With the Roe V Wade decision looming, and lots of discussion about abortion, I thought I would join in the abortion debate as I care deeply about moms and babies.
When I was around 12 years old, I wrote a letter to the President, Ronald Reagan, and asked him to end abortion. This was something my parents instilled in me at a very early age … life matters. My mom was a feisty woman, something I have learned to admire as I get older … and I am more like her in this way the older I get. She fought for things she believed in and didn’t care what other people thought about her. She had strong convictions and stuck to her guns. I am very much like that … a fighter of justice. Fight for those who need an advocate. That’s why I spend a lot of time in Africa with orphans.
But for me the abortion debate is simple …
is it a baby or not?
If it is a baby, then this is murder, because someone is taking the life of another. If it isn’t a baby, then “my body my choice”, right?. Let’s just take God out of the discussion for the moment and …
let’s look at the all important science – embryology
It is very clear in science that life begins at conception. No longer is this “a blob of cells” which was the argument when I wrote that letter to the President. Science now confirms that when sperm and egg come together, life forms. Makes sense to me … once this happens, growth is exponential, and this is a living organism (hence the growth – dead things don’t grow). There are endless articles from non-Christian sources that confirm this, now that science is up to speed with God (BUT, we’re not talking about God yet). Here are some examples for those of you who are skeptics.
ABSTRACT: 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 order to grow and develop. The difference between the individual in its adult stage and in its zygotic stage is one of form, not nature. This statement focuses on the scientific evidence of when an individual human life begins. – American College of Pediatricians – March 2017
“Human development begins at fertilization, approximately 14 days after the onset of the last menstrual period… when a sperm fuses with an oocyte to form a single cell, the zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” (emphasis added) (Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 10th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, 2016. Kindle Locations 739, 1094)
“Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male gamete, the sperm, and the femal gamete, the oocyte, unite to give rise to a zygote.” (emphasis added) (T.W. Sadler, Langman’s Medical Embryology, 13th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer, 2015. p. 14)
“Human development begins at fertilization when an oocyte (ovum) from a female is fertilized by a sperm (spermatozoon) from a male.” (emphasis added) (Keith L. Moore,Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology, 9th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, 2008. Kindle Location 555)
“Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a ‘moment’) is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte.” (emphasis added) (Ronan O’Rahilly and Fabiola Müller, Human Embryology and Teratology, 3rd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001. p. 8)
“Human embryos begin development following the fusion of definitive male and female gametes during fertilization… This moment of zygote formation may be taken as the beginning or zero time point of embryonic development.” (William J. Larsen, Essentials of Human Embryology. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1998. pp. 1, 14)
“The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.” (Bruce M. Carlson, Patten’s Foundations of Embryology, 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996. p. 3)
“It is the penetration of the ovum by a spermatozoan and the resultant mingling of the nuclear material each brings to the union that constitutes the culmination of the process of fertilization and marks the initiation of the life of a new individual.” (emphasis added) (Bradley M. Patten, Human Embryology, 3d ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1968), p. 43)
“The term conception refers to the union of the male and female pronuclear elements of procreation from which a new living being develops….
The zygote thus formed represents the beginning of a new life.” (emphasisadded) (J.P. Greenhill and E.A. Friedman, Biological Principles and Modern Practice of Obstetrics. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1974. pp. 17, 23)
“Every time a sperm cell and ovum unite a new being is created which is alive and will continue to live unless its death is brought about by some specific condition.” (E.L. Potter and J.M. Craig, Pathology of the Fetus and the Infant, 3rd edition. Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, 1975. p. vii)
“Every baby begins life within the tiny globe of the mother’s egg… It is beautifully translucent and fragile and it encompasses the vital links in which life is carried from one generation to the next. Within this tiny sphere great events take place. When one of the father’s sperm cells, like the ones gathered here around the egg, succeeds in penetrating the egg and becomes united with it, a new life can begin.” (emphasis added) (Geraldine Lux Flanagan, Beginning Life. New York: DK, 1996. p. 13)
“Biologically speaking, human development begins at fertilization.” (The Biology of Prenatal Development, National Geographic, 2006)
“The two cells gradually and gracefully become one. This is the moment of conception, when an individual’s unique set of DNA is created, a human signature that never existed before and will never be repeated.” (emphasis added) (In the Womb, National Geographic, 2005)
“Fertilization is ‘that wondrous moment that marks the beginning of life for a new unique individual.’” (emphasisadded) (Louis Fridhandler, “Gametogenesis to Implantation,” Biology of Gestation, vol. 1, e. N. S. Assau (New York: Academic Press, 1968), p. 76)
“In fusing together, the male and female gametes produce a fertilized single cell, the zygote, which is the start of a new individual.” (emphasis added) (Time and Rand McNally, Adas of the Body (New York Rand McNally, 1980), pp. 139, 144)
“A new individual is created when the elements of a potent sperm merge with those of a fertile ovum, or egg.” (emphasis added) (“Pregnancy,” New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed., Macropedia, vol. 14 (Chicago, 111.: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974), p. 968)
“The basic fact of life is simple: life begins not at birth, but conception.” (emphasis added) (Ashley Montague, Life Before Birth (New York: Signet Books, 1977), p. vi)
(Thank you for this list Joel Smith!)
