Pro-Life Basics - 2: Abortion: The Rejection of the Gift of Life
What is abortion? Abortion is the termination of a human life in the womb before it has a chance to be born.
Why is abortion wrong? Murder is defined as the direct and deliberate killing of an innocent human being. Abortion is the direct, deliberate and pre-meditated killing of the most innocent and defenceless of human beings. It misuses medical technology, which is meant to save lives. For the specific purpose of destroying human life.
When does life begin? Life begins at the moment when the male sperm unites with the female ovum, resulting in a fertilised ovum. The fertilised ovum has its own distinct DNA, not the DNA of the father or the mother. It is therefore a distinct human being, and not a "part" of either mother or father. At the moment of conception, the genetic blueprint of the new person is laid down.
The gruesome reality. With the legalisation of abortion in many countries in the West and the Third World, the number of abortions have risen dramatically, World-wide, an estimated 80 - 100 million abortions are performed. That’s 80 - 100 million innocent and defenceless human beings murdered, which is vastly more than all the victims of wars, disease and natural disasters in a given period of time.
What about difficult cases? People often raise the question of the "difficult cases" that, they say, can justify abortion. These are 1. The unwed mother; 2. The pregnant rape victim; 3. The economically disadvantaged, who cannot afford another pregnancy; 4. When the mother’s life is threatened by another pregnancy; 5. When the child might prove to be severely handicapped.
No doubt these are difficult cases to which there can be no easy solution. But as human beings with a reverence for the sanctity of human life, we must look for a solution that does not resort to killing. The first three cases can be solved by offering the child for adoption. There are thousands of couples unable to have their own children, who are looking to adopt a child they can love as their own. Many have even been known to adopt severely handicapped children in order to give love to a child nobody else wants. In the fourth case, very rarely does it happen that a mother’s life is threatened by another pregnancy. The march of modern science has largely taken care of that problem.
But in the final analysis, we must ask ourselves whether any problem posed by a "difficult" pregnancy can be justifiably solved by destroying an innocent life. The obvious answer is "no".
Social consequences of abortion. For many, abortion has become a fall-back position in case of "contraceptive failure". Some argue that the free availability of contraceptives will prevent pregnancies and so reduce the number of argument. This is a short-sighted argument that has been proved wrong by history:
- The promotion of contraceptives actually has the effect of changing sexual mores, turning people more irresponsible.
- Contraceptives have a very high failure rate - condoms have a failure rate of about 15 per cent. Of a hundred couples regularly using condoms, as many as 15 couples will have a pregnancy within then year.
- Studies have shown that couples using contraceptives have a much higher probability of resorting to abortion in case of an unplanned pregnancy.
- Contraceptives do not prevent abortion. On the contrary, they promote irresponsible behaviour, which results in more unplanned pregnancies, and more abortions.
Abortion dehumanises society. There is a thriving business in aborted "baby parts" as cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies buy up aborted babies to extract certain tissue for use in their own products. For example, collagen, the connective tissue, is used in shampoos and face creams and lotions to impart a "baby-soft" texture to users. Has modern society reverted to a kind of cannibalism?
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Copyright © 2004 Errol C. Fernandes. All rights reserved.
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