By Mike Willis
The pro-abortion forces, led by the National Organization For Women, Planned Parenthood, and many mainline Protestant denominations have successfully argued abortion rights on national media. Many Americans have accepted the abortionists’ arguments. These arguments need to be examined in studying this topic. Here are some of the more popular arguments used by those in favor of aborting babies.
1. “The mother has the right to control her own body. ” The woman not only has the right to control her own body, but also the obligation. If the woman had controlled her own body, she would not be pregnant and wanting to kill her unborn child to avoid the consequences of her immorality. If she had kept her passions under control and not been guilty of fornication, she would not desire an abortion. Remember, 81 percent of abortions are performed on unmarried women (Parade Magazine [I October 1989], p. 28).
Though the mother has the right and obligation to control her own body, she must remember that the baby is another body – not her own body. She has no right to decide that this other human being has no right to live, whether that other human being be inside or outside her womb. Civil law is beginning to express concern for the mother’s obligation toward the unborn in recent decisions regarding the birth of babies who are drug addicts. Some mothers have been charged with crime became they have taken drugs which caused their babies to be born addicted to drugs. If we can hold the mother responsible for her treatment of her unborn child when she takes drugs, how much more should the mother be held responsible for making a premeditated decision to kill that child!
Furthermore, for the sake of argument, let us concede that the unborn child is the mother’s body. What would we do with a woman who willfully mutilated her own body? If we saw a woman make a conscious decision to cut off her arm, what would we do? We would put her in some kind of protective custody while we treated her for insanity – insanity which was demonstrated by destroying her own body. But women who claim that the unborn baby is their own body willfully destroy a part of their own body, all the while claiming to be sane. That does not make good sense.
2. “The unborn is not really human until it is born.” If it is not human, what is it? Is it mineral, vegetable, or animal? If it is animal life, is it horse, cow, pig, cat, or just what? To ask the question shows the foolishness of the argument! If a scientist could produce a fetus from non-living matter, he would assert in every scientific journal which would publish his material that he had “created” human life! But our abortion advocates deny that the unborn baby is human life!
The only difference in an unborn and born baby is location and developmental size. Developmental size changes after birth just as certainly as it changes before birth. Hence, one could not rationally argue that the unborn is not human because of changes in developmental size.
We protect the unborn of other species, why not protect unborn babies? Stealing an eagle’s egg or disturbing its nest is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000. Is this because an eagle’s egg is eagle life, a potential eagle? Perhaps, we need to declare babies an endangered species, so our laws could protect them. Inasmuch as 20 million unborn babies have been destroyed since 1973 in America abortuaries, being an unborn baby is probably the most risky time in a person’s life – more risky than exposure to other health risks such as cigarette smoke, cancer producing agents, etc.
3. “It’s better to abort a child than to abuse one. ” What more severe form of child abuse can be committed than to kill a child? Abortion is the worst form of child abuse! If killing the unborn to prevent possible child abuse is justifiable, why not go to those homes where there is actual child abuse and kill those children to prevent child abuse?
. This argument presupposes that aborting unwanted children will cut down child abuse. With 20 million unwanted babies having been killed by abortion in America since 1973, child abuse should be totally eradicated in our society by now! However, that is not the case. There are more cases of child abuse today than ever before. Norman E. Geisler su2eested the reason for this: “Apparently the disregard for human life reflected in the acceptance of abortion is extended from pre-birth to post-birth attitude toward offspring” (“The Bible, Abortion, and Common Sense,” Fundamentalist Journal [May 1985], p. 26).
4. “We cannot legislate morality. ” Abortionists have made every effort to legislate morality since 1973. They not only have wanted to legislate that “abortion is acceptable” but also to use our tax dollars to pay for their abortions! Inasmuch as the Supreme Court has decided that states have the right to restrict abortions, we will see whether or not abortionists think that morals can be legislated! Already they have stepped up activity to legislate their moral standards, throwing aside all of their objections pertaining to legislating morality.
We legislate morals every day. If morality cannot be legislated, we need to remove from our law codes these moral laws which have been incorporated into criminal law: murder, rape, incest, stealing, anti-slavery laws, civil rights legislation. The issue is not whether or not morality can be legislated but whose morality will be legislated! Shall the moral standards of humanism, atheism, and other non-Christian perspectives become the morals of our country, or will Christian ethics be legislated? Shall the majority (those from a Judeo-Christian heritage) be controlled by the minority (those from non-Christian background) or vice versa?
5. “People are going to have abortions anyway, so we may as well legalize it. ” If this argument is valid. it should be equally valid with other criminal acts. Since people are going to commit murder, rape, incest, child abuse, and wife abuse, we may as well legalize them. Stating the argument make it absurdly obvious.
Laws do affect behavior and change attitudes. That has been clearly recognized in the civil rights legislation. Making racial discrimination a crime has made equal housing and equal job opportunities more readily available for minorities. Making abortion illegal will change attitudes and conduct of those who are law abiding citizens. Those who are not law abiding citizens will have to be incarcerated, whether their crime be rape, incest, stealing, racial discrimination, or murder (whether of the born or unborn).