If you want a science lesson (the one that med students use to study the MCAT), check this out: khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/cells/embryology/a/human-embryogenesis
science = life begins at conception = it is a baby
Pretty much all of society now hangs on every word of science in every situation – or so they say. If you’re not a biologist, you can’t determine what a woman is. If you’re not a scientist, you cannot talk about climate change. If you’re not a doctor, you can’t talk about vaccines or pandemics. So, if scientists are saying life begins at conception, then it must be true. In this case it is.
The abortion debate pro-choice arguments
Like I said earlier, pro-choice advocates used to justify the killing of “the blob of cells” because the science wasn’t touting this as a baby – it was tissue … remember? But as we just saw, this is a baby – a living, growing, developing human life. It’s not a tree, or a puppy, or a flower – this is human life. It starts as human life and ends as human life. It doesn’t morph from one organism into another.
Let’s look at some of the pro-choice stances.
my body my choice
This is the one you hear people screaming when they are protesting, or the one you hear the most (even from non-screamers). But if you look at the science (again, this ever-important entity), these cells that form human life are actually their own beings – they are not part of the woman’s body, rather they are connected to parts of the woman that feed this growing human and it has its own distinct DNA. It is not like our skin cells, or other cells that are attached to us – it is its own self. So we, as women, are the caretakers of life growing within us. I can’t imagine any other species that gives birth to it’s young signing up to kill the young growing inside them. Can you imagine a mother dog ripping open her womb and eating all her puppies? This would make front page news! Or what about an owner of a dog reaching into a pregnant dogs body and sucking out all the puppies, ripping apart their bodies? That person would be put in jail! It’s strange to me how people value animals more than humans. But I digress. The “My body my choice” chant is really quite outdated at this point if you’re keeping up with science.
keep your bible off my body
I haven’t even mentioned the Bible … yet. Just looking at science so far. I think science makes a dang good argument even without God (although He invented it so I guess there is a connection). There are tons of people who aren’t Christians who know this is murder – because it’s one human taking the life of another. Super simple. The other life just happens to be living in another person’s body, hoping the other person takes care of it like she is supposed to. Innocence. Trust. Love.
this may be a baby, but it’s not a person
I listened to a podcast recently that you can listen to here. In it, a professing “Christian pastor” says abortion is ok because it’s not a person. Really? So what makes a person a person? This really doesn’t have to be that complicated. It sounds like semantics to me to put a new spin on it since “this is not a baby” is no longer supported by science. But, I suppose this is the way of the current world.
Let’s ask these questions in light of this thought process.
Does size matter?
So the baby growing inside a mom is pretty small. Does that constitute murder? What about a 2 year old versus a 12 year old? Can I kill the 2 year old because they’re pretty small? Does size matter? Whether it’s a 3 week in-utero baby versus a 38 week in-utero baby, or a 5 year old child … does size matter?
Is it developed enough?
A baby in-utero is less developed than a one year old, but a one year old is less developed than a 2 year old. When does it become ok to kill one over another? In some states you can kill a 24 week in-utero baby, in some states you can only kill until 20 weeks. What makes one killable over another? The pastor in the video says he thinks it’s 24 weeks. But if science is right, development starts on day 1.
Where do they live?
So killing a baby because it resides inside another human body gives someone the right to kill it (“my body my choice”)? Their residence makes them less human because they live inside another human? Does the 7 inch birth canal into the real world change the personhood of this human?
What is their level of dependency?
