Put rather simply, one’s opinion on abortion can generally be summed up depending on whether the person accepts that life begins at conception or not, as science so clearly tells us that it does.
There are exceptions. Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote for Slate last January in which she is shockingly honest with the title of her piece, “So what if abortion ends life?” She admits that “I believe that life starts at conception. And it’s never stopped me from being pro-choice.”
Groups which promote or at the least support abortion, tend to stay away from this issue, or provide answers which are really more like non-answers. As Dustin Siggins mentions in his piece for National Review Online, “Abortion Activists Deny Science,” with emphasis added:
Planned Parenthood, NARAL, reporters, the United States Supreme Court, and prominent scientific associations regularly ignore facts about the science of life. Their abandonment of truth has caused a great deal of harm to two generations of Americans.
Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood president and CEO, Cecile Richards, provided a perfect example of acting as Siggins describes when during an interview she claimed that it wasn’t “relevant” when life began. She didn’t even think it was controversial. Richards eventually did admit that “for [her] life began when [she] delivered them[,]” with regards to her three children.
When he was then Senator Barack Obama running for President, Obama answered that it was “above [his] pay grade” to answer when unborn children are granted human rights. Now as the President, Obama takes an opinion on many other matters, especially if his record of 172 executive orders is to provide any indication.
Is it possible that organizations in support of abortion, and individual leaders, such as Cecile Richards and Barack Obama know the truth about life beginning at conception and choose to look the other way? Most certainly. And because they are leaders, they are not only purposefully ignorant, but in doing so they deceive the American public.
It’s pretty difficult to deny that life begins at conception, yet we see examples of those who do. The above mentioned article from Dustin Siggins is a recent brilliant explanation as to why it is so clear when life begins, as is an article from James D. Agresti, who is the president of Just Facts. The article appeared on Live Action News last month. It is also worth asking that if life does not begin at conception, then when does it?
It’s rather silly to chalk up a scientific truth to something that is viewed theologically or philosophically, as then Senator Obama did, or Philip Bump did in his piece for The Washington Post.
Some supporters of abortion have even stated that women are the ones who should decide for themselves when life begins and that we can just decide when we feel like life begins. That would perhaps be true if when life began was an opinion, but cannot be when it is a scientific fact.
What if those who affirm that life begins at conception somehow misunderstood the science behind such an affirmation though? Abortion wouldn’t necessarily be an act of murder then.
Now what if the crowd supporting abortion is wrong in their arguments that life doesn’t really begin at conception? Whether this be a simple deeply held but misguided belief or one that involves a cruel regard towards the unborn, in that the child is just a clump of cells, or similar to a parasite or tumor, then abortion is murder. When faced with even just the option of committing or supporting the choice to commit murder, isn’t it better to err on the side of life, of human life?
And to those which know of their deceptive ways, they especially deserve to be called out for the purposeful ignorance and the devastating effect it has had on the American society. This is, tragically, of course, not just with regards to those who believe the lie, but for the millions upon millions of those who may never come to know the beauty of life because they did not have the privilege of being born.
