It’s a heartbreaking and upsetting trend – women and teens dumping their newborn babies. It’s been happening in increasing numbers over the years since abortion was made legal. News stations once covered the stories with a bit of remorse, but now it seems, they are taking a different approach.
The term “fetus” is used to describe a person who is preborn. And it fits perfectly since it means “offspring” and “young one.” But the abortion rights groups have twisted the word in order to diminish the humanity of preborn humans.
Nowadays, to most people “fetus” means nothing more than a blob of tissue that one day, after birth, will be a person. This has led to the idea that abortion is acceptable because the preborn are just “cells”, and since abortion is legal up until the moment of birth, many people have begun to push the idea of after-birth abortion as well. Because what’s the difference between ending a life 5 minutes before birth or 5 minutes after? The child hasn’t changed anything except location. That might seem a bit far-fetched but take a look at what newborn, deceased babies are being called in headlines across the country:
“Fetus found at Woodrow Willson High School”
“Two fetuses found near Fallrook church”
“Dead fetus found in dumpster in Stockton was girl”
“Fetus found at East Providence sewage treatment plant”
Fetus is a term used to describe a preborn person more than eight weeks after conception. Newborn, infant and baby are all terms we use to describe children who have just been born. Even if the child has died, we refer to them as a baby since they are outside the womb. So why are reporters referring to deceased babies as fetuses?
In the case where twin babies were found on a street in Fallrook, the police requested homicide investigators. If these were actually fetuses that would not have happened because killing a fetus is perfectly legal. An autopsy was going to be performed to find out how the twins died. Lt. John Maryon said in a statement that “the fetuses were well developed and appeared to be five months along or older.”
In the Stockton case, one witness told ABC News 10 that the “baby” looked like it had been in the final stages of development. Yet ABC still called the baby girl a fetus.
The fact is that the reporters do not know when or how the children died. They could have been born alive and died due to exposure or other factors. And if you are born, you are no longer a fetus. The New York Times referred to babies born alive after abortion and then killed by Kermit Gosnell as fetuses and took heat for it. But now it seems to be the trend.
Professor Denny Burke, who called out The New York Times on their use of the word “fetuses” to describe the murdered newborns, checked the AP Style Book and said he “found no indication that the word ‘fetus’ should be used to refer to live-birth children.”
Using the term fetus desensitizes people to the fact that these are real lives that have been taken, and as time goes on, people will have even less respect for human life. Using the term fetus to make us feel as though abortion is acceptable has been successful for abortion advocates. And now, using the term fetus to describe abandoned, deceased newborns may take us down the path to after-birth abortion – euthanasia of newborns for any reason. And it’s a terrifying path to be on.
