Several letters have been published recently in the Sheridan Press accosting conservative members of the Wyoming legislature for their attempts to protect human life. Some even used archaic, unscientific statements such as a “fetus” (read: preborn baby) is but a glob of cells and tissues.
The website Stand to Reason published an article by researcher Steve Jacobs dealing with a study he had recently conducted. Jacobs had surveyed thousands of people asking whether the matter of when life begins plays a significant role in the abortion debate. 82% of those surveyed indicated that this question should play a crucial role. It also showed that 93% felt that the answer to this question should be of critical importance to pregnancy decisions. When asked which group of professionals would be most qualified to answer the question as to the beginning of human life, 80% said credentialed biologists.
Jacobs then emailed surveys to professors in biology departments of over 1,000 institutions around the world to ask this critical question. Of the 5,600 biologists replying to the survey, 5,337 of them (96%) affirmed that a human’s life begins at fertilization. Of those expressing a party preference, 92% were Democrats.
This explains why many pro-abortion organizations have abandoned the “when does life begin” argument, switching to a strategy of concocting several (arbitrary) criteria for establishing “personhood.” And, of course, if these little ones don’t qualify as “persons,” then they aren’t entitled to any protection – societal or legal. That’s why this is the most outrageous hypothetical argument now being promulgated as it echoes some of the most hideous atrocities from history. The Nazis determined that certain races of humans did not qualify as persons deserving of life, resulting in a ghastly Nazi program of exterminatory eugenics known as the Holocaust. The Soviet Bolsheviks used a similar tactic, identifying for persecution and eventual extermination the so-called kulaks – peasants deemed too wealthy and prosperous to deserve to live in the Socialist heaven the Communists were creating.
Modern science has developed many ways to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Using abortion as birth control has typically been practiced in societies placing very little, if any, value on human life. Perhaps Mother Theresa summed it up best when she noted that "a society that kills its children has lost its soul." Indeed.
Vera Cole
Sheridan
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