< You Can Answer Pro-Abortion Arguments

 

[These are my notes from my talk of the same name.]

 

Try an experiment some time. Go into a secular bookstore and look at the choices. See how many you can books you can see on religion, any religion, how many on philosophy. However, try to find a book on the morality of abortion. Is this censored, or is this just a topic people had rather not think about?

 

Many pro-life people emphasize that abortion is wrong, and they actively help pregnant women and their children. But perhaps the emphasis on abortion being wrong is a bit misplaced. Abortion is not wrong, like 2 + 2 = 5 is wrong. Rather, abortion is wrong like torture to death is wrong.

 

After a baby is conceived, its development is wonderfully rapid

Time (Gestational Age)	Feature
20th day	The baby has its own blood cells
20th day	The baby has a brain, spinal chord, and the nerves
20th to 42nd day	The baby might feel pain
End of 6 weeks	The baby has everything
8 1/2 weeks	eyelids and palms of hands react to touch
10 weeks	3X increase in nerve-muscle connections
2 1/2 months	Baby's brain waves detected
13 1/2 weeks	aversive response to needles and saline solution
End of 6 months	Brain's neural circuits as advanced as a newborn's

 

Imagine you have a pet dog named Fifi. Though Fifi has been a good pet, Fifi is getting old and it is time to take her to the vet to put her down. So you take Fifi to the vet, and remain there just long enough to see the vet restrain Fifi, and with no anesthetic, ribs her legs off and then she painfully dies. Aren't there be laws against such cruelty to animals? If you don't think Fifi should be treated that way, don't you think that unborn babies in late term pregnancies, who can feel pain too, should at least have the same rights as a dog?

 

U.S. government stats and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

Time	Feature
20th day	The baby has its own blood cells
20th day	The baby has a brain, spinal chord, and the nerves
< 6 weeks	16% in '95 (~193,000 in 2005)
20th to 42nd day	The baby might feel pain
End of 6 weeks	The baby has everything
7 weeks	17% in '95 (~205,000 in 2005)
8 weeks	21% in '95 (~253,000 in 2005)
8 1/2 weeks	eyelids and palms of hands react to touch
9th-13th week	12 % (~145,000 in 2005)
> 8 weeks	46% in '95 (~555,000 in 2005)
10 weeks	3X increase in nerve-muscle connections
2 1/2 months	Baby's brain waves detected
13 1/2 weeks	aversive response to needles and saline solution
4th-9th month	9% in '80 (~109,000 in 2005)
End of 6 months	Brain's neural circuits as advanced as a newborn's

Part of this came from: www.abortionfacts.com/statistics/us_stats_8_gestation.asp

 

"the unborn is able to feel pain - the requisite neurological structures begin developing at eight weeks after conception and are completely in place as well as functioning by thirteen and a half weeks, as evidence by the aversive response of the human fetus to needles and other sharp instruments as well as pain causing substances such as saline." Politically Correct Death p.49-50.

 

8 1/2 weeks "Eyelids and palms of hand sensitive to touch. If eyelid is stroked, child squirms. If palm is stroked, fingers close into a small fist." Politically Correct Death p.50

 

10 weeks "Threefold increase in nerve-muscle connections. If forehead is touched, he can turn his head away." p.50

 

"as evidenced by the aversive response of the human fetus, it may be concluded with reasonable medical certainty that the fetus can sense pain at least by 13 1/2 weeks.' But since 'the neurological structures are at least partially in place between 8 and 13 1/2 weeks, it seems probable that some pain can also be felt during this time of gestation." Collins, Vincent J., Stephen R. Zielinski, and Thomas J. Marzen. Fetal Pain and Abortion, Studies in Law and Medicine no.18 Chicago: Americans United for Life Legal Defense Fund. 1984. p.8 (Politically Correct Death p.48)

 

Almost all pro-abortion arguments can be grouped into three categories:

Pro-infanticide

Drawing the Line

Mother's responsibility

 

Pro-Infanticide: Probably most pro-abortion arguments (what if the child is not desired, the baby is not self-sufficient, etc.) applied to babies before they are born, could equally be applied to infants after they are born. If a mother does not have the right to kill her child 5 minutes after a natural birth, why should it not be equally wrong to kill the child 5 minutes before a natural birth. If not having an abortion and giving up the child for adoption causes some economic hardship, that is much less than raising a child after it is born. etc.

 

Peter Singer says should be able to kill babies up to 28 days after birth. Politically Correct Death p.92

 

Peter Singer and Helen Kuhse say, "pro-life groups are right about one thing: the location of the baby inside or outside the womb cannot make such a crucial difference....The solution, however, is not to accept the pro-life view that the fetus is a human begin with the same moral status as yours or mine. The solution is the very opposite: to abandon the idea that all human life is of equal worth.
'Peter Singer and Helen Kuhse, 'On Letting Handicapped infants Die," in The Right Thing to Do: Basic Readings in Moral Philosophy, ed. James Rachels (New York: Random House, 1989), 146.

