Why I Am Pro-Life

I first ran this post very early in blogging, and got quite a response from people who I’ve never met.  Make sure to check out the comments below.  Very interesting stuff.  I’m re-running this post because I think it’s important and informative.

An 8 week old “fetus” has a beating heart, an EKG, brain waves, thumb-sucking, pain sensitivity, finger grasping and genetic humanity, but under our present laws in the United States is not a human person with rights under the 14th Amendment.  This is not right.  That’s why I am “Pro-Life.”  Watch this video and tell me what you think.  Are there arguments for abortion or the right to choose that you don’t know how to respond to or that you find compelling?  :

Movie Trailer You Have To See

National Geographic’s “In the Womb” is a must-see.  Beautful!

Irony in Montana Plane Crash

Here’s a link to a post by another blogger that makes some interesting points as they describe the recent plane crash in Montana.

READ IT BY CLICKING HERE

Does God Play Dice?

Albert Einstein said,

God doesn’t play dice.

Long before you were conceived by your parents you were conceived in the mind of God.

You are not an accident.

Isaiah 44:2,

I am your Creator.  You were in my care even before you were born.

Knowing that God uniquely created me (you), what areas of my (your) personality, background and physical appearance am I struggling to accept?

The Best Commercial You Won’t See During the Super Bowl

NBC has rejected the following commercial to air during the Super Bowl for being “too political.”  Apparently PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) commericals are OK but any commercials endorsing ethical treatment for pre-born babies is not.  Who figured?

Pro-Life Rebuttal #4

Here’s another pro-choice argument I heard recently: “Obviouly life begins at birth.  That’s why we celebrate birthdays, not conception days, and why we don’t have funerals following miscarriages.”

My response:  1) Our recognition of birthdays is cultural, not scientific.  In fact, ancient Chinese traditions calculate a person’s age from the estimated time of his conception.  A birthday is not the beginning of a life, but the beginnig of a face-to-face relationship.

2) Some people do have funerals after a miscarriage.    I’ve been to such a funeral and it was unforgettable.  Everyone there knew a child had died.

3) Funerals are an expression of our own subjective attachment to those who have died, not a measurement of their worth.  Funerals are for the living, not the dead.  The baby that dies in a miscarriage is a real baby, but we haven’t gotten to know her yet.  The difference is not in her, but in us, because we didn’t bond with her as if she had been born. 

4) There is nothing about a birth that makes a baby essentially different than he was before birth.  There is simply no magic that somehow changes the nature and value of a child just because he has moved from inside his mother to outside.

Pro-Life Rebuttal #3

Here’s another common “mantra” of the pro-choice movement:

The unborn is an emryo or a fetus–just a simple blob of tissue, a product of conception–not a baby.  Abortion is just terminating a pregnancy, not killing a child.

1. Like toddler and adolescent, the terms embro and fetus do not refer to nonhumans, but to humans at particular stages of development.  The word embryo is used of any living creature at an early stage of development.  Fetus is a Latin word meaning “young one” or “little child.”

2. Semantics affect perceptions, but they do not change realities; a baby is a baby no matter what we call her.  Though fetus was once a good word that spoke of a young human being, it is now used with a subhuman connotation.  It allows the user of the word to avoid the humanizing word “baby.”  My favorite (not!) that the pro-choice crowd uses to refer to a baby is “Product of conception.”  It’s a baby.  Just look at it!

3. Prior to the earliest first-trimester abortions, the unborn already has every body part she will ever have.  At 18 days after conception the heart is forming and the eyes start to develop.  By 21 days the heart is not only beating but pumping blood throughout the body.  By 28 days the unborn has budding arms and legs.  By 30 days she has multiplied in size times 10,000.  She has a brain and blood flows through her veins.  This development continues quickly. 

4. Every abortion stops a beating heart and terminates measurable brain waves. 

5. Even in the earliest abortions, the unborn child is clearly human in appearance.  If there was a window to the womb that everyone could see, no one would doubt the “humanity” of each unborn child.

Pro-Life Rebuttal #2

Here’s another common argument I hear from pro-choice folks:

The fetus is just a part of the pregnant woman’s body, like her tonsils or appendix.

Uhhh…no it’s not.  Look at an ultrasound and you’ll see the difference.  If my appendix has a beating heart, arms, legs, etc….it ceases to be an appendix.  A body part is defined by the common genetic code it shares with the rest of its body; the unborn’s genetic code differs from her mother’s.

Furthermore, The child may die and the mother live, or the mother may die and the child live, proving they are two separate individuals. Human beings should not be discriminated against because of their place of residence.

Pro-Life Rebuttal #1

An article printed and distributed by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) describes as “anti-choice” the position that “human life begins at conception.”  It says that the prochoice position is, “Personhood at conception is a religious belief, not a provable biological fact.”

It is uncertain when human life begins; that’s a religious question that cannot be answered by science.

If there is uncertainty about when human life begins, the benefit of the doubt should go to preserving life.  Suppose there is uncertainty about when human life begins.  If a hunter is uncertain whether a movement in the brush is caused by a person, does his uncertainty lead him to fire or not to fire?  If you’re driving at night and you think the dark figure ahead on the road may be a child, but it may just be a shadow of a tree, do you drive into it or do you put on the brakes?  Shouldn’t we give the benefit of the doubt to life?

Medical textbooks and scientific reference works consistently agree that human life begins at conception.  There are simply to many sources to cite!  I have dozens that cite life begins at conception.  They state not a theory or hypothesis can certainly not a religious belief–every one is a secular source.