Thursday, December 22, 2011

Choose to Believe

A friend of mine indicated that she wasn't entirely sure where she stood on the matter of abortion. I'm choosing to seize that comment as an invitation to share some of my thoughts :)

She commentated that she was pro-choice because she doesn't believe that the government has a right to say what a woman can or can't do with what's inside her body.  I think a lot of people hold to this line of thinking, so I'm going to address that ideology first.

It's My Body
The government says a lot about what we can and cannot do with our own bodies. Drugs, for one thing are illegal. We cannot put them into our bodies :) However, if we're discussing abortion, then we are not talking about just our own body. There is another person involved-- albeit a super tiny one.

I have the freedom to swing an ax any where and any way I want, so long as it doesn't land in the skull of someone else. The minute that my God-given right violates someone else's right to live, their right to live trumps my right of choice.

Others would argue that a clump of changing cells isn't a person at all. They question its “personhood.”

A Peron's A Person No Matter How Small
Listed below are a few facts. They may not be new to you, but they are important to the heart of the matter of titling the sperm-egg rendezvous as a lifeless "embryo."

- A fertilized, implanted egg has a heartbeat at 18 days-- most likely before a woman would even know she has missed her period.

- By the time most mothers know they are pregnant (23-25 days), the huge mass of cells has developed a brain and spinal cord.

- At 8 weeks this allegedly non-living thing has all body systems present (respiratory, vascular, internal organs) and is the size of a thumb.

- While there's no legal cut-off date, most abortions are carried out around 12 weeks.  At this point, the "thing" has fingernails, fully functioning organs, spontaneous "breathing" motion, eyebrows, and weighs an ounce.  Some other things that weigh one ounce include the following: a piece of processed cheese, a stack of 5 quarters, 28 paper clips, a slice of bread.  Note: none of these things have heart beats, spinal cords, fingernails, or blood vessels.

Side Effects
Everything medical has side effects. The silenced consequences of abortion are heartbreaking. I found this compiled list of potential side effects on the website for Christian Life Resources, and I'll simply quote it directly:

Physical Effects:
- Miscarriages
- Ectopic Pregnancies
- Perforated Uterus/Infections
- Nervousness
- Frigidity
- Sterility/Stillbirths
- Shock
- Fever/Cold Sweats
- Loss of Other Organs

Psychological Effects:
- Unfulfillment/Sense of Loss
- Despair
- Loss of Confidence in Decision-Making
- Intense Interest in Babies
- Loss of Interest in Sex
- Feeling of Dehumanization
- Feelings of Being exploited
- Flashback of the Actual Abortion
- Guilt/Suicidal Impulses
- Mourning
- Regret/Remorse
- Inability to Focus (School or Work)
- Anniversaries (of Actual Due Date and Abortion Date)
- Eating Disorders
- Sleeping Disorders
- Low Self-Esteem
- Fear of Something Happening to One of their Other Children
- Cannot Forgive Themselves
- Trouble with Understanding and Accepting God's Forgiveness
- Nightmares
- Sighing ... Crying
- Hopelessness/Helplessness
- Anger/Denial
- Problem with Trusting Another Partner
- Fear of Never Being Given Another Pregnancy
- Depression/Anxiety
- Interruption of the Bonding Process with Present and/or Future Children
- Survival Guilt
- Alcohol/Drug Abuse

What Might God Say?
I have several biblical references to support the idea that God views "conception" as a person.

These first verses indicate that God plans things for people even before the egg and sperm meet.

Luke 2:21 ". . .He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived."

Judges 13:5 "You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”


These next verses show that God holds purpose for people even while in utero.

Matt 1:20 ". . .Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."

Gen 25:23 "The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

Jeremiah 20:17 "For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever."

Galatians 1:15-16 "But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being."

These next verses show that we're not only human at conception, but that God Himself takes the time to craft each of us.

Psalm 51:5 "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

Psalm 139:13 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb." (My personal favorite)

Job 31:15 "Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?"

Isaiah 44:2 "This is what the LORD says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you:"

My Soap Box
I'd like to ad a few other things that, quite frankly, we just don't hear very often.

First, while I realize that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 prohibits some forms of partial-birth abortion, it is still the most barbaric thing we “civilized” people have done. If someone was to take a puppy, pinch her back leg in forceps, jam a pair of scissors into the back of her skull, open the scissors repeatedly until the hole was big enough to suck out her brains. . . that person would be a weirdo outcast. He would be fined (up to thousands of dollars) and most likely jailed. If he did this regularly, the evening news would surely slap Americans in the face with the outrage. People despise a person who abuses helpless animals-- no matter the reasoning he would choose to defend himself with.

If a woman births a baby and throws it in a dumpster, she's a criminal. A murderer. If a doctor pulls out a baby and puts it in a bucket and sets it in a corner, he's simply doing his job well (site).

Secondly, as a stereo-typical whole, people who are in support of relabeling “babies” so we can kill them are the same people who are opposed to capital punishment. Regardless of my personal stance on capital punishment, is it really worse to painlessly, lethally inject an adult who misused his/her choices than it is to suck a baby from its mother's womb?

My third point is in the form of a story. You can listen to the broadcast here. It's from the perspective of a former Planned Parenthood clinic director describing her first witnessed abortion. It was an unusual “ultrasound-guided” abortion. She went into the procedure feeling excited. Not only would she witness a new type of abortion, but she would get to actually hold the ultrasound wand during the procedure. The 13-week-old baby on the ultrasound screen was perfectly-formed with all its organs and tiny fingers.

Still excited about the new learning experience, she watched on the ultrasound screen while the doctor insert the probe (which was not yet turned on). He bumped the probe into the baby, who then seemed to wake up and start kicking its legs and moving its little arms. “It was like the baby was trying to find a place to go.”

She suddenly realized that this wasn't just a learning experience, but that she was about to witness something horrific. Immediately she thought of her 3-year-old daughter and the excitement they had felt while watching their own ultrasounds. She couldn't bring herself to look away from the screen. And right before her eyes, the suction turned on. It twisted and turned the baby quickly into nothingness. The life that was under her hands moments ago was gone.