In Defense of Pro-Life by Brittany Stone, as a Junior in High School There is nothing more tragic, there is nothing more brutal than the slaughter of millions of babies. It is not only horribly sad in and of itself, but it is causing the demise of the human race in the loss of the preciousness and holiness of life. In today's society, abortion is becoming more and more acceptable. However, it still has harmful effects physically and emotionally on the mother and father. Abortion is immoral scientifically, psychologically and biblically. Through science, it has become obvious that abortion is immoral. When sexual intercourse takes place, twenty-three chromosomes come from the woman and twenty-three chromosomes come from the man to create new life in the body of the woman. Once the chromosomes come together from each partner, a new and unique genetic code is created. Often even the infant's blood type will be different from the mother. It is proven that all abortions have stopped a beating heart. Abortion always ends brain waves. In 1984 Ronald Reagan said, "When the lives of the unborn are snuffed out, they often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing" (quoted in AbortionFacts.com). There are numerous ways to perform abortions: Menstrual extraction, suction, dilation and curettage, dilation and evacuation, partial birth, hysterectomy, salt poisoning, prostaglandin abortions, RU-486. Salt poisoning used to be very common. During the process, they would insert a salt solution into the amniotic fluid, which the baby would then swallow, and it would burn the baby. These were what they called the "candy apple babies" because of the red raw skin of the aborted fetuses. In World War II, the concentration camps experimented by inserting salt solutions into adults. Eventually, they stopped the outrageous procedure because it was so inhumane. In Japan, abortions have been legal since 1980, but they outlawed saline abortions because they are so barbaric. In the United States, most states have banned this procedure, but not all, because it would "infringe" on a woman's constitutional "rights." The physical effects on women who have had abortion can be very consequential and even life threatening. Breast cancer is linked to abortion (Abortion Opposing Viewpoints 165). The cancer risk doubles with each subsequent abortion procedure. When pregnant your breasts enlarge with tissue and also create more estrogen so by the time you deliver the cycle shuts itself down in a natural process. When this cycle is interrupted by abortion, the estrogen has malfunctioned by not shutting down properly. Other cancers that can come from abortion are cervical, ovarian and liver cancer. Women who have only had one abortion have approximately two point three percent relative risk and two or more abortions are four point nine percent relative risk. All these cancers are linked to the unnatural interruption of hormonal changes. Women can suffer from infection, hemorrhaging, ruptured intestines or bowels. They can face coma, heart failure, multiple types of injuries to the areas around the cervix, uterus and urinary tract and they may even die. They also increase their chance of having a premature baby, miscarriage, stillbirth or other types of complications during labor and pregnancy. Women's' chances of having healthy babies decrease because of changes in the placenta, such as placenta previa. Often women are not forewarned about these potential risks. Abortion is tolerated because no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. Often clinics are encouraged not to tell their clients the consequences or dangers abortions bring. Clinics do this because they do not want to bring about "unnecessary fears" that could possibly change the abortion decision. Clinics rarely tell of any other options but abortion. It is supposedly a freedom of choice but in actuality, it is an uninformed choice. Women are often sexually abused by their doctors while under the anesthesia. Most of the time doctors do not feel as if they are doing the job they were supposed to be doing, because they are supposed to save lives and not take lives. There are always a team of doctors on call in case the abortion fails and the baby lives, and often the baby has some physical or mental disability resulting from the tools and chemicals. Clinics can be compared to the holocaust genocide, because genocides thrive in secrecy. Over two million babies are aborted anonymously every year (Abortion Opposing Viewpoints 55). A former abortionist and atheist named Dr. Bernard Nathanson was the doctor that agreed to allow himself to be filmed for "Silent Scream" as he performed one of his abortions on a client. When the film was shown to him afterwards, Dr. Nathanson has to leave the room. Once he left, he never came back and he never performed another abortion (Alcorn 42). His epiphany was that life begins at conception. Abortionists earn three to ten times as much as a just and honest surgeon. Historically, the Hippocratic Oath stated: "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest such counsel, and in like manner, I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion." The last line has been changed to say: "I will do nothing that is illegal" (Willke 189). Abortions became legal January 23, 1973 but they never became moral. Laws constantly change but morality and truth are dogmatic. "The case against abortion is stronger because it involves fraud, shoddy science and upon a ruling which did not indicate a constitutional right but established a constitutional monstrosity" (Abortion and the Constitution 186). Proponents to pro-life claim that the 14th amendment does not pertain to the unborn. Pro-choicers claim that the unborn is a blob, a tissue, a fetus but not a human. Ironically, fetus is Latin for young one or little child (Alcorn 46). The embryo describes the early stage of development for any living being. These words are to describe stages of life just like toddler, adolescent or adult. It is scientifically erroneous to consider an embryo or fetus as anything but a human being. Michael McKenzie state, "It is my thesis that the unborn in this country are suffering a persecution which follows the same basic sociological patterns as other persecutions" (The Abortion Controversy 27). Often women who do not go to full term with their babies having an abortion always suffer mental health declines. Ankerberg and Weldon report that post abortion syndrome (PAS) starts developing at five to thirty-five years after the abortion occurred (62). Women start to feel like they are missing something or they are missing a part of themselves. They can suffer depression, severe guilt or shame, psychosomatic illnesses or paranoia (68). Women often look to drugs, alcohol or promiscuity to help dull their pain and distress. Often their maternal instincts are numbed because the abortionists want you to believe that abortion is safe and ethical by referring to the fetus to it or