Abortion

Abortion is a form of murder because it takes the life of an innocent human being.

The Facts of Life

At conception, we become ourselves both by the action of biology and by God's sovereign action in giving the soul (the form of the body) spiritual powers: intelligence, free will, and immortality.

The human person is not just a byproduct of complex forms of matter; the human person is created directly and personally by God at the moment of our conception.

The zygote possesses its own DNA distinct from both parents. It has its own bodily identity and life. If it was not alive, it would not develop into a morula (sixteen cells) and then a blastocyst, which consists of the cells that will become the placenta and the cells that will become the embryo. The new human being has its own genetic identity from the first cell to the last nucleated cell developed by its body before death.

If the embryo does not have its own life, it would not continue developing within the mother's womb. It would be a miscarriage and no abortion would be needed.

The new being takes in nutrients metabolizes them, and excretes waste. These are the signs of life that scientists are dying to find on Mars; the baby passes every test for life that any biologist could construct.

The simple proof that it is alive is that if it were not alive, no one would have to kill it.

The new living being is unquestionably human. It is not a dog, a giraffe, an elephant, or a platypus.

The placenta is created by the blastocyst and embryo; it is not part of the mother's body--no part of the baby's body is part of the mother's body. The mother's body is identifiable by her own genetic signature and the baby's body is identifiable by its own genetic signature.

There is a boundary between the baby's body and the mother's body. The baby produces the placenta precisely to differentiate itself from the mother. The baby has its own blood type and its own blood.

All of this is basic biology. It is a matter of fact. One need not turn to revelation to discover that the child is a unique, living, human being who possesses the same rights as all other human beings: "the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Statistics

2006

The dangerous abortion drug RU 486 ... has killed at least 13 women worldwide and injured 1,100 women in the U.S. alone as of 2006, according to the FDA."[1]

January 2011

"A new statistic released by the New York City health department is shocking pro-life advocates across the country today as it shows 41 percent of pregnancies end in abortion.

"That compares with the figure of about 20 percent of pregnancies nationwide ending in abortions, as the abortion rate has been reduced over the last two decades from one in three to one in five pregnancies resulting in an abortion and the destruction of human life."[2]

Janury 2011

"The Guttmacher report shows '54 percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method, usually a condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant.' These figures are similar to those of a report in Spain showing abortions doubling despite increased family planning promotion."[3]

Public Policy

Obama's HHS Mandate before compromise

1. The Church pays for insurance.

2. Insurance covers free morning-after pills.

Obama's HHS Mandate after compromise

1. The Church pays for insurance.

3. Insurance covers free morning-after pills.

The Slippery Slope

If pharmacological contraception is morally neutral, so are abortifacient drugs. The pill may allow conception but prevent implantation of the blastocyst, so it is abortifacient at some times.

If chemical abortifactients are morally acceptable and, in fact, are mandated "health services" to which all women have a natural right, then surgical abortion procedures are equally a form of "health service" to which women are entitled.

If women have a moral right to murder their children in the womb, doctors have a corresponding moral obligation to provide abortions on demand.

In a similar fashion, if the murder of living human beings in the womb is a health service, so the murder of humans rendered defective by genetic mutations, accidents, illness, or age must be classified as "health services." Just as with abortion, if people have a right to murder their family members or themselves as a "health service," then doctors--and insurance companies--have an obligation to provide that service.

Papal vigil

• USCCB information on 2010 "Vigil for All Nascent Human Life" on the First Sunday of Advent.

Post-abortion healing

• Rachel's Vineyard.
• Buffalo Pro-Life Office (Project Rachel)
• HopeAfterAbortion.com

Abortifacients

• "New FDA Report: Abortion Drug Kills 14 Women, Injures 2200."
• "Mifepristone U.S. Postmarketing Adverse Events Summary through 04/30/2011."

Kreeft's Argument against Ignorance

• Kreeft, "Human Personhood Begins at Conception."

Either the fetus is a person, or not; and either we know what it is, or not. Thus there are four and only four possibilities:

• that it is not a person and we know that,
• that it is a person and we know that,
• that it is a person but we do not know that, and
• that it is not a person and we do not know that.

Do we know it is a person?	Is this a person?
	It is a person. We think it is not a person. Manslaughter.	It is a person. We know it is a person. Murder
	It is not a person. We do not know it is not a person. Criminal negligence.	It is not a person. We know it is not a person. Abortion OK.

Links

• "Pictures of the Dead."