Guide to Informed Choices
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woman, even though he is created and grows within her for a whole 9 months. Just because he is in your body doesn‘t mean he is your body. It‘s quite a unique situation, isn‘t it?
―Reproductive Rights.‖ ―It‘s a woman‘s body.‖ ―Keep your laws off my body.‖ ―A woman‘s choice.‖ You‘ve all heard these slogans before. They do sound good, don‘t they? Perhaps the question we should be asking here is, is abortion only terminating Y
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a part of a woman‘s body? Is all this fuss about a piece of her own body? Like, somehow, those 50% of American public against abortion actually oppose her having a mole removed or a sore tooth taken out? Good question. Hopefully this book will answer your questions! Just to clarify something here — pro-lifers are not against the right to reproduce — they are only against the right to kill a growing human baby after reproducing. 236
(bless them all) who say, ―keep your rosaries off my ovaries‖ or any other of their witty sayings have actually thought about what they are saying. I mean, the fetus has a body too. In fact, it‘s his body that‘s being terminated. Some people would like to think the embryo is a part of their body equivalent to your arm or leg, but those of us who have looked at human development know that‘s not true. Sure, he is part of you in the sense that he is your offspring, your flesh-and-blood child who shares half of your DNA. But that doesn‘t make him your body any more than you are your mom‘s or dad‘s body. It just makes him special. The unborn child is pro-active in the pregnancy. He is connected to you physically and is able to grow with your help. But he is still a separate, living being. This is the wonder of being a mother — to be able to give shelter to and birth a living baby with your own body.
Bill to stay execution of pregnant women for sake of body part! In 2000
the U.S.
House of
Representatives passed a bill forbidding the execution of women who were pregnant. Representatives who supported abortion voted for the measure, despite the fact that a fetus is presumably no more than any other part of a women‘s body. It is not known of any bills have been written to defend any other ―body parts‖ of a woman. 237
I find it interesting that even pro-life pagans — don‘t ask me how I find these websites, you can bump into anything on the Internet — are sometimes uninformed. While not wanting to harm life, the writer says that, for her, early abortion is okay because ―in the first months of pregnancy, I consider a baby to be part of its mother.‖ 238
This is obviously a moral, philosophical or pagan religious belief because it is not accepted science. While I agree with much of her argument that the child needs the mother for life, she has done nothing to prove that the baby is actually a part of its mother as opposed to just, say, needing her. You might be thinking, neither have I
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proved my point. Well, let‘s look at my argument then.
Isn‘t the fetus part of my body? ormer
president of
Planned Parenthood, Faye Wattleton, believes the unborn child is in the same category as your appendix. Yes, that‘s right. She defended abortion on the grounds that the fetus is a part of a woman‘s body, saying, ―Yes, it kills a fetus, but it is the woman's body.‖ 239 This is a very interesting confession, by the way. Anyhow, Wattleton says a fetus is a woman‘s body. Indeed, that has been the argument all along. But to those of you who agree with her argument, how then do you reconcile this:
It‘s a woman‘s body, you say But why is his DNA different to yours?
It‘s a woman‘s body, you say But why are there opposite sex organs here?
It‘s a woman‘s body, you say But how come his blood type might be different?
It‘s a woman‘s body, you say But why can the fetus move independently of her?
It‘s a woman‘s body, you say But how come his fingerprints are not identical to yours?
It‘s a woman‘s body, you say But why can the fetus live if the woman dies in labor?
It‘s a woman‘s body, you say But why do you have two brains, two skeletons, two nervous systems?
