norms discarded for loyalty to leaders or beliefs

In every case: ideas over existence. Belief over reality. Abstraction over human life.

About The Spark

After years writing about sexuality, relationships, and freedom on this site, I’m expanding the conversation. Not because sex isn’t important, but because the same forces that shame our sexual lives operate everywhere: in politics, relationships, the stories we tell ourselves about who we’re supposed to be.

The Spark examines manufactured suffering wherever I find it, using accessible philosophy rooted in lived experience. I draw from Camus, Popper, Kabir, but I write in plain language that cuts through bullshit.

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