Human Life Starts at Conception — and the Case for Voting for the Lesser Evil
Some people who lean left politically wonder how conservative Christians can vote for unsavory candidates who do not exemplify Christian values in their personal lives, the most obvious case being Donald Trump. There are two reasons for this, which are straightforward and should be easy to understand: (i) separation of personal characteristics from the role of the office; and (ii) policy positions.
Politicians are not Pastors
Christians (at least most Christians) understand that when voting for a government official, they are not voting for a national pastor or minister. Thus, though they do not approve of the immoral or unsavory behavior in the personal life of the candidate (nobody wants their children acting like Donald Trump!), they are willing to vote for personally flawed candidates, because they view the candidate’s policy positions as the lesser of two evils, vis-a-vis the only other viable alternative (for example, Hillary Clinton).
Policy Matters
Governmental policy positions are important. And when it comes to policy priorities, the most important, by far, among Christians, is abortion. It’s not that Christians are single-issue voters — well, at least most of them are not — most of them see the world with a multi-faceted view. But, for most Christians, it’s hard to imagine a political issue of more importance than abortion. It shocks the sensibilities and grieves the consciences of almost all Christians.
In the United States alone, 60 million babies have been aborted since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. That’s a lot. About 1.5 million Americans have died in all the wars and military conflicts of the United States, since its founding. Thus, about 40 times more babies have been aborted in the United States, in the last 25 years, than the total number of all military casualties in all the wars and battles in the United States’ history during the last 240 years.
Human Rights?
The Hillary Clintons of the world tell us that babies in utero are not humans — and that they have no human rights. But that assertion is absurd. Of course, babies in utero are humans. Does Hillary Clinton think they are dogs up until the moment they are born and then suddenly become human? What is really outrageous is that many in our current society show more anger over cruelty to animals (which, I agree, is horrible) than cruelty to human babies in utero. Even the most basic critical thinking and logical analysis shows the pro-abortion position to be extremely fallacious.
Life Begins at Conception
Another “sub-debate” within the overall abortion debate is the question of when life starts. Barack Obama, when running for President, famously said, “That question is above my pay grade.” Well, actually, no it’s not, Mr. Obama. In fact, it’s not even a question at all. There is no actual debate about this. Human life starts at conception. It’s not a religious question. It’s not a philosophical question. It’s a clear biological fact. Human life starts at conception.
Now, consider this. The penalty for destroying an egg of a bald eagle, first offence, is up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. Multiple offences can result in up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Clearly, the United States government is keen to protect the young, growing bald eagles inside their eggs. Why does it not also value young humans growing inside their mothers’ bodies.
Babies In Utero are Separate, Living, Unique Human Beings
Speaking of the mothers’ bodies, that is the single most often cited “argument” for the pro abortion position. “It’s the mother’s body,” say the proponents for the “right” to abortion. Well, no it’s not. It’s the baby’s body. Even though the baby is housed, temporarily, inside the mother’s body, the baby has his or her own body, separate from the mother’s.
Babies in utero have their own DNA. They have their own fingerprints. They have their own blood, which can be of a type different than the mother’s. A baby in utero is a separate, unique, living, growing human.
According to the latest scientific measurements, a baby’s heart starts to beat at only about three weeks after conception. 3 weeks! Who knows if, in the future, we will discover that the heart starts beating even before 3 weeks? By 20 weeks after conception, it is plainly obvious that babies in utero react to stimuli even outside the mother’s body, such as sound and light. Surgeons performing corrective procedures on unborn babies have witnessed such babies flinch, jerk and recoil from sharp objects and incisions.
On day 1, at the very moment of conception, all of the inherited genetic features of the new person are set — the gender, the color of the eyes, the facial features, everything. The first cell divides into two, and the cells divide again and again as they travel toward the uterus. Around day 6, the new body attaches loosely to the wall of the uterus, or womb, and over the next week burrows deeply and attaches securely to it. Pregnancy tests now show positive. On day 22, the heart begins to beat. By day 32, the baby has a recognizable face. By day 44, we are able to detect electrical activity in the baby’s brain. By day 52, the baby makes movements such as frowning, squinting, furrowing the brow, pursing the lips, moving the arms and legs, turning the head, touching the face, and stretching. By 8 weeks, a baby is well proportioned, even though he or she is the size of an adult thumb. At 13 weeks, a baby is actively moving around, though the mother cannot yet feel the movements. The mother starts to feel the baby’s movements sometime between 17 and 20 weeks.
I could give many, many anecdotal examples, including singing to my daughter when she was inside my wife’s body, and experiencing, first hand, my unborn daughter reacting to my voice. Another example is when our OBGYN performed a high-power ultrasound procedure to diagnose a (mistaken) suspected condition, and my unborn daughter kept fleeing away from the ultrasound, because it scared her. The doctor performing the procedure said the high-powered ultrasound sounded like a nearby freight train rushing past her. (I still feel guilty about that.)
The indisputable fact is that human babies in utero have emotions, and they can feel pleasure and pain.
Abortion is Cruel and Barbaric
It’s tempting to think of abortion only in a sterile and impersonal way, as though it’s merely a medical procedure on the mother’s body. This temptation should be resisted.
Chemical abortions are effected by drugs, which also are used as contraceptives, but which sometimes do not prevent conception, but rather prevent implantation in the wall of the uterus. “Plan B” is a drug in this category.
Medical abortions are effected by drugs specifically designed to kill and expel a baby already implanted in utero. RU-486 is an example of a drug in this category.
Surgical abortions are performed by invasive surgical procedures to kill and extract the baby. Suction aspiration is performed with a long suction tube with a sharp blade on the end; the blade dismembers the baby, and the suction tube sucks out, like a vacuum cleaner, the cut up body parts. With dilation & curettage (D&C), a curved knife is used to cut the baby’s body into pieces and scrape clean the wall of the uterus.
Partial birth abortion, which is supported by many politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, is the most gruesome of all abortion procedures. In what would otherwise be a normal birth, when the head of the baby emerges from the birth canal, rather than pulling the rest of the baby’s body out, as in a regular birth, the baby’s body is held in place with only the head sticking out. An incision is cut into the back of the baby’s head or neck, and the baby’s brains are sucked out.
This is real. This is wrong.
Regrets
Several years ago, I was listening to a show on the radio called “Fresh Air” hosted by Terry Gross, and Ms. Gross was interviewing a staunch proponent of abortion, who had been raised and taught to be such by her mother. Ms. Gross asked the guest about her own abortion, which she had when she was a college student about 20 or 30 years earlier. Unprepared for that question, the abortion advocate unexpectedly started crying uncontrollably, as she recalled seeing her baby’s body parts cut up and lying of the floor after her abortion. “They’re right,” she said. “The abortion protesters are right. It’s everything they say it is. It’s a gruesome, horrible thing.”
The Weakest Members of Society
Ghandi said, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” Women are not the weakest members of society. Minorities are not the weakest members of society. Babies are the weakest members of society — especially those still in utero. They cry out. But nobody can hear them. And they have no vote.
Steve Jobs
I’ll leave you with one final, but powerful anecdotal story. Steve Jobs was born in 1955, to an unwed young mother, who flew a long way from home, to San Francisco, to give her baby son up for adoption after he was born. Little did she know that her baby boy would become one of the most important men of the century. If Steve Jobs’s mother had been in that situation after the Roe v. Wade ruling, Steve Jobs probably would have been aborted. And there would be no Apple Computer. No Macs. No iPhones. No iPads.
Think about that the next time you vote to put, or keep, a baby killer in office.