Quotable quote ―The fact that the fetus is not part of the woman‘s body undermines the feminists‘ argument; the right to control one‘s own body does not justify abortion, because the fetus is not part of the woman‘s body.‖ 240
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Here is another pro-choice statement for us to examine. ―The nonviable fetus is little more than a form of the pregnant woman‘s bodily tissue.‖ 241
Clearly this is hilarious. Anyone who believes that needs to answer, how do you reconcile your beliefs with what we just discussed? There are clearly two bodies here — even at 12 weeks — and the question is, which one is being killed in an abortion? The fact that most women come away from it alive tells us F
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that it‘s not hers. Since it is not hers, it must be her child‘s, and I do not believe that in this country we own our children — they are individuals with rights also. So, therefore, the fetus cannot be her body. But let‘s look at that quote again. Does anyone truly believe that the fetus is simply another piece or part of a woman‘s body? Following that logic, whatever comes out of a woman at birth must also be her body. Yet no one believes a newborn baby is part of her body! Besides, that would mean that every time an abortion occurs, a woman is losing a body part and one that mysteriously performs no body function. It‘s telling that most people who support abortion are against abortion in the last month of pregnancy, yet why are they against this? Has the woman‘s body part miraculously changed into a human being at the last minute? Of course not! The life of the fetus that is terminated is a separate life. The fetus has an independent existence while living inside his mother. (I know, that does sound contradictory, but it‘s not.) He has different DNA. He has his own flesh and blood. He is human. He is alive. He moves, hiccups, sucks his thumb and swallows. He is not your body. He lives in you. You give him life as your parents gave you life. God created him as God created you. He is a separate life.
Being in your body doesn‘t mean he is your body Pro-choicers contradicting themselves!
The fetus is a woman‘s body part: ―The life it has is as a part of the mother‘s body, in the same sense that an individual‘s arm or leg is a part of a living
organism. An
individual‘s decision to have an arm or leg amputated falls within the sphere of privacy — the freedom to do as one pleases in all matters that do not injure others or the public welfare.‖ 242
Haves Without Have- Nots
The fetus is not a woman‘s body part: ―Locating the fertilized ovum inside a woman‘s body cannot in and of itself, however, define it as part of her body. If everything inside a person‘s body were held to be an integral part of that body, a thimble swallowed by someone would be part of that person‘s body by virtue of being inside of it…Clearly, many things that are not part of a person‘s body can get inside that body.‖ 243
Breaking the Abortion Deadlock
When people say that abortion is about a woman controlling her body, what they
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really mean is that she should have the right to control someone else‘s body if that being lives inside of her. Hopefully by the end of this book you will come to realize, if you haven‘t already, that the unborn child is his own person. If you still think he is part of your body, keep reading! Also, go to your local library and look through a selection of books in the pregnancy or biology section to see for yourself what I‘m saying. Can the fetus still live in your body and not be a body part? Yes. The easiest way to illustrate this is with some analogies. A car can be parked in a garage, but that doesn‘t make the car a part of the garage itself. A loaf of bread can be in the oven baking, but it‘s not part of the oven. A person can live in a house, but they are not one and the same thing. 244
Or how about a fish living in an aquarium? That doesn‘t make him the aquarium; laundry can be in the washing machine, but that doesn‘t make it the appliance; yogurt can be in a yogurt maker and so on… I‘m sure you can think of more. The only possible sense in which a fetus can be a part of the woman‘s body is in the sense that he is reliant on her, but we‘ll talk about that more in Reason #14: So what, if the baby isn‘t viable yet?
If you‘re still struggling with how a part of a woman‘s body can become another identity, turn to Reason #2: We know when life begins .
Earlier, we looked at why a fetus is not physically a body part of a woman; but just hypothetically, if the fetus was
your property, does ownership of a piece of land convey to you the right to kill another innocent person on your property? 245 Some
might say yes, in self-defense, but this, my friends, is an indefensible argument! The fetus is completely innocent. Just because of where he is shouldn‘t give the right to kill. I would challenge the view that having someone dependent upon you gives you the right over his or her life. Many who are pro-choice believe that abortion is a victimless crime. Just like this girl, ―I am not sorry for making a decision that made me happy and hurt no one else.‖
246 She sees no body other than her own and therefore observes no crime, as she believes she is the only one involved.
Confessions from Pro-Choice Literature ―Telling half-truths or using slogans that don‘t resonate with people‘s hearts is where we‘re losing the battle.‖ 247
abortion clinics
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But doesn‘t the fetus come from the woman‘s body? oes the fetus come from a woman‘s body? Yes and no. The fetus is formed of the DNA of both father and mother and grows with the nutrients from mom‘s body. She originates from you, but also from the Creator of the universe. She is created within you, and yet you cannot consciously ‗grow‘ her by will — she is created by another force higher than us all.
But a woman shouldn‘t be forced to carry a baby she doesn‘t want…. his is a commonly made argument. It makes sense. It sounds right. It sounds fair. But, if you believe this, please remember: 1.
consenting adults. 2.