6. “Making abortion illegal will result in mothers dying in back alley abortions. ” Legalized abortion has not saved lives, it has cost lives – 20 million lives since 1973 when the Roe vs. Wade case was decided. If abortion was made illegal, some would violate the law, turning to those who would perform illegal abortions in back alleys. Some would die in back alley abortions. But, how can a few hundred mothers who would make a willful decision to violate the law and die in a back alley abortion chamber compare to the 1.5 million babies which are slaughtered each year in American abortuaries? If we grant that 500 women would die each year in back alley abortions chambers, we still would have reduced the death rate by more than 99 percent.
The arguments of abortion proponents are unconvincing. They should be rejected as unsound.
How Abortions Are Performed
If most of us could witness an abortion, we would walk away in disgust at what we witnessed. If we could see the remains of babies which have been aborted, we would turn away in horror. Here are the graphic descriptions of the “Four Ways To Kill n Unborn Child.”
1. To abort an early pregnancy the doctor inserts a tube through the opening of the womb and connects it to a suction apparatus. The vacuum is so powerful that the baby is instantly broken up into a fluid mass of blood, tissue, and cartilage. It quickly passes through this tube and is collected in a bottle.
2. In the curettage technique the doctor stretches or dilates the mouth of the womb to admit a forceps or currette. He then reaches in and drags or scrapes out the baby and after birth. The surgeon must work by touch alone, often cutting the baby into several pieces in order to get it out. The head may be crushed with the forceps to reduce its size for withdrawal. Bleeding is profuse until the womb is scraped completely empty. The bits and pieces of the baby are then disposed of.
3. Larger babies to be aborted may require an abdominal operation similar to a Caesarean section. The womb is cut open and the baby is lifted out. It usually squirms and moves its arms and legs. It tries to breathe and may manage a fee ble cry. If the lungs are too immature to function normally it will soon stop moving, but frequently the heart continues to beat for several hours before it dies.
4. The doctor can stick a large needle through the mother’s belly wall and into the womb. After withdrawing some fluid, a strong, sterile, saltwater solution is injected – in effect pickling the baby alive. The baby may thrash about for a few moments, but soon it becomes perfectly still and dies. In about 24 hours labor will start and the already dead baby is delivered. This technique can be used right up to the very end of pregnancy (“Four Ways to Kill an Unborn Child”).
The aborted babies are then disposed of, either being treated like trash, sold for collagen, used for experimentation Oust like laboratory rats), or otherwise discarded.
“Diary of An Unborn Child”
One of the – most touching pieces of material published against abortion, has been the “Diary of An Unborn Child,” a hypothetical record of a baby inside its mother’s womb. The material below is physically accurate in detailing the maturation of the unborn baby. I think it will touch your emotions, just as it did mine.
Dairy of An Unborn Child
October 5 – Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet, I am as small as a seed of an apple, but it is I already. And I am to be a girl. I shall have blond hair and blue eyes. Just about everything is settled though, even the fact that I shall love flowers.
October 19 – Some say that I am not a real person yet, that only my mother exists. But I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is yet truly bread. My mother is. And I am.
October 23 – My mouth is just beginning to open now. Just think, in a year or so I shall be laughing and later talking. I know what my first word will be: MAMA.
October 25 – My heart began to beat today all by itself. From now on it shall gently beat for the rest of my life without ever stopping to rest! And after many years it will tire. It will stop, and then I shall die.
November 2 – I am growing a bit every day. May arms and legs are beginning to take shape. But I have to wait a long time yet before those little legs will raise me to my mother’s arms, before these little arms will be able to gather flowers and embrace my father.
November 12 – Tiny fingers are beginning to form on my hands. Funny how small they are! I’ll be able to stroke my mother’s hair with them.
November 20 – It wasn’t until today that the doctor told mom that I am living here under her heart. Oh, how happy she must be! Are you happy, mom?
November 25 – My mom and dad are probably thinking about a name for me. But they don’t even know that I am a little girl. I want to be called Kathy. I am getting so big already.
December 10 – My hair is growing. It is smooth and bright and shiny. I wonder what kind of hair mom has.
December 13 – I am just about able to see. It is dark around me. When mom brings me into the world it will be full of sunshine and flowers. But what I want more than anything is to see my mom. How do you look, mom?
December 24 – I wonder if mom hears the whispering of my heart? Some children come into the world a little sick. But my heart is strong and healthy. It beats so evenly: tup-tup, tup-tup. You’ll have a healthy little daughter, mom!
December 28 – Today my mother killed me.
Conclusion
We can sit in the peace and tranquility of our homes and read an article such as this one about abortion. We enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, experience the joys of life, and have the opportunities to participate in the decisions regarding the future of our nation. We can do these things because our mothers did not choose to have an abortion! I can sit with my family around a table to eat cake and ice cream on 22 July because I had a birthday. Don’t you think every child has a right to a birthday?
Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 3, pp. 66, 86-88
February 1, 1990