Life Begins at Conception

When I was young, in the 1960s, I remember hearing of the prosecution of a man who killed a pregnant woman. He was charged with TWO murders. I didn’t understand. Adults told me that the baby counted as a person.

A few years later, probably during the protests and discussions about Roe v. Wade, I heard arguments that it was permissible to kill the baby while in the womb. I didn’t give it much thought, accepting what society and government told me – arguments based on viability, arguments that dehumanized the baby. But, I did recognize the logical conflict in the public arguments.

Another few years later, I was in college, in another state, 1,000 miles from home. I was invited to a meeting at a house on campus (I think it was called Maranatha House) to view a movie. In a small town, any free entertainment was preferable to an evening sitting in the dorm room.
The movie happened to be about abortion. I don’t remember most of it, but I have never forgotten the conclusion. As the movie neared the end, I was left with intellectual questions about the morality of abortion. The movie closed with a question of whether a child in the womb could be killed, probably focusing attention at what point life began during gestation, at what point it would be “OK” to abort the child. THEN, there was a scene showing a car speeding towards a toddler in the street, implying that it would be struck and killed. The screen went black in the instant before the car struck. I KNEW then, that there was no justification for the killing of a child, whether born or not. There was no difference between the child in the womb, and the child after birth – developmental stage and viability have no bearing on morality.

Since then, I have grown more firm in my belief that there is NEVER a good reason to kill the child. I have heard stories of ATTEMPTED abortions, with the child surviving. I have heard of physically and mentally defective children, whose mothers CONSIDERED abortion, but chose life. I have known two women closely, who had abortions and deeply regretted it after.

The most difficult cases are those of rape and incest. And yet, even in cases like these, the CHILD is ALWAYS INNOCENT. Regardless of how emotionally and financially difficult it may be for the woman and her family, the child is ALWAYS innocent.
There will never be an end to assaults, mistakes and carelessness. But, the child is ALWAYS innocent. There is NEVER a good enough reason to kill an innocent person, no matter how small or young.

Life begins at conception.

A single living cell, if found on Mars would be considered life. How much more so is the life of a human at conception.

To carry the debate/explanation a bit farther – most people would agree that is it NOT right to kill a baby after it is born alive. (But, there are pro-abortion people in our country, who are now advocating for “allowing” the child to die, after a successful birth). If it is bad to kill a baby in the moment after it is born, can it be OK to kill the baby in the moment before it is born? Most people would be strongly opposed to this. If it is NOT OK to kill the baby in the moment before it is born, would it be OK to kill the baby a day or two before it is born? Again, most people would strongly oppose this. Carry this line of reasoning back days, weeks and months. At what point WOULD it be OK to kill the baby? This is where the viability argument comes into play. As medical science improves, the date of viability is pushed back farther and farther. But, logically thinking about this, there is NO clear line, biologically speaking, that defines the time at which “viability” happens, or the embryo becomes a person. In fact, the embryo became a person at conception. That is the point at which ALL the genetic makeup of a person is completed and perfected. There is NO further development that changes the baby from an embryo into a “person.”

Taking the logic in the opposite direction, starting at birth, if it is OK to kill the baby at the time of birth, or to “let it die,” would it be OK to kill the child on the following day? Or “let it die” a few days later? Or weeks or months later? Clearly, this is horrific. Yet, there are pro-abortion believers who now are proposing this idea. This line of thought supports a principle that someone else has the authority to decide life or death of another, NOT based on any JUST principle, but on any whim or passing fad or the demands of a mob. We CANNOT allow our society to follow this path.

Life begins at conception.

EVERY human life has value.

[Funny, to me, that many of the people who favor abortion are opposed to the death penalty for serious crimes like murder. They support death for the innocent, but conversely support life for the guilty].