 

"Infanticide is not a great wrong. I do not want to be construed as condemning women who, under certain circumstances, quietly put their infants to death." Beverly Harrison, professor of Christian ethics, Union Theological Seminary Policy Review (Spring 1985): 15.

 

Drawing the line: Here are various lines:

Breathing air: Labor can be induced prematurely and a healthy baby born

Viability: Used in the Roe v. Wade case, viability has been pushed back.

Feeling pain: This is not known for sure, but somewhere between the 20th and 42nd day.

There are only four real differences between an infant and a fetus, which others have abbreviated as SLED. Size, Level of development, Environment, and Degree of Dependency.'

Even a 42-day old fetus has not only a brain and nervous system, capable of feeling pain, but everything else as well. Most people feel it is morally wrong to rip off the limbs of living puppies and kittens, with no anesthetic. Even if someone thought a fetus of X weeks was not human, should not the fetus at least have anesthetic, or the same dignity as a puppy or kitten?

 

Mother's Responsibility: Mother's have the responsibility to not destroy the human being naturally developing in her. (Minnesota)

 

First a silly argument:

It's not a human: This is the silliest argument. The DNA is not cat or dog, it is human. Its not just human like an arm or leg is human, but a human being, with only half the genetic code of its mother. It is not just a part of the mother, unless the mother can be said to have four arms, four legs, two sets of genitals, and two brains and two faces. Speaking of faces and brains, the fetus' face, not the mother, is contorted in agony when saline solution puts it in death agony, and the fetus' brain, not the mother's brain is crunched by forceps. If a 100% Swahili embryo is implanted in a Portuguese woman, the baby born is 0% Portuguese and 100% Swahili. Even a test tube baby is 0% "testtube-ish".

 

Answering Pro-infanticide Arguments

'' Most (but not all) arguments for abortion can be used equally well to justify killing babies one day before birth.

 

Fetal experiments and tissue may help treat people. If infants also helped, would killing babies be OK?

 

The Bible never specifically prohibits abortion. The Bible never explicitly prohibits pulling the limbs off of babies either. If unborn babies are people, then the sixth commandment covers abortion too.

 

We should not make secular laws about things in a religious book.

Theft, rape, and murder are in the Bible too, but that does not mean we cannot make laws about those. Even many atheists can agree the theft, rape, and murder are wrong.

 

N.A.R.A.L. (National Abortion Rights Action League) estimated that prior to Roe vs. Wade there were 5,000 to 10,000 deaths per year. Legalization moved abortions from "back-street butchers" to licenses physicians.

According to former abortion doctor Bernard Nathanson, he knew that these figures were a lie. In 1971 the U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics reported only 39 women died from abortions, not thousands.

Second, 84-87% of illegal abortions were performed by licensed physicians according to Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey in the American Journal of Public Health.

Third, the argument assumes that unborn babies are not people. Everyone should agree that economics and convenience would not justify killing babies.

 

If abortion were illegal, many women would do it anyway.

Some people still kill infants though it is illegal. For this reason should we make infant killing legal too?

 

If abortion were illegal, rich women would still have it done in other countries, and it would be unfair to poor women.

First many women would not have it if it were deemed illegal. More importantly, if killing a baby were legal by traveling to another country, or for a price, would this justify giving everyone the right to kill their babies in our country?

 

Having the baby can be an economic hardship.

Raising a baby can be also, but that does not justify killing it. Furthermore, there is a shortage of healthy babies to adopt in the United States.

 

Abortion should be justified if the baby would be known to be physically or mentally handicapped (or some would say the wrong sex).

Would killing a child be justified if the child became physically or mentally handicapped? Suicide rates of handicapped people are lower than healthy people, and most of them are glad that they are alive.

 

Many fetuses naturally die before birth.

Many babies naturally die after birth too, but does that justify actively killing a baby?

 

Why should men decide what women can do with their bodies?

Killing a baby both after and before a natural delivery is wrong (or right) regardless of the sex of a person talking about it. But if is not just an excuse but a real objection, it was nine men who legalized abortion. There are plenty of women who are pro-life. Finally, many abortionists argue assuming what they are trying to prove, that unborn babies are not humans. But if you assume the opposite, then over 1 million people in America today die from abortions every year, and almost 50% of them are males.

