Our third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, clearly stated: "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government."

Abortion
Abortion is the deliberate terminiation of a pregnancy by killing the unborn child.  Such an act, willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.  Abortion violates an unborn Americans inalienable right to life and is a violation of the fifth commandment of the law of God, though shalt not kill.

"As long as there is abortion, there will always be war." - Mother Theresa of Calcutta

Abortion Statistics
Stages of Human Development
Abortion Arguments
Government Support of Abortion
What does God say?

Abortion Statistics:

Abortion in California:

• 236,000 abortions are performed per year in California. (Alan Guttmacher Inst.)
• California taxpayers fund 1 out of 3 abortions (75,209) per year. (CA Dept of Health)
• Abortions are performed up to 20 weeks at San Diego abortion clinics.
• Abortions are available through term in some Los Angeles clinics. (American Medical)
• Abortions can be performed on minors without parental knowledge or consent.
• Men have no legal rights concerning the potential aborting of their children.  California State Law does not require that they even be informed.

"Abortion has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society.  It has portrayed the greatest of gifts - a child - as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience." - Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Effects reported by Post-Abortive Women:

• Depression and Suicidal Impulses
• Sense of Loss/Unfulfillment
• Mourning with Regret and Remorse
• Isolation and Low Self-Esteem
• Hostility, Anger, and Rage
• Self-destructive Behavior
• Endless Guilt and Despair
• Preoccupation with Death
• Difficulties with Being in Relationships
• Panic Attacks and Nightmares
• Feeling Estranged from God and community

Abortionists Agree: It is a human life ...

• In 1965: "An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun.  It is dangerous to your life and health.  It may make you sterile, so that when you want a child you cannot have it." - Planned Parenthood, Plan Your Children for Health and Happiness, 1965
• In 1989: "Women are not stupid ... women have always known that there was a life there." - Faye Wattleton, past president of Planned Parenthood, NBC broadcast, May 15, 1989
• "Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception (they defined fertilization and conception to be the same) marks the beginning of a human being - a being that is alive and is a member of the human species.  There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings." - Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97 Congress, 1st Session 1981.
  

Stages of Human Development:

• Day 1 – fertilization: all human chromosomes are present; unique human life begins
• Day 6 – embryo begins implanting in the uterus
• Day 22 – heart begins to beat with the child’s own blood, often a different type than the mother’s
• Week 5 – eyes, legs, hands begin to develop
• Week 6 – brain waves detectable; mouth, lips present; fingernails forming
• Week 7 – eyelids, toes form; nose distinct, baby kicking and swimming
• Week 8 – every organ in place; bones begin to replace cartilage, fingerprints begin to form;
• Weeks 9 and 10 - teeth begin to form, fingernails develop; baby can turn head, frown
• Week 11 – baby can grasp objects placed in hand; all organ systems functioning; the baby has fingerprints, a skeletal structure, nerves, and circulation
• Week 12 – the baby has all of the part necessary to experience pain, including the nerves, spinal cord and thalamus; the baby is nearing the end of the first trimester
• Week 17 - baby can have dream (REM) sleep
• Week 20 – the earliest stage at which partial birth abortions are performed

Federal Tax Dollars Paying for Abortion:
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) receives over $254 million per year from the federal government, according to the organization's 2002-2003 Annual Report. With those federal dollars, Planned Parenthood performed over 227,385 surgical abortions in 2002.  In fact, over the past 15 years, the federal government has provided Planned Parenthood with roughly $2.76 billion.

The 2003-2004 Annual Report for Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), reveals that the abortion provider performed 244,628 abortions in 2003 —a 6.1 percent increase from the year before. In 2004, Planned Parenthood performed 255,015, another 4.3 percent increase. In all, Planned Parenthood is responsible for 20 percent of all abortions performed in the U.S.

Abortion Arguments: 9

What gives you the right to legislate morality?
The Truth:  "We can hear the familiar cry that morals can't be legislated.  This may be true, but behavior can be regulated.  The law may not be able to make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

What gives you the right to tell a woman she can't terminate her pregnancy?
The Truth:  No one is trying to tell women they cannot terminate their pregnancies.  All pregnancies terminate.  The only thing we're trying to ensure is that they terminate with a live baby rather than a dead baby.  In an abortion, it is a baby that gets terminated.  It is the barbaric procedure of abortion itself that must be terminated.

What about a 15-year-old girl who finds herself pregnant?
The Truth:  No 15-year-old girl ever "found" herself pregnant.  They get pregnant and it is not an insult to women to say that.  One major abortion industry strategy has been to project women as victims of pregnancies and this sort of deceptive rhetoric is a crucial element in that effort.  The deception they wish to pawn off is that it is much easier to justify abortions for women who are victims of their pregnancies rather than participants in them.

You have no right to tell a woman she has to have a child.
The Truth:  No pro-life advocate has ever suggested that women be required to have children.  No pro-life person goes around dragging non-pregnant women in and insisting they get pregnant.  However, when a woman is pregnant it is a biological fact that she already has a child.  Our position is that she should not be allowed to murder that child.

Women must not be denied the right to control their own reproductive lives.
The Truth:  We have absolutely no interest in controlling women's reproductive lives.  However, the biological reality is that when a woman is pregnant, reproduction has already occurred.  If that were not true, there would be nothing for the abortionist to kill.

What if a woman is not ready to be a mother?
The Truth:  Ready or not, if she's pregnant, she is a mother with child.  The only question is, will she choose to be the mother of a living baby or a dead one.  Post- conception, those are the only two options she has.