thing instead of using the word baby (AbortionTV). Usually women suffer from flashbacks, nightmares or anniversary reactions. Women who have had abortions are three times more likely to commit suicide than the public. Most suicides occur within the first year of an abortion. Women who have had abortions are six times more likely to commit suicide than those who have delivered their babies (Abortion Opposing Viewpoints 190). Abortion goes against the conscious of a woman and stifles her natural maternal instincts. Women are often pressured by people around them telling them that the baby will ruin their future plans and quality of life. "Abortion rights not only encourage men to be irresponsible but also encourages predatory male sexual behavior" (The Abortion Controversy 65). The male's role as a father becomes less credible. The men who do not want their child aborted are emasculated. Society has relied on myths to persuade women that abortion is the right choice. However, abortion not only devastates the woman but also demeans all of society. Before abortion was legal, fewer abortions were performed. Seventy-two percent of women stated that they would less likely get an abortion because it would really make them think about that decision. Abortion proponents want you to believe that thousands of women died from illegal abortions, but this is false. Abortion is touted as a solution to an overpopulated world; however, the population is declining. The United States birth rate per household today is one point eight children versus three point seven children in 1957 (AbortionFacts.com). Any increase in population today is due to immigration. People are having much smaller families and large families seem to be a phenomenon of the past. Another common myth is that if abortion was illegal that women would get back alley abortions, however ninety percent of illegal abortions actually were performed in a doctor's office (AbortionTV). Since the legalization of abortion, rape has increased 208.6 percent (Abortion Opposing Viewpoints 167). It is obvious that abortion tells a woman that her self worth and physical being are of no value. A mother's role in society is degraded. Abortion has led to an increase in crime. After the first few years after the Roe v. Wade trial, the murder rate increased and caused more unstable family lives because of the lack of a father figure (159). Child abuse has increased by 500 percent and is continuing to rise. More often than not, the children that are wanted are more likely to be abused than those who are not wanted (41). Most statistics are inaccurate and often complicated because women are not required to report any complications. Ankerberg and Weldon wrote that approximately five to ten percent of all abortion related deaths are reported (141). Often if the mother dies because of the procedure, the abortion doctor is allowed to put cause of death as other reasons instead of abortion. Morality disappears because then abortion tells us it is all right to have premarital sex, to rape, to take life and to not regard your partner as valid in decision-making. It opens up doors that would not be good for our constitution. The American Medical Association stated in 1859 that abortion is "the slaughter of countless children; such unwarrantable destruction of human life" (Willke 192). However, by 1967 to 1970 they said that abortion was "the interruption of pregnancy; the induced termination of pregnancy" to "a medical procedure" (192). This is a watering down of what is really murder. AbortionTV states, "It is more convenient to deny our individual and community responsibilities for social order and the development of a civilized (e.g. nonviolent) human condition than to tackle head on the challenges of preventing unwanted pregnancies." Science has proven that babies are susceptible to pain while in the womb. Infants start to feel pain at eight weeks because the brain stem starts to develop and function (AbortionFacts.com). They have pain nociceptors that send charges to the brain and spinal cord when the baby senses pain. These charges can be measured with medical instruments. In fact, they often feel more sensitive to pain because the system is new. The mothers feel their babies pull away with the poke of a needle. There is also a change in the baby's heart rate and in his movement. It is obvious why abortion has so much affect on the mother. The Bible has much to say on the deaths of the unborn. First of all, God commands us not to murder. In Jeremiah 1:5, God says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born, I consecrated you; a prophet to the nations I appointed you" NLT). Early biblical civilizations considered abortion a taboo, so horrendous that there need not even be a law to forbid the act. Abortion has been said to be a modern day sacrifice of our children on the alter of convenience and prosperity. John Dickinson, a liberator of the constitution, said in 1776: "Our liberties do not come from charters; for these are only the declaration of preexisting rights. They do not depend on parchments or seals, but come from the King of Kings and the Lord of all the earth" (Opposing Viewpoints Abortion 21). God has a plan for everybody. Genesis 25:22-23, "But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the Lord about it. 'Why is this happening to me?' she asked. And the Lord told her, 'The sons in your womb will become two rival nations. One nation will be stronger than the other; the descendants of your older son will serve the descendents of your younger son'" (NLT). He already knows the purpose of the unborn. In Exodus 23:7 God tells us: "Keep far away from falsely charging anyone with evil. Never put an innocent or honest person to death. I will not allow anyone guilty of this to go free" (NLT). There is no one more innocent than an unborn baby. God tells us to protect the innocent. Psalm 82: 3, 4 tells us: "Give fair judgment to the poor and the orphan; uphold the right of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and helpless; #deliver them from the grasp of evil #people." Psalm 127:3 tells us that children are a gift from God and having an abortion is ignorance of the gift of god. Exodus 21:22-25 tells what happens to those who do any harm to the unborn (NLT). If the infant dies, the perpetrator too shall decease. In conclusion, no man can justify abortion, not even through ethical or situational relativism. Life is precious no matter what stage a human being is at. Even the unborn has viability. Scientifically, philosophically and biblically, it has been proven that the unborn are suffering in the genocide of today. Abortion is being ignored because of misinformation and ignorance. The United States was founded on the morals of Christ, but because society is changing, people feel that so should the base of our country. Nevertheless, God's law is the ultimate authority and therefore abortion is still unethical.
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