Straight Talk About Abortion

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2 Straight Talk About Abortion CATHOLIC ANSWERS PRESS San Diego 2012

3 Straight Talk About Abortion 2012 Catholic Answers, Inc. All rights reserved. Except for quotations, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, uploading to the Internet, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition (RSV: CE) of the Bible, 1996 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Published by Catholic Answers, Inc Gillespie Way El Cajon, California orders fax catholic.com Cover by Devin Schadt Interior design by Russell Design Printed in the United States of America ISBN

4 Table of Contents Facts About Unborn Children... 5 Facts About Abortion... 7 Undeniable Logic... 9 When Life Begins... 9 Killing Innocents Innocent Human Beings Attempting to Justify Abortion Rape and Incest Life and Health of the Mother Precautionary Principle Not a Religious Issue What Does the Bible Say? The Church on Abortion What You Must Do Where to Learn More...23 Endnotes

5 Every year it kills more people than heart disease, stroke, lung disease, cancer, diabetes, AIDS, accidents, murder, and war put together. It kills almost as many people as all other causes combined. It is the single largest preventable cause of death. It is abortion. Every year 44 million children die before birth due to induced abortion. By comparison, only 57 million people die after birth from all causes of death annually. 1 Abortion is by far the biggest killer today. Yet few realize the gravity of the situation. Many have been deceived into thinking that abortion doesn t really kill children, and others who do recognize the humanity of the unborn simply do not understand the urgency of the problem. That is why it is time for straight talk about abortion. Facts About Unborn Children A new human being comes into existence at the moment of conception, when the father s sperm and the mother s egg unite. From this very first moment, the child has a complete genetic code different from anyone else s. If nature is allowed to take its course, he will swiftly grow and develop and, in nine months time, be born. Along the way there are several milestones. Around a week after conception, the child implants or at- 5

6 taches to the mother s womb to receive nutrients from her body. Around three weeks after conception the child has a heart that is pumping his own blood (frequently a different type than the mother s). By the fifth week the child is developing eyes, hands, and legs. The next week his brainwaves are strong enough to be detected by current medical devices. In the seventh week he has fingers and toes and is kicking and swimming in the womb. By the eighth week the baby has every organ of the body and is forming his own, unique set of fingerprints. By the ninth and tenth week, teeth and fingernails are growing, and the baby can turn his head and frown. He hiccups, sucks his thumb, and reacts to loud noises. A week later he begins grasping objects placed in his hand and can smile. By week twelve, his nervous system is developed enough to feel pain. Additional growth and development occur during the remainder of pregnancy. For example, by week seventeen the baby experiences rapid eye movement (REM) sleep a sign that he is dreaming. Milestones such as these as well as images taken from within the womb illustrate the humanity of the unborn child in a profound way. Thanks to modern technology, today we have a clear understanding of the 6

7 stages we all passed through when we ourselves were in the womb. Facts About Abortion Abortions are performed at all stages of pregnancy, but they use different means to bring about the child s death depending on when they are performed. At the very beginning of pregnancy, drugs are sometimes used to make the inside of the mother s womb inhospitable to the child so that he cannot implant. Denied the nutrients he needs, the child then dies. So-called emergency contraception or the morning-after pill can have this effect. In fact, so can regular contraceptive pills and intrauterine devices (IUDs). Sometimes in the early weeks of pregnancy, drugs (such as RU-482 and Methotrexate) are given to a mother to cause the lining of her uterus to break down so that the already implanted child dies from lack of nutrients. Other drugs are then given to cause the child to be expelled from her womb. Surgical abortions are often performed in the weeks after implantation. One of the most common methods is suction-aspiration abortion, in which a tube with a sharp edge is inserted into the womb. A pump is turned on, and the sharp-edged suction tube is used to dismember the child and vacuum out the womb. 7

8 When this isn t possible, another procedure known as dilation and curettage (D & C) is often done. In this case, a loop-shaped knife is inserted into the womb and its walls are scraped clean, destroying the child. As the child grows larger, different techniques are used. One used for children up to 24 weeks of age is dilation and evacuation (D & E), in which the child is dismembered by using forceps to grasp and twist off his head and limbs. One of the most barbaric methods which is usually illegal in the United States is known as partialbirth abortion. It involves pulling the child s body, except for the head, through the birth canal so the child is now partially born. The abortionist then punctures the baby s head and vacuums the brains out through a tube so that the head can be crushed and more easily pulled through the birth canal. Another method used late in pregnancy is the saline abortion, in which concentrated salt water is injected into the amniotic sac so that the fluid which the child swallows and breathes is poisoned, and he dies of salt poisoning. This technique also corrodes and burns the child s skin. Bear in mind that for abortions committed in the second and third trimesters (after 13 weeks) the baby is conscious and able to feel pain as his body begins to 8

