For the first time in the 35 years, the Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether this statement is biological fact, or mere ideology: “Abortion terminates the life of a human being.”
Two U.S. courts disagree over what Roe v. Wade means for this issue, so there are now two Constitutions — one in New Jersey, the other in the Eighth Circuit’s six states. This kind of conflict increases the odds that the United States Supreme Court will step in, and a new case, Acuna v. Turkish, gives it the option to.
On September 29, the high Court will announce whether it plans to do so.
Folks, this has the potential to be very significant.
It’s pure science that is beyond dispute. Even w the current SCOTUS line-up I think it has a decent shot.
Here’s some ammo for our side:
What does modern science conclude about when human life begins? (Excerpts)
By Dr. John Ankerberg and John Weldon
http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0805W3.htm The complete article is available in print friendly PDF format at: http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/_PDFArchives/apologetics/AP3W0805.pdf
In 1981, the United States Congress conducted hearings to answer the question, “When does human life begin?” A group of internationally known scientists appeared before a Senate judiciary subcommittee.
The U.S. Congress was told by Harvard University Medical School’s Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, “In biology and in medicine, it is an accepted fact that the life of any individual organism reproducing by sexual reproduction begins at conception....”
Dr. Watson A. Bowes, Jr., of the University of Colorado Medical School, testified that “the beginning of a single human life is from a biological point of view a simple and straightforward matter—the beginning is conception. This straightforward biological fact should not be distorted to serve sociological, political or economic goals.”
Dr. Alfred Bongiovanni of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School noted: “The standard medical texts have long taught that human life begins at conception.”
He added: “I am no more prepared to say that these early stages represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty... is not a human being. This is human life at every stage albeit incomplete until late adolescence.”
Dr. McCarthy De Mere, who is a practicing physician as well as a law professor at the University of Tennessee, testified: “The exact moment of the beginning [of] personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception.”
World-famous geneticist Dr. Jerome Lejeune, professor of fundamental genetics at the University of Descarte, Paris, France, declared, “each individual has a very unique beginning, the moment of its conception.”
Dr. Lejeune also emphasized: “The human nature of the human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence.”
The chairman of the Department of Medical Genetics at the Mayo Clinic, Professor Hymie Gordon, testified, “By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception.”
He further emphasized: “now we can say, unequivocally, that the question of when life begins… is an established scientific fact…. It is an established fact that all life, including human life, begins at the moment of conception.”
This Senate report concluded:
Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being—a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings.
In 1981, only a single scientist disagreed with the majority’s conclusion, and he did so on philosophical rather than scientific grounds. In fact, abortion advocates, although invited to do so, failed to produce even one expert witness who would specifically testify that life begins at any other point than conception.
"Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!"
http://cpforlife.org/culture_of_life.htm
Back in the 1960's before Planned Parenthood realized that using scientific truths in its literature would lessen its revenue, it was halfway honest.
A 1963 Planned Parenthood brochure actually says "An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun." That's something we pro-lifers didn't start saying en mass until years later!
A book from 1969 reviewed below states: '... at least one [sperm] will reach the egg, fertilize it, and conception will take place. A new life will begin.'
Eventually Planned Barrenhood saw that for their industry of death to maximize profits,
truth would not be their "best policy".
"Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!"
While the words won't, the deceitful manipulation and misapplication
of words in law has been the greatest cause of death in history.
Pro-Choice Advocates Agree that Abortion Kills Humans.
Many abortion advocates have agreed that abortion kills human life: A 1963 Planned Parenthood brochure says that life begins at conception: "An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun."{01} Former Planned Parenthood President Faye Wattleton admits that the preborn are alive in her 1986 book:
"There are many sperm cells in the [seminal] fluid. If one of them meets an egg cell inside the mother, new life can begin to grow... If one of your friends is pregnant, ask her to let your child 'feel the baby move.' ... A baby grows in a special place inside the mother, called the uterus -- not in her stomach. In nine months it is born."{02}
Similarly, Dr. Mary Calderone, former director of Planned Parenthood has stated that "[a]bortion is the taking of a human life"{03} and Dr. Alan Guttmacher,{04} former president of Planned Parenthood and founder of the Guttmacher Institute, the research affiliate of Planned Parenthood, has stated "[f]ertilization has then taken place; a baby has been conceived."{05} {06} While many abortion defenders readily concede that abortion kills human life, it is necessary to expound on this point because examining the nature of the unborn human being at the point of conception shows the inherent dignity that we all share from our biologic beginnings that are hidden from eyes of the world.
