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Candid Comments
January 20, 2014
The Logic of Life
by Craig Turner
fitzgerald griffin foundation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Jan. 22nd, tens of thousands of people from across the country will gather in the streets of Washington, D.C., to march to the Capitol and the Supreme Court. They want America and the world to know that a human life is sacred from the moment of conception to natural death.
One of the crafty arguments used by the abortion industry to support its agenda is that "No one really knows exactly when life begins." The first point to consider in response to that argument is that if a woman does not have a baby inside her, then she is not pregnant. The moment she becomes pregnant, she is carrying a child. A second point is that whenever there is uncertainty about whether a person is alive, the benefit of the doubt always goes to preserving life. For example, if a driver comes across an accident and a body is lying on the side of the road — either dead or alive — does the driver call an ambulance? Of course! In the same way, we should always choose to protect the life of a person even if we are not sure if that person is alive.
Another argument used to support abortion is the claim that the fetus is just a part of the pregnant woman's body, like her liver or other organs. But scientists will tell you that every organ in the human body shares the same genetic code as the rest of the body. A fetus begins life at the moment of conception with a brand new genetic code, different from those of its mother and father. No one on the planet, in fact, shares that same genetic code. So it is clear that from the moment of conception, a brand new life is present in the mother's womb.
A fetus begins life at the moment of conception with a brand new genetic code, different from those of its mother and father. Sometimes the pro-choice movement will use an infant's size or gestational age to make its point. "You're talking about an embryo or a fetus," they say, "not a person." The terms "embryo" and "fetus," however, do not refer to nonhumans, but rather to humans at certain stages of development, just as "baby," "adolescent," and "adult" refer to humans at certain stages of development.
We also hear the argument that an embryo or fetus is not viable; in other words, it cannot survive without the mother. This may be true, depending on the stage of development of the child, but many humans alive today cannot survive without the help of another human being. Because someone needs help to stay alive does not mean that life is worthless or that person is no longer human.
Another objection is raised when ultrasound or genetic testing shows that a child will be handicapped. Abortion advocates argue that this child will have a poor "quality of life" and will be unhappy. National polls of the general population, however, have shown that children who are handicapped are on average 3 percent happier than the national average. That means they are probably happier than you and me. Handicapped children are not unhappy because they are handicapped, in the same way that other people are not unhappy because they are not the best at sports or the most beautiful. People, generally speaking, are happy not when they are successful, but when they are loved.
Pro-choice advocates will invariably justify all abortion by asking, "What about abortions in cases of rape and incest and to save the life of the mother?" All three of these reasons combined do not account for even 1 percent of the abortions in the United States. More than 99 percent of abortions in this country are performed for reasons attributed by health care professionals to "convenience," such as the mother saying she is not ready to have a child. Legislators should never write laws for an extreme minority of cases while ignoring the vast majority of cases.
The second response to this argument is that in cases of rape and incest, it is not right to punish the child for the crime of its father. A child conceived in this way is never at fault, and children conceived through rape and incest can grow up to be happy, healthy individuals. No abortion has ever brought healing to the victim of a rape or incest; it has only created two tragedies rather than one.
No abortion has ever brought healing to the victim of a rape or incest; it has only created two tragedies rather than one.
We have all heard the saying that "Every woman should have the right to choose." But we should look very closely at what that choice really is — the choice of convenience or "freedom" over the life of another human being. Every society normally restricts an individual's freedom to choose something when that choice would harm an innocent person. However, an erroneous "right to choose" has been used throughout history to justify the violation of human rights. For example, slavery was justified with the premise that blacks did not possess the same rights as whites. As a result, slave owners were allowed the right to choose whether their slaves should live or die, because the slaves were considered to possess fewer rights than the slave owners. The same can be said of the Jews during the Holocaust.
More proof that abortion harms rather than heals is the overwhelming collection of data showing that abortions increase the chances of breast cancer in women. The most recent study of many, published in the Indian Journal of Cancer, indicates that women who have abortions are 626 percent more likely to develop breast cancer. The article states that abortion makes the breast's glandular tissue (called epithelium) more likely to act as a cancer-producing agent. Other studies in various countries have pointed to similar conclusions. In addition, the same study showed that women who consume oral contraceptives, commonly known to act as abortifacients, have a 950 percent higher rate of breast cancer than women who do not use these drugs.
There are many other reasons to be against abortion: the suicide rate is higher among women who have had abortions, for example, and the euthanasia movement today uses the arguments devised by the abortion movement to justify its agenda. But perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to eliminate abortion is that studies now indicate that fetuses in the womb feel pain. As our knowledge of in-utero development increases, so does our ability to see that we are dealing with human beings.
Candid Comments column is copyright © 2014 by Craig Turner and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, www.fgfBooks.com. All rights reserved.
See his biographical sketch and additional columns here.
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