Anti-abortionists are fond of using graphic photos of full-term fetuses to prove that abortion is the killing of a fully developed, viable human being.
Here’s a photo of a fetus at thirty-eight weeks:
OMG, Demoncrats and liberal Christians want to murder children in the womb, anti-abortion, forced-birth Evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons say. And if that was actually the case, I would agree with them. However, as I shall show in this post, the picture above is representative of only a small percentage of aborted fetuses. Only 1.3 percent (less than 10,000 per year) of abortions take place after twenty-one weeks (before viability). The overwhelming majority of late-term abortions happen due to fetal abnormalities — fetuses which, if left to develop to term, would be born, only to die hours or days later or be consigned to untold suffering, pain, and countless other severe mental and health problems.
Imagine if, instead, Americans were presented with the following photos showing fetal development and the percentage of abortions that take place at that point in development. Do you think the discussion about abortion would change in this country?
Human zygote
Two weeks
Five weeks
Eight weeks. Sixty-five percent of abortions take place by this time in fetal development.
Thirteen weeks. Eighty-eight percent of abortions take place by this time in fetal development.
What we see in these photos is potential human life, not personhood. It is important to understand that the modern anti-abortion, forced-birth movement is driven by theology, not science. That’s why all the fetal development photos in the world won’t change their minds about abortion. Anti-abortionists have been convinced by their pastors and priests that the Bible says life begins at conception; that the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg, the fertilized egg is a “person”; that God is “pro-life” (an absurd argument if you actually READ the Bible); that abortion is murder, no different from a man savagely murdering his neighbor. It is for these reasons that it is impossible to have a meaningful discussion with people who are anti-abortion. When a discussion starts with the claim that abortion is murder; that abortion doctors are murderers; that people who help facilitate abortion are murderers; that women who have abortions are murderers, meaningful interaction is impossible.
Note:
I refuse to call anti-abortion, forced-birth zealots “pro-life.” They are anything but. Among anti-abortion Evangelicals, most of them are pro-war, pro-police violence, and promote and support politicians, political parties, and government policies that are anti-human. It has often been said that anti-abortionists only care about “life” in the womb. Once a baby is born, he or she is his or her own, subject to the cruelties of right-wing Republican policies and immoral capitalism; especially if the child is red, yellow, black, or brown, he or she is definitely not precious in God’s sight. (Please see Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World.)
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Well, they are pro-forced birthers. Why do I say that? Because they don’t care if the pregnant woman gets prenatal care, and enough money to survive. And they aren’t going after any embryos in fertility clinics. But they are fertilized! No, it only counts if a woman is forced to give birth herself.
The second issue is, when I’ve talked to them in the past (no more) I would point out that giving low cost birth control and good sex education dramatically lowers the rate of abortion. “Oh, but we don’t want women having sex!” Hence the fruitcake running in Michigan saying sex is only for married people. Never mind that having smaller families has freed women of more of the running the household and parenting tasks. This whole thing is about keeping women pregnant and barefoot…and now they are saying it.
If the anti-abortion folks were really “pro-life” the Buffalo massacre wouldn’t have happened.
If they really cared about children, the Sandy Hook massacre wouldn’t have happened.
I can count on one hand the number of forced birthers I have met who actually do support comprehensive sex education, access to affordable contraception and Healthcare, funding of education, programs for affordable quality childcare, gun restrictions, equal pay for equal jobs, and are anti-capital punishment. The vast majority of anti-abortionists I know are the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” types (literally impossible to do if you think about the logistics of trying to do that), “actions have consequences” types (yes they do but there are lots of ways people can practice preventive measures). These people are not pro-life – they are pro-promoting control and rules that they agree with for everyone else (but not fie themselves necessarily, if they find themselves in one of the exceptional situations that require whatever it is they rail against for others).
My daughter and I had a conversation with my mother-in-law those past week. My mother-in-law was raised and educated in Catholic schools, was a nurse for over 40 years, and is pro-choice. She herself experienced a painful stillbirth and several miscarriages of babies she desperately wanted. She was fortunate to have had 3 healthy children, but had to have extreme surgery for her reproductive organs in her 40s due to health issues surrounding her miscarriage issues. Her 1st daughter-in-law had an abortion after 3 separate tests showed that her fetus had no brain – the choice given her was have an abortion and let yourself heal, or carry as long as you can and give birth to a malformed baby that would be born dead or would die imminently. So my mother-in-law understands that real life things happen. She does believe life begins at conception, and my daughter and I didn’t press her on what she means by that. But she thinks it’s no one’s business if someone has an abortion. Period. And that politicians need to leave reproductive issues to the medical community.
As has been stated upteen times and more than amptly demonstrated over the years, the most vocal people who want to destroy whatever freedom women have struggled to achieve are men and of those men in America at least, I would bet the farm that the most violently vocal identify as followers of the Prince of Peace. Christianity in America is a virus. Until the guarantee of legal support for bodily autonomy exists in perpetuity, America remains far from free. I always hear Solomon Burke’s wonderful truth-telling voice: None of us is free… Never forget how many Americans fought to the death to maintain the legal enslavement of another human being. Again, followers of the Prince of Peace. Never forget how many women have died in back-alley coat-hanger tragedies caused and supported by followers of the Prince of Peace. Was there ever a Jesus more hateful and dangerous than the one invented in the USA?