Pregnancy is a well-known result of sex, and no other contraception besides abstinence is 100% foolproof. 3.
Because of 1 and 2 you can‘t say our body is being infringed upon or that we are being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy or that it is forced life support. 248
We
are choosing, unconsciously or not, to accept the possibility of being pregnant. For rape see Reason #80 . 4.
All we need to sacrifice is about 7 months of our life (less the time already passed) vs. the baby‘s whole life of 75-80 years.
5.
We need not spend our life taking care of a child. When the child is born we can pass him off to someone who wants to adopt him (the waiting lists are very long).
6.
Pregnancy is no more inconvenient than looking after a toddler, yet we don‘t condone disposing of toddlers because they may be hard work or annoying at times.
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Some people say that whether or not the unborn child has a right to life is not the issue. They say the issue is that a woman‘s right to end her pregnancy overrides any rights the unborn child may have. They have even compared the natural needs of a child with some sick person demanding your life support. 250 Some people say that since a baby is inside a woman, it‘s her choice to protect it or destroy it. I disagree. Just as life isn‘t granted by the government, it‘s not granted by us either.
Reason #25 ―Yes it‘s your body, but your child is a separate human being‖ D T
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Reason #26 Pro-choicers admit abortion is killing
Pro-choicers admit that abortion is taking a life id you know that if you dig hard enough in pro-choice books you will find that many of them actually admit that abortion is taking life, even killing human life. Sometimes it just seems to slip out. Other times it's not arguable and still other times, they think that killing something is not wrong at all. Here are some actual quotes from pro- choice authors. You don‘t see these every day!
Most abortions eliminate all life signs. 251
Contraception is never perfect. Like almost every sexually active woman, I‘ve had scares. When that happened, I did not lie awake praying in fear because I would have trouble obtaining an abortion. As a middle-class woman, I would be able to get one easily. Rather, I prayed because I wanted to get through my life without having to make that decision, which I can‘t help thinking is somehow one of life and death.
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—Fire with Fire When you pull out a piece of the fetus, let‘s say, an arm or a leg, and remove that, at the time just prior to removal of the portion of the fetus,… the fetus [is] alive. 253
—Practicing abortionist, Dr. Leroy Carhart‘s responding to the Court‘s examination
Abortion is a kind of sacrifice… some values are worth the sacrifice…Abortion always has been and continues to be another way of choosing death over life. 254
—The Sacrament of Abortion
You look at the ultrasounds and there's a fetus with a heartbeat; and then after the procedure, there's the fetus, usually in pieces, in a dish. It was alive one moment and it's not the next… And I found that hard at first. 255
—Practicing abortionist Dr. X, Salon magazine When practicing abortionist George Tiller spoke on a secret recording, he admitted that sometimes babies survive an abortion. He called it ―sloppy technique‖ and said it shouldn‘t happen. 256 If it's sloppy technique, doing the job right would involve making sure the fetus was properly dead before you removed her. Since the fetus is alive in the first place, abortion is killing. D
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If abortion acts to end something living, isn‘t that killing? hese following quotes from pro- choice literature all admit that something is being killed in an abortion.
I think we have deluded ourselves into believing that people don't know that abortion is killing. So any pretense that abortion is not killing is a signal of our ambivalence, a signal that we cannot say yes; it kills a fetus, but it is the woman's body.
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—Faye Wattleton, Salon magazine
Something is killed in an abortion... Like it or not, the reality is that abortion kills human life, however one constructs its stage of development and whether or not human
life is
synonymous with
personhood. 258
—Breaking the Abortion Deadlock
Presumably most people would agree that it is not completely ―all right‖ to kill life of any kind, particularly ‗babies.‘ Advocates for basing abortion rights on choice are forced to convince us that abortion is justified because it does not kill ―unborn babies‖ but merely masses of cells that are not yet babies. Yet according to its legal definition, a fetus is an ―unborn child.‖ 259
—Breaking the Abortion Deadlock ( This author defends abortion for other reasons)
Does the fetus have a separate body, or is his body a part of a woman? If you‘re not sure of this, turn to Reason #25: Abortion is about a woman's body, but...
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