The Horrific Truths of Abortion  

      Abortion. This is not a religious issue. This is simply an issue of right and wrong. Everyone knows that killing is wrong. This is why murderers are imprisoned. Imagine this, a woman gives birth to a baby girl two months prematurely. Should she have the "choice" of keeping the baby or throwing it in the trash? When looking at this very basic example, it seems there is only one right "choice." However, some people are determined to convince us that killing can be acceptable. Mainly, there are two methods used. These include making excuses and redefining key terms.

      Sometimes people try to make abortion sound like the humane thing to do because the mother is too young, too poor, and/or unmarried. They try to make it sound like the child is better off dead than to be brought up by their mother. Well, what about adoption? This innocent child could be given a fair chance at life by being given to a good family. Other excuses involve having sympathy for the mother who was raped or pregnant as a result of incest. Still, murdering the innocent child which is the product of these heinous acts is not the answer.

      The more complex way of trying to convince us that killing innocent babies can be acceptable is to redefine key terms. According to Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 6th ed. 2002, the true definitions of these terms are as follows:

• Zygote- "the combined cell produced by the union of a sperm pronucleus and an egg pronucleus at the completion of fertilization until the first cleavage" (single-celled organism formed at conception)
• Cleavage- "the series of repeated mitotic cell divisions that occur in an ovum immediately after fertilization"
• Embryo- "in humans, the stage of prenatal development from the time of implantation of the fertilized ovum about 2 weeks after conception until the end of the seventh or eighth week”
• Fetus- “the human being in utero after the embryonic period ... usually from the eighth week after fertilization until birth”
• Conception- “the beginning of pregnancy, usually taken to be the instant that a spermatozoon enters an ovum and forms a viable zygote”
• Pregnant- “gravid, with child”
• Implantation- “the process involving the attachment, penetration, and embedding of the blastocyst in the lining of the uterine wall during the early stages of prenatal development”

      As you can see, these are all just different names for a human being at the various stages of development. I don't see how any one stage is more "human" than any other. Is a kitten not actually a cat? All of these terms: zygote, embryo, fetus, newborn, toddler, etc. will always define a developing human being which is an individual as much a part of his/her father as of his/her mother.

      In conclusion, there is absolutely no justification for the killing of an innocent child. In addition, the option of giving the child up for adoption is always available to the expectant mother.