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Excerpts from Pro Life Answers to Pro Choice Arguments
He said the fertilized egg is the most complex cell in existence. It would take more than five sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica to hold the information contained in the fertilized egg. Each fertilized egg is a new human being -- unlike any person who has ever existed before or any who will ever exist again.
As the egg divides, the new cells are highly differentiated. At no time is the human being a blob or a mass of undifferentiated protoplasm; Dr. Lejeune explained that there is an enormous flow of information from generation to generation -- through the DNA. In a human being's first cell the information in the DNA is surrounded by matter. But, he said, there is no such thing as "living matter" -- there is only matter. It is more correct to say that the information in the DNA animates the matter around it. Over time, the amount of matter will increase. The body of an adult human being contains a great deal of matter. But the information in a person's DNA has not changed since the moment of conception.
The sleek muscles on the athlete, the propensity for music of the pianist, and the tiny hands that reach up to grandpa to say, "I love you" -- all of these things were decided at the moment of conception when a unique human being was created. Whether a person is male or female is also decided at that moment.
The tiny boy or girl created is every bit as human at conception as you or I -- only smaller and unable to defend his or her rights. He or she must depend on adults -- you and me -- for protection.
Medical experts testified before congressional committees that it is never necessary to kill a baby who has been almost entirely delivered in order to preserve the life or health of the mother.
A doctor who has performed over 1000 partial-birth abortions acknowledged that he performs them "routinely" for non-medical reasons. He said that 80% are "purely elective".
Age of Viability
A full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks. Today, at 22-23 weeks, the baby is considered viable (able to live outside the mother's womb). Each year, there are at least 17,000 abortions performed after the twenty-second week of pregnancy.
Pain to the Baby
Some people maintain that anesthesia given to the mother during a partial-birth abortion protects the baby from pain. However, this anesthesia has little or no effect on the baby, according to congressional testimony by the nation's leading anesthesiologists, including the President of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Medical experts testified that babies at this age can experience great pain.
Hearings on partial-birth abortion were held in the U.S. Senate on November 17, 1995 and in the U.S. House of Representatives on June 15, 1995 and March 21, 1996.
Abortion Facts
Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. (Deut. 12:8)
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
Excerpts from Pro Life Answers to Pro Choice Arguments
by Raldy Alcorn, Multnomah Books, 1992
| Pro Choice Argument | Pro Life Answer |
| Science is uncertain when life begins, therefore it must be a religious question. | ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA -"A new individual is created when the elements of a potent sperm merge with those of a fertile ovum, or egg." |
| The unborn is an embryo or fetus - not a baby. Abortion is terminating a pregnancy and is not actually killing a child. | Pro-choice people insist that the unborn is an "embryo." By definition, embryo means any living creature at an early stage of development. Further, they say it's not a baby; it's a "fetus." Fetus is a Latin word meaning "young one" or "little child." |
| Abortion providers are respected medical professionals working in the woman's best interest. | A former abortion clinic counselor says, "I was totally uninformed of available alternatives to abortion. I never recommended adoption or keeping the baby. I received no training in factual matters--my job was just to keep women happy and make sure they went through with an abortion." |
| Abortion is a safe medical procedure, safer than full term pregnancy and childbirth. | Researchers state, "Morbidity and mortality rates of legal abortion are several times higher than that for carrying a pregnancy to term. The immediate complication rate is no less than 10%, while long range complication rates show no less than 17%." |
| Abortion is an easy and painless procedure. | The various abortion procedures are often both difficult and painful for women. One abortion procedure, the D & C, involves the scraping of the uterus, which typically involves some bleeding and other side effects that some women find quite painful. |
| Unwanted children usually end up being battered and abused children later on in life. | A recent study showed 91% of the battered children surveyed were planned pregnancies and 90% were legitimate, according to Dr. Edward Lenoski, Professor of Pediatrics at U.S.C. |
| Child abuse has decreased since legalized abortion. | Since abortion's legalization in 1973, child abuse has increased fifteen hundred percent according to U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. |
| Legally preventing a woman from having an abortion is an invasion of her privacy. | Our laws allow police to enter the privacy of people's homes to stop them from battering and abusing their children. Now the same force of law guarantees the "privacy and rights" of parents to dismember or poison their babies before birth. |