The government has no right to interfere in someone's personal choices.
The Truth:  The question about whether the government has the right to restrict anyone's personal choices is completely ridiculous.   Restricting choices is precisely what laws do.  By definition, every law is intended to deny someone the legal ability to choose a particular activity.  While it sounds good to say that government should allow people to make all of their own choices, that is neither practical nor desirable.  The reality is, all choices are not created equal.  Some choices are crimes.  All crimes are choices, decisions based on free will.  We do let people make their own choices to rape, rob, or drive drunk.  The purpose of any law is to stop people from making unwise choices that are intrinsically wrong.  For example, it is illegal to have sexual relations with a sibling, or child, or drive over the speed limit.  The list is endless but the point is that simply calling a decision "personal" does not make it off-limits to the law.

The supreme legitimate function of government is the protection of innocent human life.  If the unborn is a living human being, then taking that life is no different than taking the life of any other living human being.  If the government has a responsibility to keep one individual from killing another, then the real question is not whether the government has the right to take action against abortion, but whether it has the right not to.

The government has no right to interfere in the toughest decision a woman will ever make.
The Truth:  First off, killing your own child should be a tough decision.  Imagine how cold-blooded a woman would have to be to say that it was no big deal.  However, just because a decision is tough does not mean it is either morally defensible or beyond the scope of the law.  If a man is thinking about killing his 10-year old daughter to collect on an insurance policy, it is logical to assume that it is a tough decision for him to make.  But that doesn't mean it should be legal or that it is no one else's business. 

The real question is, why is abortion the toughest decision a woman will ever make?  The only possible explanation is that buried inside every woman who submits to an abortion is the knowledge that she is murdering her own child.

The government should stay out of abortion altogether.   Don't subsidize it with tax money, and don't prohibit it with laws.
The Truth:  That's identical to saying that if we neither subsidize nor prohibit lynching blacks, we're staying out of racism.  That is nonsense.  When the government permits something, it is giving it official sanction.  In this case, by allowing abortion the government is involved.  It is promoting and protecing it.

Is there such a position as "Pro-Life with Exceptions"?
The Truth:  By definition, it is impossible to accurately label someone pro-life who approves killing certain groups of children. It is as illogical as someone saying in 1860, "I am an abolitionist but I believe slavery should be legal in some circumstances." The only legitimate pro-life position is that a 10-week old child is morally equivalent to, and has the same right to life as, a five-year-old born child.   When someone says they are pro-life but that abortion should be allowed in some circumstances, the question is whether they would support killing a five-year-old child in those same circumstances.

When someone says they are "Pro-life with exceptions" what they are saying is that they support the "choice" to kill some babies (conceived in rape, handicapped, etc) but oppose the "choice" to kill other babies.  In other words, the only honest way to define their position is ....  "Pro-Abortion with Exceptions."

Scripture Verses affirming Life in the womb:

Exodus 13:2
[2] "Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine."

Job 31:15
[15] Did not he who made me in the womb make him?  And did not one fashion us in the womb?

Psalm 22:9
[9] Yet thou art he who took me from the womb; thou didst keep me safe upon my mother's breasts.

Psalm 71:6
[6] Upon thee I have leaned from my birth; thou art he who took me from my mother's womb.  My praise is continually of thee.

Psalm 127:6
[6] Lo, sons are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psalm 139:13
[13] For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb

Isaiah 44:24
[24] Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth - Who was with me?

Isaiah 49
[1] Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.
[5] And now the LORD says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength.
[15] "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Jeriamiah 1:5
[5] "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Hosea 12:3
[3] In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God.

Wisdom 7:1-6
[1] I also am mortal, like all men, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth; and in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh, [2] within the period of ten months, compacted with blood, from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage. [3] And when I was born, I began to breathe the common air, and fell upon the kindred earth, and my first sound was a cry, like that of all. [4] I was nursed with care in swaddling cloths. [5] For no king has had a different beginning of existence; [6] there is for all mankind one entrance into life, and a common departure.

Sirach 1:12
[12] To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; she is created with the faithful in the womb

Sirach 49:7
[7] For they had afflicted him; yet he had been consecrated in the womb as prophet, to pluck up and afflict and destroy, and likewise to build and to plant.

Luke 1:13:15
[13] But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechari'ah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.  [14] And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth; [15] for he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.

Luke 1:30-37

[30] And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
[31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
[32] He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High;
and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
[33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever;
and of his kingdom there will be no end."
[34] And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"
[35] And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be called holy,
the Son of God.
[36] And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
[37] For with God nothing will be impossible."

Human life clearly begins at conception, a fact which cannot be questioned.   Please help spread the Truth about the inalienable Right To Life for all Americans!!

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Notes
1. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Reasons Why Women Have Induced Abortions: Evidence from 27 Countries" Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 24 (August 1998).
2. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, "U.S. Women Who Obtain Abortions: Who and Why?" Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 4, (July/August 1988).
3. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, “An Overview of Abortion in the United States” (2003).
4. Elam-Evans L et al., “Abortion surveillance–United States, 2000”, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2003, 52(SS 12).
5. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Induced Abortion" Facts in Brief (2003).
6. Ibid.
7. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Abortion in Context: United States and Worldwide" Issues in Brief, 1999 No. 1 (1999).
8. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, “Abortion Incidence and Services In the United States in 2000.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Vol. 35, (Jan/Feb 2003)
9. Extracts from "On Message: Understanding and Communicating the Pro-Life Position." by Mark Crutcher (2005).