It’s been two years since my column on abortion asked abortion advocates to convince me that the child in a mother’s womb is not human. I’m still waiting. With adjustments to the first paragraph and correct dates, here it is again.
As a practicing Catholic for the last 66 years, 10 months, and 16 days, I’m ready to go against the teachings of my faith and vote no on Amendment 3 on Nov. 3 so women can control their health and abort their babies.
I have one stipulation. Someone has to convince me that the child, fetus, or embryo (whatever you want to call it) in the mother’s womb is not human.
That is a high bar to cross because all human life has value.
If it did not, extortionists would not be able to con countless victims each year out of their hard-earned money with a scam that they kidnapped someone’s son, daughter, grandson, or granddaughter. If human life did not have any value, families would not go bankrupt trying to pay for medical treatments to extend or save the life of a loved one.
When it came to COVID-19, Democrats, including President Joe Biden, repeated the catchphrase: “Follow the science.”
Abortion is one subject where many Democrats refuse to follow the science.
It’s a scientific fact—life begins at conception. That is not my opinion; it is a fact. It’s more than any church’s opinion; it’s a proven fact.
A 2016 study by Marta N. Shahbazi shows that a newly formed cell knows what to do after conception, regardless of whether it receives signals from a host uterus. This indicates that a fertilized egg—also known as a zygote, the “product of conception,” the early embryo, or one of many other terms—is an autonomous living being with its own DNA.
In 2018, Steven Andrew Jacobs wrote his doctoral thesis, “The Scientific Consensus on When a Human’s Life Begins.” Jacobs found that 80 percent of Americans view biologists as the group most qualified to determine when a human’s life begins. So he surveyed 5,577 biologists from around the world with the question: When does human life begin? Overall, 96 percent of biologists from 1,058 academic institutions affirmed that human life begins at conception.
The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) agrees. Their website states that “[t]he predominance of human biological research confirms that human life begins at conception—fertilization. At fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment in order to grow and develop. The difference between the individual in its adult stage and in its zygotic stage is one of form, not nature. It is our hope that society will place the highest value on human life at all stages.”
A central argument of the abortion movement is “her body, her choice.” No one is telling a pregnant woman what she can do with her own body. The fallacy with this argument is that the fetus is not part of her body. It is in her body. It is a separate body. Consider this. Have you ever asked a pregnant woman, “How is your body?” No. The question is, how is the baby, is it a boy or girl?
Here are some questions everyone needs to answer before the Nov. 3 election:
• How can anyone, after beating a pregnant woman and causing a miscarriage, be charged with murder unless the fetus is human?
• If the baby in the womb is not human, what is it?
• What right does anyone have to end a life in the womb?
• Why is the baby worthless inside the mother’s womb but worth everything after birth?
Let’s stop beating around the bush. Science has affirmed that, whatever we call them—fertilized eggs, zygotes, morulas, blastocysts, products of conception, embryos, fetuses, or a baby in the womb—they are autonomous humans from the beginning.
If you disagree with my reasoning, write to me at Dennis Warden, PO Box 540, Owensville, MO 65066, or email dwarden@wardpub.com with your argument to change my mind before the Nov. 3 election, so I can switch sides and become pro-choice.
I invite skeptics to learn more at www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/science-embryonic-autonomy-and-the-question-of-when-life-begins/. This and other websites referenced in this column can be found on our website.