9 be torn apart or is poisoned and corroded. Children are not provided painkillers as they are destroyed. Children in these stages of pregnancy often can survive outside the womb. Babies have survived when born as young as 21 weeks, and medical technology is making it possible for them to survive outside the womb earlier and earlier. Undeniable Logic The logic of the pro-life position is straightforward and undeniable: 1. Deliberately killing an innocent human being is always wrong. 2. Abortion deliberately kills an innocent human being. 3. Therefore, abortion is always wrong. The argument is so simple that even a child can understand it. If the two premises are true then the conclusion that follows from them is also true. As we will see, the premises are rock solid, and the argument is sound. When Life Begins Sometimes the abortion issue is framed in terms of the question When does life begin? This is presented as a mysterious question on which people can have different opinions leaving us with no sure conclusion about the morality of abortion. 9

10 But this is nonsense. There is no mystery here. In fact, scientifically speaking, there is no question whatsoever that unborn children are alive from conception onward. At no point in their development are unborn children dead. If they ever become dead, then a miscarriage has occurred. There is no point in pregnancy at which inanimate matter suddenly becomes animate. Even the sperm and the egg that unite to give the child his genetic code are already alive, with cellular, biological processes going on inside them. From the moment of conception, therefore, life is present. Even at the single-cell stage, unborn children have metabolisms that consume energy, maintain cellular function, and enable them to grow. This leads to a second reason why When does life begin? is the wrong question. Just because something is alive does not mean that it can t be killed. We kill living things all the time. We cannot eat without other living things dying. Even vegetarians must consume and digest the cells of plants. There is simply no other way for us to survive. The question is not whether the unborn are alive. They are. The question is not whether abortion kills them. It does. The question is whether they are the kind of thing that it is okay to kill. As we will see, they are not. 10

11 Killing Innocents A fundamental principle of morality is that you can never deliberately kill an innocent human being. This is a principle recognized in all societies, all through history. It is a human universal that you must not slay the innocent. If a society fails to recognize this principle so its ordinary, innocent members may be killed at will then it will descend into anarchy and break apart. The basic moral intuition that killing innocents is wrong is so strong that when genocides have killed large numbers of innocent people, the killers have had to argue that the people they were slaughtering were not really innocent but guilty of some present or historical wrongdoing, or that they were not really human but subhuman. Sometimes both have been argued, as when the Nazis killed millions of Jews, claiming that they were subverting society and were racially inferior. That the Nazis felt the need for such rationalizations pays tribute to the strength of the basic moral intuition that innocent human beings must not be killed. This is the fundamental insight that lies behind every society s prohibition of murder. But not every form of killing is murder. It is not murder to kill a plant or an animal. It is not murder to kill an aggressor in wartime or someone who is trying to take your life. 11

12 Yet it is always wrong to deliberately take the life of an innocent human being, which raises the real question in the abortion debate: What are the unborn? Innocent Human Beings Unborn children are innocent human beings. That they are innocent can scarcely be disputed. The unborn do not have the ability to harm anyone. Few things could be more innocent than an unborn baby in his mother s womb. They are also human beings. Objectively speaking, a human being is a living human organism. We have already seen that the unborn are alive, as illustrated by the fact that dead embryos don t grow. They are also human, for each has a human genetic code, not that of a cow or a chimpanzee or a carrot. They are also organisms, even at the stage when they are just single cells. There are many single-celled organisms in the world, and at one point in their development humans pass through this stage. An organism is an entity that is whole in and of itself. It is not part of another, larger organism. Unborn children are not parts of their mothers. They have their own, unique genetic code, and they are organic wholes with their own in-built principles of growth and development. Unless interfered with, they will mature and be born in just a few months and then continue their development adulthood. 12

