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On January 22, 1973, the United Supreme Court gave our nation Roe v. Wade and its companion decision, Doe v. Bolton. In so doing, it effectively removed every legal protection from human beings prior to birth.
Since then, millions of lives have been destroyed before birth and even during the process of being born. Countless women have been traumatized so deeply by abortion that for years they struggle to find peace, healing, and reconciliation. Men grieve too because they could not “choose” to protect a child they helped bring into existence.
Society has increasingly been coarsened by toleration and acceptance of acts that purposely destroy human life.What modern medical science shows
Today a hopeful sign for the pro-life movement is that modern medical science clearly has shown that human life begins at conception.
Sonograms have become more available. These enable parents to see images of their unborn baby or babies. As a result, sometimes they choose not to abort.
As the unborn baby grows, he or she reveals human characteristics. Some of these are:
• At conception a new human being begins, with his or her unique set of DNA, present from the first day of life.
• The little person’s sex is also determined from the beginning.
• Eighteen days after conception the baby’s heart is beating.
• The baby moves six weeks after conception though the mother does not yet feel the movements.
• At 11 weeks after conception, the baby has finger-prints and the finger nails are growing.
• At 12 weeks, the baby’s lips open and close. S/he can wrinkle his/her forehead, raise his/her eyes, turn his/her head, smile, and frown.
• At 16 weeks s/he reacts to sound, sucks and swallows, may get hiccups, yawns, and stretches.
• Although the unborn baby has been moving since six weeks, at 18 weeks the mother feels the baby’s movements. The baby pushes with his/her feet and head to exercise and tone his/her developing muscles and also sucks his/her thumb. His/her toenails, hair, eyebrows, fringe of eyelashes on closed eyelids are growing.
• At 20 weeks, the baby sleeps, wakes, and can hear.
• At 24 weeks, the baby may dream, make a fist, and punch it against his/her mother.
• By 25 weeks, the unborn baby can hear and discern moods and attitudes of its mother. (We want happy moms so that we can have happy babies!)
Right to life is most fundamental right
The right to life is the most fundamental of all rights. Bible passages tell us that life in the womb is sacred and comes from God. In Psalm 139 it says,”For it was you who created my being, knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being, for the wonders of all your creation.”
On July 22, 1966 in Life magazine, Eleanor Greaves, described the miracle of conceiving and giving birth. She wrote, “Whatever feelings pregnancy may arouse — delight, indifference, resignation, horror — the very idea of creating a new human being is awesome. Pregnancy is surely the most creative thing you will ever do — even if you have done it inadvertently.
“The process is miraculous! So hard to believe that at some appointed hour, you will divide like some ancient cell. Suddenly it won’t be you any longer, but you and some other being to whom you will be tied, by nerves, tissue, and chemistry all of your life.
“You are its life line, its substance, and its nourishment. Only you can make sure that its bones are strong and its eyes are clear. How good you must be, how well behaved, how faithful to this being!”
Babies are the hope of the future, but if they are aborted, they have no earthly future! Since they cannot speak for themselves, let us continue to pray and work for their right to be born so they can give their children rainbows of hope.
Fr. Donald Lange is a pastor emeritus in the Diocese of Madison.