“Life is the most basic human right, and without it, no other rights can be enjoyed or protected.” — Unknown 

Abortion is a matter of life and death, so it is critical to engage persuasively and win over hearts and minds when we debate abortion. It’s best to state what you believe, then keep bringing people back to your central argument. Don’t get distracted by attempts to change the subject, leading you down “rabbit trails” that never engage the real topic at hand.  

In this series, we will examine some common objections to the pro-life position and some best practices for persuasive pro-life argumentation. 

The Equal Protection Coalition provides a compelling definition of the pro-life stance; it’s a position all Americans should champion: 

• “To be pro-life is to affirm that the lives of innocent human beings deserve legal protection from violence, both before and after birth. There can be no distinction between someone’s biological humanity and his or her legal personhood.”  
• “All human beings are persons. There are no classes of sub-personal human beings. The very idea of a human being who is relegated to the status of a nonperson is a moral atrocity. From the earliest embryonic stage to the very end of life, each and every human being is a person and a bearer of fundamental dignity and an unalienable right to life.”

“From the earliest embryonic stage to the very end of life, each and every human being is a person and a bearer of fundamental dignity and an unalienable right to life.”   

The core argument of the pro-life position is: 

• It’s always wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. 

• Abortion intentionally kills innocent human beings. 

• Therefore, abortion is morally wrong. 

While some abortion advocates will accept that the preborn child is a human being but claim it is acceptable to kill him or her anyway, many abortion advocates will object to calling the preborn child human at all.  

That is what we will focus on in today’s installment. 

Christians know that each life is made in the image of Almighty God Himself (Genesis 1:27). But there is also scientific consensus that the child in the womb is a human being.  

All of us are human beings at different stages of development. And our lives begin at conception. 

Scientific Support 

Scientific evidence shows that the preborn are human beings. We’re talking about an individual who has a human mother and a human father, an individual with a unique set of human DNA, and an individual with a beating human heart just days after conception.  

If the child in the womb is a human being, and if it is wrong to kill innocent human beings, then abortion is wrong.  

Human life is a continuum, beginning with the newly conceived blastocyst, then zygote, then moving through the stages of embryo and fetus on through to adult. Although a fetus doesn’t look like an adult, neither does a newborn baby. A human fetus is no less human simply because he or she is smaller and has different body proportions (Have you ever seen a baby try to touch the top of his head? He can barely reach it!). 

For that matter, neither is an embryo less human. It is our duty to acknowledge our common humanity at all stages of development.  

If one follows the science, it’s clear that preborn children at 12 weeks’ gestation are already amazingly complex human beings.  

• All of the major internal organs are formed and are already functioning. 

• They start forming brain connections that will last into adulthood. 

• They are developing unique fingerprints.  

• They already show a preference for their right or left hand.   

To minimize or ignore the humanity of the 12-week-old fetus is to deny the clear and compelling evidence of human development. 

And let’s not forget, the embryonic heartbeat, which moves oxygenated blood throughout the developing embryo, can be detected via ultrasound approximately three weeks after conception. Without his or her beating heart, the embryo cannot survive.  At six weeks, the baby’s heart rate is 110 beats per minute. By 15 weeks, the baby’s heart will have already beat nearly 16 million times! Science is clear that life begins at fertilization. 

Here are some profound quotes demonstrating the scientific certitude of human life in the womb:  

• “Human life begins when the ovum is fertilized and the new combined cell mass begins to divide.” — Dr. Jasper Williams, Former President of the National Medical Association  
• “To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion … it is plain experimental evidence. Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception.” — Dr. Jerome Lejeune, “The Father of Modern Genetics”  
• “Biologically speaking, human development begins at fertilization.” —  In the Womb, National Geographic, 2005.  
• “To deny a truth [about when life begins] should not be made a basis for legalizing abortion.” — Professor Eugene Diamond  
• “Although life is a continuous process, fertilization … is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte.” — Human Embryology and Teratology  
• “To say that the beginning of human life cannot be determined scientifically is utterly ridiculous.” — Dr. Richard V. Jaynes 

The baby’s body responds to both touch and pain. 

The baby responds to light touches over most of the body. If something touches the palm of the baby’s hand, the baby will bend his or her fingers as if to grasp the object. 

Neurotransmitters specific to pain processing appear between 10- and 14-weeks’ gestation. The spinal nerves needed to transmit pain to the thalamus have formed by 15 weeks’ gestation. Their pain is obvious to anyone who cares.  

Dr. Robin Pierucci, M.D., a board-certified neonatologist and medical director of a 50-bed neonatal intensive care unit explained, “The current standard of medical care calls for preborn babies to receive pain medication during fetal surgery starting at 15 weeks.”  

Think about what a baby feels during an abortion when he or she is violently pulled from the mother’s womb. In early abortions, surgical abortions involve being vacuum suctioned out of the mother’s womb. Later, it involves being dismembered limb from limb and crushing the small child’s skull to remove it from the birth canal. These realities are difficult to describe, but this is the reality of abortion heaped upon the reality that its victims can feel the excruciating pain of their demise.   

Finally, the mom is human and the dad is human. By the principle of biogenesis, the preborn is therefore human. There is no scientific/biological debate about this fact. 

The preborn child is clearly a human being. He or she is innocent and defenseless. Our duty as pro-life advocates, Christians, and simply as fellow human beings is to do all we can to defend and advocate for their precious lives.  

In Part 2, we will address a common argument that abortion advocates use to defend their position as well as walk through a pro-life response.