13 Once it is recognized that the unborn are living human organisms, it follows that they must be accorded the same right to life as other innocent human beings. Attempting to Justify Abortion Many reasons are offered to justify abortion. Sometimes it is said that it is not a good time for a mother to have a baby. She may be very young, still in school, or unmarried. She may be poor. She may already have as many children as she can care for. Many of these are good reasons not to have a baby. But they are not good reasons to kill a baby. Suppose that the child were already born. Would any of these reasons be accepted as a legitimate reason to kill a child? A mother must not kill her newborn because she is young, in school, or unmarried. Neither should she do so because she is poor or has other children. If these are not adequate reasons for a mother to kill her child after birth then they are not adequate reasons for her to kill the child before birth. They are just rationalizations. Here is a good test for arguments favoring abortion: When someone claims something is a reason to have an abortion, ask if the same reason would justify killing a child after birth. If not, it does not justify killing a child before birth. 13

14 A mother in difficult situations must be helped. She must receive the care and assistance she needs to carry the child to term. She also needs care and assistance after the birth, whether she chooses to raise the child or pursue adoption. Rape and Incest Sometimes it is argued that abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest. Both are horrible crimes. Those who commit them must be brought to justice, and their victims must receive compassion and appropriate care. But adding a new victim through a new act of violence does not make things better. It makes them worse. Even when conceived by an act of rape or incest, unborn children are innocent human beings. It is immoral to kill them because of crimes committed by one or both of their parents. Killing people because of what their ancestors did, even their most immediate ancestors, is barbaric. As before, the fact a person was conceived by an act of rape or incest would not justify killing him after birth, and so it does not justify killing him before birth, either. The circumstances in which these children were conceived make their situations very sensitive, but killing them does not help either them or their mothers, who need compassionate care and support, not more violence. 14

15 Life and Health of the Mother In some situations a pregnancy may jeopardize the life or health of the mother. When this is known in advance, it is appropriate to use morally legitimate means, such as natural family planning or abstinence, to avoid pregnancy. When a dangerous pregnancy does occur, the best medical means should be used to preserve the life and health of both mother and child. Fortunately, we live in a time when medicine allows virtually all such pregnancies to be managed until the child can survive outside the mother s womb, and there will be more progress in the future. In some cases, a pregnant mother needs medical treatment that may endanger the life of her child. If the need is great enough, and if there are no better means, then the treatment can be used despite the risk to the child, but only as long as the child is not being deliberately killed, either as a means or an end. Precautionary Principle Suppose that, despite all the evidence, a person still were not convinced that unborn children are human beings. For example, if he had only recently been exposed to the evidence, he might want time to consider the matter further. What should he do in the meantime? If he were uncertain whether the unborn are human beings, would that justify abortion? 15

16 No. One cannot deliberately take the life of a being if one is unsure whether it is a human. Consider a hunter in the woods: If he sees movement among the trees, he should not simply open fire. He might be shooting at a person. Instead, before firing, he must make sure that it is an animal a deer, an elk, a wolf, or whatever and not a human being. Only if he is certain of this should he shoot. Likewise, if it is known that a medical procedure will kill a living creature, and one is unsure whether that creature is a human, then what some have called the precautionary principle applies. In cases of doubt about the taking of human life we must err on the side of caution. Not a Religious Issue Sometimes people claim that abortion is a religious issue and that those who wish to defend unborn children must not impose their religious beliefs on others. At times they even argue that we do not know when the unborn receive souls. All of this is nonsense. Even if abortion were a religious issue, there is no reason why religious people should set aside their moral values on this topic or any other. Religious values have played an indispensable role on issues from caring for the poor and the sick to ending slavery and 16

17 tyranny. To suggest religious people should not bring their values to bear on public issues misunderstands the nature of democracy, which exists precisely to allow people to express their views on how society should be run. But abortion is not simply a religious issue. Nothing we have covered thus far in this booklet has been religious. Yet we have seen that a powerful and, indeed, an overwhelming case against abortion can be made without bringing religion into the discussion. Unborn children simply are innocent human beings, and their innate right to life must be respected like that of any other innocent human being. It is a scientific fact that the unborn are living human organisms. This is not a religious claim. It does not depend on the teaching of any church or spiritual leader. It is a matter of basic biology, and only deliberate self-deception could allow one to avoid this fact. Once you recognize that, the question is what you will do in response: Will you acknowledge the right to life possessed by all innocent human beings? Or will you begin the rationalizations people engage in when they wish to deprive an entire class of human beings of their right to life whether that class be unborn children, the mentally retarded, Jews, or anyone else? As far as the soul goes, we will see in the next section that we actually have a good idea of when it ar- 17