It’s hard to believe many pro-choice people think abortion is ok because this life can’t function on their own. If the argument is they don’t become a person until they are not dependent on someone else, you could kill children up until middle school – actually let’s just say they need parents too. A baby outside the womb is dependent on it’s mother, or a care giver, many years into their life. So if a one year old is still dependent on their mother, should we be able to kill them? What I can’t comprehend, as a mother, is how instinctually we, as mothers, are fierce protectors of our young. The idea of killing a defenseless baby just boggles my mind.
this baby is an inconvenience
So we have determined that science says this is a baby (what else could it be?), but women should have the ability to determine if this life they created came at an opportune time or not. I’m too busy with my career, I’m too young, I’m too old … I’m too – fill in the blank.
For those people who don’t believe the science that this is a human growing in a mother’s womb, they tend to think this can just be eliminated. But here’s a bigger question …
when is it ok to kill?
Some states say it’s ok the kill before 20 weeks. Some states say 12 weeks. Some states say up until birth. Some states, like Virginia (when Northam was Governor) say after it’s born. Here’s what he said: “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” Which states got it right? What determines the age of when the baby can be killed? Who gets to decide that? Isn’t that playing God? If “the person” who gets to decide says it’s ok to kill a 6 month old because they aren’t yet a person (they are small, they are still dependent on their mother, they can’t talk or feed themselves), would that be ok? Who qualifies for protection? And who gets to decide?
why it matters what god thinks
Any moral issue is a moral issue because of morality – “principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior”. But what determines morality? Does each individual determine that? Or the government? If each individual determines morality, then it’s everyone for themselves – a dog eat dog world. And we know how pure human minds are (sarcasm intended). So what if you want to kill another human being – my morals are different than yours and what makes yours right and mine wrong? If the government determines morality, Hitler did a fine job didn’t he. We can list off many dictators who slaughtered thousands of people, and they are the government. And again, they are sinful, immoral people who can’t determine morality because they have depraved minds just like all of us.
In reality, God determined morality – good and evil. It started in Genesis 2:9 “In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” This concept was there at the start. Then you have Cain and Abel. They knew right from wrong. It’s inborn in human beings to have a conscience and know that it is not right to kill another human. But, humans are innately evil so they need a Savior. But if morality comes from God, then we need to know what God says about human life. By the way, if you don’t believe morality comes from God, where does it come from? Who determines right from wrong? What is right and what is wrong? See the problem when you take God out of it?
Psalm 139:13: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Jeremiah 1:5: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.
Psalm 127:3: Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
Leviticus 18:21: You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.
Deuteronomy 12:31: You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God, for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
Jeremiah 19:5: And have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind.
I could go on and on with verses about how God values life, especially of innocent children. He clearly says He created you and knows you before you are born. Even if you don’t believe in God, I would think you would be against people burning their children in fiery statues to their gods (biblical and historical). Why would abortion be any different? Do you know what this process is? Let me share in case you are unaware.
what is abortion?
The standard first trimester abortion procedure is the suction and curettage method. The abortionist begins by dilating the mom’s cervix until it is large enough to allow a cannula to be inserted into her uterus. The cannula is a hollow plastic tube that is connected to a vacuum-type pump by a flexible hose. The abortionist runs the tip of the cannula along the surface of the uterus causing the baby to be dislodged and sucked into the tube – either whole or in pieces. Amniotic fluid and the placenta are likewise suctioned through the tube and, together with the other body parts, end up in a collection jar. Any remaining parts are scraped out of the uterus with a surgical instrument called a curette. Following that, another pass is made through the mom’s uterus with the suction machine to help insure that none of the baby’s body parts have been left behind. The contents of the collection jar are examined to assure that all fetal parts and an adequate amount of tissue commensurate with gestational age are present.
D&E procedure described by former abortionist By Dr. Tony Levatino, M.D.:
Imagine for a moment that you are a “pro-choice” obstetrician-gynecologist as I once was. Your patient today is seventeen years old and she is twenty weeks pregnant. At twenty weeks, her uterus is up to her umbilicus and she has been feeling her baby kick for the last two weeks. If you could see her baby, she would be as long as your hand from the top of her head to the bottom of her rump not counting the legs. Your patient is now asleep on an operating room table with her legs in stirrups. Upon entering the room after scrubbing, you dry your hands with a sterile towel and are gowned and gloved by the scrub nurse.
The first task is remove the laminaria that had earlier been placed in the cervix to dilate it sufficiently to allow the procedure you are about to perform. With that accomplished, direct your attention to the surgical instruments arranged on a small table to your right. The first instrument you reach for is a 14-French suction catheter. It is clear plastic and about nine inches long. It has a bore through the center approximately ¾ of an inch in diameter. Picture yourself introducing the catheter through the cervix and instructing the circulating nurse to turn on the suction machine which is connected through clear plastic tubing to the catheter. What you will see is a pale yellow fluid the looks a lot like urine coming through the catheter into a glass bottle on the suction machine. This amniotic fluid surrounded the baby to protect her.