Not only have representatives from the nations largest abortion provider agreed that life begins at conception, but others who support abortion have agreed that abortion is murder. Dr. Magda Denes who performed two years of research in an abortion facility and compiled her results{07} told a Chicago newspaper "There wasn't an (abortion) doctor who at one time or another in the questioning did not say `this is murder.'"{08} Even Kate Michelman, President of N.AR.A.L. seems to be moving in the direction of agreeing that abortion is murder by her statement that "[a]bortion is a bad thing."{09} Others who have at one time been heavily involved with abortion have later agreed, such as "Jane Roe" Norma McCorvey, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, and Carol Everett.
In addition, everyone who uses the term "fetus" unwittingly acknowledges that the unborn human is an unborn child because fetus is Latin for "unborn child." Unfortunately for the unborn child, the term fetus has fallen into use as a way of dehumanizing the unborn child, as shown by the primary use of this term by people when they are arguing for abortion rights, in comparison to when they are discussing a baby that is wanted by the mother.
Planned Parenthood admits: Life begins at conception
IN THE 1960'S, the terminology of medical texts had not yet been changed to dehumanize life in the womb. (The pregnant woman was "the mother" and the fetus was "the child" or "baby.") The legal and political system had not yet corrupted the scientific realities of life before birth.
In 1969 McGraw-Hill Inc. was publishing a book on Conception, Birth and Contraception and needed some input from an authority on the subject. It turned to Planned Parenthood and the Sex Information & Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).
"This book provides a solid base for understanding the anatomy of reproduction," wrote Mary S. Calderone, MD, Executive Director of SIECUS, in her Introduction to the 129-page book. "Access to such fine books as this one will assure our young people that ... finally adults are becoming willing to 'tell it like it is.'"
Similarly, "Dr. George Langmyhr of Planned Parenthood Federation of America ... reviewed the material on contraception," state authors Robert J. Demarest and John J. Sciarra, MD, PhD, in their Foreword.
Within the pages of Conception, Birth and Contraception, however, the pro-life position is presented with pictorial and verbal accuracy. The book clearly pushes contraceptives, with some faulty information on the safety of the IUD, etc., but the personhood of the unborn is fully supported throughout the text.
In fact, the book's own glossary definition of the term "fetus" begins with: "An unborn child." Pregnancy, likewise, is defined as: "The condition of being with child."
In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, of course, today's Planned Parenthood -- largest abortion provider in the world -- would never admit that life begins at conception, or depict the infant in utero, in full-page illustrations, as a person. To do so, would suggest not only a violation of rights, but even murder, in the diabolical Roe v. Wade decision.
No doubt today's SIECUS, as well, would attempt to discredit the pro-life (factual) content of this "fine book" which it's leader in 1969 described so positively.