18 rives, but that question is a matter of religion. If one really is concerned about not settling public policy issues on religious grounds, then one should disregard the question of when the soul arrives and stick to the biological facts: You have a living human being from the moment of conception onward, and so you must respect the unborn child s right to life. That is the religiously neutral approach. What Does the Bible Say? Although abortion is not a religious issue, this does not mean that religion has nothing to say about it. The Bible is quite clear-eyed about the principles involved. The most fundamental principle is in the Ten Commandments: You shall not kill (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17). Though the King James Version and older translations use the word kill in this passage, the Hebrew term (ratsakh) has a more specialized meaning. Thus many modern translations render the commandment You shall not murder or You shall not commit murder. The Ten Commandments do not explicitly apply this principle to unborn children, but the Bible recognizes that they are in fact children and that they must be protected: When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no 18

19 harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot (Exodus 21:22-24). The fact that the unborn are indeed children and that we ourselves were in our mother s wombs comes out in a particularly touching way in the Scriptures, such as when the Psalms declare: O Lord, you have searched me and known me! For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother s womb. I praise you, for I am wondrously made. Wonderful are your works! (Psalms 139:1, 13-14; see also Job 31:14-15, Jeremiah 1:4-5). Scripture also notes that the spirit is what keeps the body alive, so that the body apart from the spirit is dead (James 2:26). Since a living human being is present from the moment of conception, the soul is present from that time as well. The Church on Abortion Informed by the principles contained in Scripture and in human nature, Christians have opposed abortion from the first century onward. Although not part of the Bible, the first-century Christian work known as the Didache provides an 19

20 early and explicit witness on abortion, listing it alongside other grave sins: You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born [Didache 2]. Opposition to abortion has been maintained consistently down through the ages. In our own day, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.... Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is 20

21 gravely contrary to the moral law [CCC ]. What You Must Do In view of the things you have learned in this booklet, there are several things you must do. First, make sure you are fully informed about abortion. There are many fine resources that can help you learn more about this barbaric practice and how it can be fought. Informing yourself is a first step toward helping others understand this issue as well. Second, let others know that you believe in protecting unborn children and that they should, too. Explain the reasons why. Give them this booklet. Let people know the truth about abortion in one-on-one conversations, through online social media, and by going to pro-life events. Third, help those who are tempted to commit abortion. Volunteer at crisis pregnancy centers. Support them and other pro-life organizations financially. It is important to take concrete action to help mothers and their children both before and after birth and to make sure the many organizations promoting the pro-life cause are able to continue their work. Last, vote to give legal protection to unborn children by ending abortion. In some cases you may have the opportunity to use your vote directly, through bal- 21

22 lot measures against abortion. More often, your vote can be used to elect candidates who will work to protect the unborn. These officials may be legislators, governors, presidents, or judges. In some cases, judges are appointed. For example, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The Supreme Court has a key role in abortion, which it legalized in 1973 through the infamous decision Roe v. Wade. Because of this, it is especially important to elect presidents and senators who will nominate and confirm justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. Do not make the mistake of thinking that only the top offices are important. It is important to screen out proabortion candidates at the lowest levels. If a pro-abortion candidate is successful in obtaining a position today even one that does not affect abortion legislation then he can use it as a springboard to higher positions, where he will be able to advance his pro-abortion agenda. The sooner such candidates are stopped in their rise to power, the more likely that unborn children can be protected. It is vitally important that you take the actions outlined here. As we saw at the outset, abortion kills more than 44 million children every year. Over a million children die annually in the United States alone. Abortion kills more people than the top ten causes of death listed by the World Health Organization put 22

23 together, and it claims the lives of almost as many people as die every year after birth from all causes. We must end this crime against humanity. We must reject the culture of death that has promoted abortion throughout the world, and we must rebuild a culture of compassion a culture of life that respects the rights of the most innocent and most vulnerable human beings, including their right to life. Where to Learn More Valuable pro-life resources are available from a wide range of organizations, including Catholic Answers. Visit our website, catholic.com, for more information. 23

24 Endnotes 1 Statistics are for 2008, the most recent year available at the time of writing. The number of abortions is provided by the Guttmacher Institute, a proabortion organization that tracks global abortion statistics. See Facts on Induced Abortion Worldwide (online at guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_iaw. html). The statistics on causes of death after birth are provided by the World Health Organization. See The Top 10 Causes of Death, part 1 (online at who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index.html). For total causes of death after birth in 2008, see The Top 10 Causes of Death, part 3 (who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index2.html). 24

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