With suction complete, look for your Sopher clamp. This instrument is about thirteen inches long and made of stainless steel. At one end are located jaws about 2 ½ inches long and about ¾ on an inch wide with rows of sharp ridges or teeth. This instrument is for grasping and crushing tissue. When it gets hold of something, it does not let go.
A second trimester D&E abortion is a blind procedure. The baby can be in any orientation or position inside the uterus. Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can. At twenty weeks gestation, the uterus is thin and soft so be careful not to perforate or puncture the walls. Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about 4 to 5 inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.
The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see a pure white gelatinous material issue from the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. If you have a really bad day like I often did, a little face may come out and stare back at you.
Congratulations! You have just successfully performed a Suction D&E abortion. You just affirmed her right to choose. You just made $600 cash in fifteen minutes. (Source)
The following account of D&E is part of sworn testimony given in US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (Madison, WI, May 27, 1999, Case No. 98-C-0305-S), by Dr. Martin Haskell, an abortionist:
“And typically when the abortion procedure is started we typically know that the fetus is still alive because either we can feel it move as we’re making our initial grasps or if we’re using some ultrasound visualization when we actually see a heartbeat as we’re starting the procedure. It’s not unusual at the start of D&E procedures that a limb is acquired first and that that limb is brought through the cervix and even out of the vagina prior to disarticulation and prior to anything having been done that would have caused the fetal demise up to that point.”
“When you’re doing a dismemberment D&E, usually the last part to be removed is the skull itself and it’s floating free inside the uterine cavity…So it’s rather like a ping-pong ball floating around and the surgeon is using his forcep to reach up to try to grasp something that’s freely floating around and is quite large relative to the forcep we’re using. So typically there’s several misdirections, misattempts to grasp. Finally at some point either the instruments are managed to be place around the skull or a nip is made out of some area of the skull that allows it to start to decompress. And then once that happens typically the skull is brought out in fragments rather than as a unified piece…”
If you need further information on the abomination of abortion and how savage it is, there is plenty of photographic evidence you can view here: Abortion – Pro Life – Galleries of Images of Aborted Children (priestsforlife.org)
what to do with this information
If you have made it this far in my post, you care. Knowing what a baby is, what a person is, hearing the excuses of pro-choice people, knowing the details of what an abortion does … this should move you. Maybe these images will help.
Each of these images shows the baby starting at 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks, 20 weeks, 24 weeks, and 28 weeks. (Source)
Now consider the abortion procedure description above with the pictures of the stages of the baby. I didn’t even get into late term abortion procedures because most people agree this is egregious.
In my research for this post, every website I went on to learn about abortion never encouraged the reader to reconsider abortion or direct the reader to some options (adoption). They never posted pictures like you see above to show the mother what she is aborting or describe the process in actuality. Some sites told people not to talk to anyone at pregnancy centers as those people would just talk them out of it. It seems like abortion advocates WANT babies to be killed, rather than having this be one option of many.
If you believe this is a living, breathing, growing baby, then you should be adamantly against abortion in ANY case. There is no reason to kill another human, especially the life of an innocent baby. As horrible as rape is, killing is not the solution. Murder is murder, regardless of the circumstances. When people say it’s ok to take this innocent life if the life of the mother is at stake – NO! How about viewing it as let’s save both lives! Doctors can do miracles these days with life saving equipment. This is an antiquated argument.
stop the silence
If you are pro-life, if you are a Christian, you should be speaking out for the unborn, the innocent, the vulnerable. You will have plenty of opportunities in the near future to do this as the Supreme Court case comes into the limelight. There are 105 abortions every minute. If it took you 5 minutes to read this, that’s 525 babies dead. Let’s tell the world this is not ok.
questions to ask pro-choice people
- If what is growing inside a mother isn’t a baby, what is it?
- Do you agree with science?
- If you think it’s a baby, but not a person, what makes a person?
- If you think abortion is ok at different stages of development, what is the difference between aborting a baby in the 8th week or the 28th week? When is it ok to kill?
- Is it ok to kill a one year old? Why not?
- Have you ever seen pictures of an aborted baby? Maybe that would help you understand this isn’t just a procedure of “removing tissue” (which is what abortionists call it). This is why around 78% of women who go to pregnancy life centers and see an ultrasound of their baby choose life.
Excellent. 95% of biologists agree life begins at conception.