 

In 1980 only 113,500 out of 1.5 million abortions (9%) were in the 4th through 9th months. Since neurological structures are not developed until 13 1/2 weeks (over 3 months) more than 91% were before the fetus could feel pain. First the nerves are partially developed starting at 2 months, brain waves at 2 1/2 months, and 480,000 abortions (33%) of all abortions in 1980 were between the 8th and 13th week. Second, even if personhood were defined by some as feeling pain, 9% to 42% is too many painful deaths. They have seen the baby's grimace as it is getting dismembered, and how the baby moves to try to avoid the deadly tube suctioning up it body parts piece by piece.

 

Before abortion was legalized, desperate woman died after giving themselves abortions with coat-hangers. There are more deaths today from the many women seeking abortions than there were before abortion was legalized.

 

Answering Drawing the Line arguments

 

Since many are not sure when human personhood begins, it is questionable that killing an early term fetus is murder.

If one were paid to demolish a building, it is be morally justified to do so if there were a 50% chance a child might still be inside it? A 10% chance? A 5% chance?

 

The 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision said a state could not prohibit abortion in the first few months, or even after that if it would impair the mother's physical or mental health.

However, physical and mental health were so broadly defined in the subsequent Doe vs. Bolton (1973) decision, that former Chief Justice Warren Burger (who voted for the majority in Roe vs. Wade) admitted that we have abortion available on demand (Thornburg vs. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (1986).

 

28 days after birth (Singer)

Breath

Viability

Pain

Brain

Blood

 

Answering Mother's Responsibility Arguments

Withdrawing the support a fetus requires is not murder. Abortion is often painful killing by salt poisoning, vacuum, or by knife. At only 13 1/2 weeks unborn babies show aversive response to needles, and grimace when deadly salt solution is injected.

 

Nearly all laws require a father to pay child support, even if the father did not know at the time he was to be a father. p.129

 

Tort Law A January night in Minnesota. Orlando Depue visited the Flateaus family for dinner. He was sick and fainted once, so he asked to spend the night. They refused and put him out of the house. His fingers became frostbitten, and the judge ruled that the Flateaus had a duty not to injure him or put him in an environment that was non-viable. p.133

 

A pregnant woman is not making an informed choice if she is not told the following:

 

Prior to an Abortion

2.89% of women suffer complications from amniocentesis. .25 to .5 % of babies miscarry after amniocentesis. Why Pro-Life? p.85

 

Just after the Abortion

Risk of death to the mother from abortion is 2.95 time higher than death from pregnancies carried to term. Gissler M, Berg C, Bouvier-Colle MH, Buekens P., "Pregnancy-Associated Mortality After Birth, Spontaneous Abortion or Induced Abortion in Finland, 1987-2000" American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Why Pro-Life? p.73

 

Psychologically after the Abortion

44% of women complained of nervous disorders

36% sleep disturbances

31% had regrets. (p.71)

 

Subsequent Pregnancies

Ectopic pregnancies. Increase of 500%

More risk of premature births and low birth weight

Placenta Previa

Cervical Cancer

Ovarian and liver cancer

Breast cancer

 

Subsequent Children

In 1973 an estimated 167K cases of child abuse per year. In 2001 an estimated 903K child abuse cases per year. p.90

 

On the other hand...

Of a study of 674 abused children, 91% of the parents said they wanted the child. p.91

 

The Adoption Option

In the U.S. 1.3 million want to adopt a child. Only 50K babies available.

 

If You Have Made This Mistake...

If you have had an abortion, this is a seriously wicked thing. However, God can forgive, and He can forgive even that.

Recognize that we all belong to our Creator, God. Yet we have all fallen away into selfishness and wickedness. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins with His blood. But we have to accept Jesus' sacrifice for our, and surrender our lives over to Him.

Christ offers you forgiveness, not because our sins are not that evil, but rather because His sacrifice is greater than even the worst sins of those who repent. Christ will come into your heart, renew you, and empower you to live for Him.

 

Conclusion

Abortion is not only wrong, but many abortions are like torturing the baby to death.

You can answer almost all pro-abortion arguments by seeing which category they are:

Pro-Infanticide

Drawing the Line

Mother's responsibility

If you have done this horrible thing, God can forgive, He can even forgive murder.

 

Recommended References

 

Much of the material here was loosely taken from these references.

 

 

Alcorn, Randy. Why Pro-Life? : Caring for Unborn and Their Mothers. 2004. Eternal Perspective Ministries Sandy, OR 97055 www.epm.org

 

Nathanson, Bernard, M.D. The Hand of God : A Journey form death to life by the abortion doctor who changed his mind. Regnery Publishing, Inc. 1996.

 

For more info please contact Christian Debater™ P.O. Box 144441 Austin, TX 78714 www.BibleQuery.org