Let's Stop Nitpicking Abortion

Sometimes the forest is ignored because too much time has been spent concentrating on the trees. The big picture loses out to the nitpicking of the small details. This becomes apparent when taking a long, hard look at the issue of abortion. For over 40 years now, we have been subjected to the pro-abortion side of things: a Supreme Court who created an imaginary law out of a feigned right to privacy, incrementalism when it comes to which babies to save, and details that do nothing more than present yet another point over which to argue. These thoughts brought me to take a look at what’s at stake here.

SCIENCE PROVES SHE’S A BABY

The first step in unraveling our intricately knit pro-life journey is a basic biological fact. Even the pro-abortion side rarely argues against the humanity of the human product of conception any more. Furthermore, we know that it’s correct to call such an unborn human a baby. It’s not a puppy or kitten or fledgling — she’s a baby because she’s not an adult — yet. She does, however, contain everything needed to become a fully developed adult someday. Mincing our words at how we describe these little ones (fetuses) only serves to offer yet another micro-debatable topic. So stop being cautious about what it is that the Mom is carrying within her womb; it’s a baby, pure and simple. End of debate.

SCIENCE PROVES SHE FEELS PAIN

The Pain Capable Act that recently won passage in Texas is another example of micro-managing the pro-life issue. Yes, the pre-born baby feels pain. She feels pain at earlier than the widely accepted 20 weeks. As Maureen Condic, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah states: “The earliest ‘rudiment’ of the human nervous system forms by 28 days (four weeks) after sperm-egg fusion. At this stage, the primitive brain is already ‘patterned’; i.e. cells in different regions are specified to produce structures appropriate to their location in the nervous system as a whole.”

But is that really the issue at all? Is abortion only repugnant because the baby feels pain as she is dismembered, torn limb from limb? Or is there a much simpler reason to feel revulsion at the act of killing what was, just moments ago alive? Debating whether or not the baby feels pain is unnecessary when we acknowledge the first point: science proves she’s a baby. Any further delving into details creates yet another point of contention, and thus a distraction from the big picture. A child was present in the womb. She had the God-given right to live but it was taken from her without any consideration of her opinion of the matter.

CIRCUMSTANCES OF CONCEPTION DON’T MATTER

There has been much talk about exceptions when it comes to the pro-life issue. Some will tell you that it’s okay to compromise, that babies born with defects, conceived by rape, or who endanger their mother’s health are somehow less worthy of being saved. They are expendable. Again, I direct you to the first point. Science proves she’s a baby. With that point being validly provable, no other circumstances can be validly argued to the contrary. Once there’s a life there, that life has God-given rights. It follows, then, that her humanity should be the prominent consideration. Anything else is weighing the worth of one life against another. This is something even society finds repugnant, at least in most cases, and certainly something a God-fearing Christian would not condone.

SOMETIMES THE BIG PICTURE IS ALL YOU NEED

Instead of getting lost in the details, then, shouldn’t we consider the big picture? The humanity of the unborn, now irrefutably proven by science, is all the consideration we need to apply. The pro-life debate becomes simplified in that the little details don’t serve as distracting detours or points of contention. If we stick to the fact that the baby is indeed a human being, there is no need to argue and nitpick; doing so only distracts and sidelines the point. Maybe we just need to stick to the biology of life. A baby — even in her mother’s womb — is a human being. The fact that she feels pain, was conceived in less than ideal circumstances, and may not be the perfect specimen has absolutely nothing to do with her right to life. Her right to life began when she began, at fertilization.

© 2013. Birgit Jones. All Rights Reserved - First published on Catholic Stand