Some excerpts
Following are some excerpts from the book, approved by Planned Parenthood and SIECUS four years before the legalization of abortion:
"... at least one [sperm] will reach the egg, fertilize it, and conception will take place. A new life will begin." (page 15)
"... the egg which, if fertilized, gives rise to a new life." (page 3)
"From fertilization to delivery, mother and child are as one for approximately 266 days. At the end of the period the mother delivers the infant into the world ..." (page 3)
"It is the female who carries the baby during the nine months of its prenatal life." (page 17)
"However small it may be, the egg is about two thousand times as large as the sperm that must fertilize it. ...it carries the food the growing embryo will use during the first few days of its life." (page 26)
"... to grow within the mother." (page 32)
"The inherited characteristics of the baby to be born ... are determined by material within the egg and sperm ... each mature egg contains genetic material carrying the inheritable characteristics of the mother ... the child receives inherited characteristics from both parents." (page 50)
"The placenta ... transfers nourishment from the mother ...." (page 53)
"... ectopic pregnanc[ies] ... are dangerous to the mother and provide no possibility of a live child." (page 53)
"The growth of the baby within the uterus takes nine calendar months." (page 57)
"The sex ... could also be determined by examining under a microscope cells which are present in the amniotic fluid ... however, the doctor would have to puncture the amniotic cavity. This procedure is not undertaken except under very unusual circumstances having to do with the baby's health. So until the baby is delivered, no one knows whether it is a boy or a girl." (page 61)
"... the bloodstreams of mother and fetus ... never touch, and the blood in each remains separate. Oxygen and nutrients pass through the placenta, from the bloodstream of the mother to the fetus, and waste products from the fetus pass in the reverse direction into the bloodstream of the mother." (page 64) [i.e., the fetus is not part of the mother's body]
"... a doctor examining the mother can hear the fetal heartbeat ... The mother can feel the movement ... its arms and legs ..." (page 65)
"... the doctor may perform an operation called a cesarean section and remove the baby ..." (page 68)
".. its head is well down in the pelvic area of the mother -- the ideal position for it when the birth process begins." (page 68)
"The new life that has been growing within the mother for approximately nine months is now ready to enter the world. The passage of the baby through the birth canal is called delivery, and the process by which this is accomplished by the mother is called labor... Occasionally, a baby is born before thirty-eight weeks ... and the baby's chance of survival depends upon its weight and state of development at birth. When it is time for delivery, the mother begins to experience uterine contractions.... felt by the mother in her back ..." (page 72)
{01}Plan Your Children (Planned Parenthood, 1963). (The pamphlet also informs the reader that "[abortion] is dangerous to your life and health. it may make you sterile, so that when you want a child you cannot have it ... [in comparison] [b]irth control merely postpones the beginning of life.").
{02}Faye Wattleton, How to Talk with Your Child About Sexuality 95 (1986).
{03}Dr. Mary Calderone, Illegal Abortion as a Public Health Problem, 50 American Journal of Public Health 7, 951 (1960). ("..when a woman seeking abortion is given the chance of talking over her problem with a properly trained and oriented person, she will in the process very often resolve many of her qualms and will spontaneously decide to see her prenancy through... so I am not for abortion...")
{04}Katherine S. O'Keefe, Crypto-Eugenics: The Hidden Agenda of Planned Parenthood Appendix B (1991). Katharine S. O'Keefe, American Eugenics Society 1922-1994 (rev. Dec. 8, 1993, ver. 6.8). Director, American Eugenics Society, 1955; V.P. 1956-63; Director 1964-66 MD; d. Mar. 18, 1974; President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America 1962-1974; Mount Sinai New York 1952-66 (Director of Obstetrics 1952-62; Director Emeritus 1962-); Association for the Study of Abortion; C.m., Lanker Committee 1961; Founder, American Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians 1963; International Planned Parenthood Federation (Management and Planning Committee (196263, 1964); Medical Committee, (1961-62, C.m..., 1964-68); Regional representative, Western Hemisphere (1962-63, 1964); Council 196162; consultant, IPPF medical publications and IPPF newsletter when Dorothy Brush was editor 1952-56; Western Hemisphere Regional Council 1955); in 1968 IPPF was assigned to assist the government of Botswana in developing family planning following visits by A. Guttmacher according to ARTW, Dec. 1968.
{05}Birth Control and Love: The Complete Guide to Contraception and Fertility 12 (1961) quoted in Stephen M. Krason, Abortion: Politics, Morality, and the Constitution : A Critical Study of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton and a Basis for Change 445 (1984).
{06}Planning Your Family 16 (1964).
{07}In Necessity and Sorrow: Life and Death in an Abortion Hospital (1976).
{08}Daily News, Oct. 22, 1976.
{09}Philadelphia Enquirer, Dec. 11, 1993.
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