2,387 videos 1,376,944,188 views US Joined Aug 30, 2018
Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Charlie Kirk Defends Why Abortion Numbers Make It Worse Than the Holocaust Despite Different Evil Intent
Charlie Kirk engages in an intense debate with a college student who challenges his statement that abortion is worse than the Holocaust. The student argues that Holocaust victims could feel pain while many aborted embryos cannot, making the Holocaust more evil. Kirk counters that while the Holocaust was worse in intent, attempting to eradicate an entire religious people and eliminating nearly half of all living Jews, abortion surpasses it in sheer magnitude of human lives lost. The conversation takes a turn when Kirk presses the student on moral philosophy, ultimately getting her to admit that sex-selective abortion based on gender preference is wrong. Kirk argues that the pro-abortion worldview collapses when stripped of emotionality, contending that universal human equality, a foundational Western principle—leaves no room for abortion since human development irrefutably begins at conception.
The Initial Challenge: Comparing Two Distinct Evils
A college student approaches Charlie Kirk to challenge a statement he made at a previous university event where he claimed abortion is worse than the Holocaust. The student comes prepared with research, noting that abortion numbers have been accumulating since Roe v. Wade was ratified in 1973, while the Holocaust killed approximately 6 million people per year before being stopped. Kirk clarifies his position: both are distinct evils with similarities, but the Holocaust was more evil in certain ways while abortion is worse in magnitude.
The student presents data showing that 93% of abortions occur in the first trimester, totaling 58,590,000 abortions, and argues that pain receptors may not have developed by 12 weeks of gestation. This would mean only 88,200 abortions per year occur after the first trimester when babies likely feel pain, compared to 2 million Holocaust victims per year who definitely felt pain. Kirk responds by asserting that human life has moral worth regardless of developmental stage or ability to feel pain.
Kirk Acknowledges Holocaust's Unique Evil
Kirk explains two reasons why the Holocaust was worse in certain aspects beyond just numbers. First, it eliminated nearly half of all living Jews, decimating a significant portion of an entire population. Second, the intent and evil of trying to eradicate an entire religious people is unparalleled, having only occurred four or five times in history. However, he maintains that when measuring by total lives lost, abortion represents a greater magnitude of evil.
The Moral Philosophy Debate
Kirk challenges the student to explain the moral difference between a four-week-old embryo and herself. The student argues that she has past experiences and has impacted more people both positively and negatively than a four-week-old embryo, giving her more moral value. Kirk presses on this point, asking if her moral worldview means people gain more value the older they get, which would make an 82-year-old more valuable than an 8-year-old. He notes that Western civilization was actually built on the opposite idea—sacrificing the old for the young—but during COVID this was inverted.
The student clarifies that moral value is based on how many people know you and your ability to understand fear and recognize that your life is in danger. Kirk points out the dangerous implications of this logic by bringing up Iceland's requirement that women abort babies with Down syndrome. The student agrees this is terrible, but Kirk pushes her to explain why it's terrible if an early abortion doesn't matter much.
The Sex-Selective Abortion Trap
Kirk presents a scenario: should it be legal for a mother who finds out she's having a girl but wants a boy to abort at three weeks? The student answers yes, drawing cheers and gasps from the audience. Kirk presses her to think about what she just said, asking if the child can survive outside the mother's body. The student argues that if a baby is going to be born to a parent who is disappointed by the gender, they shouldn't be born to that parent in the first place.
Kirk declares that what she's arguing for is eugenics, which is grotesquely illegal. He explains that sex-selective abortion is now possible because DNA tests at three weeks can reveal hair color, eye color, likely height, IQ, weight tendencies, and gender. Under her logic, pregnancy becomes no different than customizing a Ford Explorer—if you don't like what the test reveals, you terminate. The student acknowledges Kirk got her on this point and admits that you shouldn't be able to kill your baby just because you don't like the gender.
Human Development and Universal Equality
Kirk brings the conversation to the fundamental question of when human development begins. Both agree that it begins at conception when egg and sperm meet. Kirk argues that if human development begins at fertilization, the human should be protected at that point. The student struggles with this logic, noting that the embryo is leeching off the mother's resources and isn't its own being yet.
Kirk counters that babies leech for the first three years of life, pointing to his own 10-month-old who doesn't hunt and gather but requires breast milk or formula to survive. He reframes her use of the word "leech" by saying the mom gives life to the baby through the umbilical cord. From a moral standpoint, not even a religious one, Kirk argues that we were all given life by a mom who gave us nutrients through an umbilical cord, and we should give that back as part of the moral cycle of life.
The Collapse of Pro-Abortion Logic
Kirk emphasizes that human development irrefutably has a starting point at conception, which even pro-abortion advocates acknowledge. The embryo doesn't transform from another species into a human being at some point—it's human development from the beginning. Therefore, using reason, if it's human development and it is a human being, then human rights apply, and the first human right is the protection of life.
Kirk tells the student she has a lot of thinking to do, explaining that it's not her fault but that the pro-abortion worldview collapses when you remove feelings and hyper-emotionality. There is no defense using agreed-upon Western reason and morality, which holds that we don't kill people smaller than us or eradicate those with less money or worth. Universal human equality—the overarching Western ideal found in the Declaration of Independence stating all men are created equal—leaves no room for abortion in a society that truly believes in it.