| Abortion relieves women of stress and responsibility and thereby enhances their psychological well-being. | Post-abortion therapy and support groups with members numbering over 30,000 testify to the reality of abortion's potentially harmful psychological effects. Women's World, September 1991, reports a study of women who have had abortions in which 45% said they had thoughts of suicide following their abortion. |
| What about a woman who's life is threatened by pregnancy or childbirth? | While he was United States Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop stated publicly that in his thirty-eight years as a pediatric surgeon, he was never aware of a single situation in which a pre-born child's life had to be taken in order to save the life of the mother. |
Window to the Womb
Science gives us a glimpse of human life before birth Copyright © 1982 Dr. Rainer Jonas |
56 Days Old (8 weeks) The heart has been beating for more than a month, the stomach produces digestive juices and the kidneys have begun to function. Forty muscle sets begin to operate in conjunction with the nervous system. The fetus' body responds to touch, although the mother will not feel movement yet. |
 Copyright © 1982 Dr. Rainer Jonas |
91 Days Old (13 weeks) The fetus now sleeps awakens and exercises its muscles energetically-- turning its head, curling its toes, and opening and closing its mouth. The fetus breathes amniotic fluid to develop its respiratory system. Fine hair has begun to grow on head and sexual differentiation has become apparent. |
 Copyright © 1982 Dr. Rainer Jonas |
142 Days Old (19 weeks) Half the pregnancy has past, and the fetus is about 12 inches long. The mother has definitely begun to feel movement by now. If a sound is especially loud or startling the fetus may jump in reaction to it. |
| 2/3 of all abortions take place between 6 and 8 weeks | Abortion is now legal for any reason up until birth! |
"Life Begins at Conception,"
Geneticist Dr. Jerome Lejeune
The world's leading geneticist, Dr. Jerome Lejeune of Paris, testified before the Louisiana House Committee on Criminal Justice June 6, 1990, that it is a proven scientific fact that human life begins at conception. He explained, that the DNA molecule is one meter long and is divided into 23 chromosomes. Each DNA molecule is incredibly thin. If the DNA of all the world's 5 billion people were placed together, it would fit on 2 aspirin tablets. Dr. Lejeune said that at the moment of fertilization the 23 chromosomes of the male sperm unite with the 23 chromosomes of the female egg, creating the new human being.He said the fertilized egg is the most complex cell in existence. It would take more than five sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica to hold the information contained in the fertilized egg. Each fertilized egg is a new human being -- unlike any person who has ever existed before or any who will ever exist again.
As the egg divides, the new cells are highly differentiated. At no time is the human being a blob or a mass of undifferentiated protoplasm; Dr. Lejeune explained that there is an enormous flow of information from generation to generation -- through the DNA. In a human being's first cell the information in the DNA is surrounded by matter. But, he said, there is no such thing as "living matter" -- there is only matter. It is more correct to say that the information in the DNA animates the matter around it. Over time, the amount of matter will increase. The body of an adult human being contains a great deal of matter. But the information in a person's DNA has not changed since the moment of conception.
The sleek muscles on the athlete, the propensity for music of the pianist, and the tiny hands that reach up to grandpa to say, "I love you" -- all of these things were decided at the moment of conception when a unique human being was created. Whether a person is male or female is also decided at that moment.
The tiny boy or girl created is every bit as human at conception as you or I -- only smaller and unable to defend his or her rights. He or she must depend on adults -- you and me -- for protection.
Important Facts About Partial-birth Abortion
Reasons Partial-Birth Abortions Are PerformedMedical experts testified before congressional committees that it is never necessary to kill a baby who has been almost entirely delivered in order to preserve the life or health of the mother.
A doctor who has performed over 1000 partial-birth abortions acknowledged that he performs them "routinely" for non-medical reasons. He said that 80% are "purely elective".
Age of Viability
A full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks. Today, at 22-23 weeks, the baby is considered viable (able to live outside the mother's womb). Each year, there are at least 17,000 abortions performed after the twenty-second week of pregnancy.
Pain to the Baby
Some people maintain that anesthesia given to the mother during a partial-birth abortion protects the baby from pain. However, this anesthesia has little or no effect on the baby, according to congressional testimony by the nation's leading anesthesiologists, including the President of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Medical experts testified that babies at this age can experience great pain.
Hearings on partial-birth abortion were held in the U.S. Senate on November 17, 1995 and in the U.S. House of Representatives on June 15, 1995 and March 21, 1996.
PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION
 Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby's leg with forceps. |
 The baby's leg is pulled out into the birth canal. |
 The abortionist delivers the baby's entire body, except for the head. |  The abortionist jams scissors into the baby's skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the hole. |
 The scissors are removed and a suction tube is inserted. The child's brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed. | |