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control her own body' permit her
to kili another adult person who
has committed no offense against
her? Would we sanction the mur–
der of children who are unwanted
and unloved, just as we sanction
the destruction of fetus because
they might turn out that way?"
Yes, even supporters of abor–
tion know that killing a human
being
after birth
is wrong. They
just don't want to apply their
knowledge to human beings be–
fore birth.
Sc ientific Knowledge
Today, in 1980, more than any
time in history, man is without
excuse for claiming that an un–
born child is not an individual,
separate human being. Scientific
discoveries over the past decade
confirm what man could have
known from God's revealed Word
all along!
We now have ultrasound to let
us see an unborn child moving.
We have electronic monitoring of
an unborn baby's heart . We can
identify t.he baby's sleep cyéles.
There are now techniques to sam–
ple the baby's urine, blood, and
skin and even identify sophisti–
cated chemical reactions between
the baby and the mother. These
new scientific methods now show
that the separate individuality of
an unborn child is a scientific
fact!
From conception, the 46 chro–
mosomes in the unborn child are
unique. They are ditferent from
either parent. There is a heart–
beat 18 days after conception.
Sorne seven to eight weeks into
life the unborn child has its own
brain waves. (And brain waves
are among the legal criteria used
to determine whether a person is
dead or not!) The unknown child
is sensitive to pain and noise. It
recoils from pinpricks. lt can dis–
tinguish between sounds. At eight
weeks an unborn will grasp some–
thing placed in his small hand and
hold on to it.
A very personal example of
just how man can come to know
by scientific fact that abortion is
wrong is found in Dr. Bernard N.
Nathanson.
Dr. Nathanson is one of the
24
world's most knowledgeable au–
thorities on prenatal medicine. Dr.
Nathanson was also once one of
the most militant supporters of
abortion. He headed the world's
largest abortion mili. He helped to
found the National Abortion
Rights Action League. But in the
past decade he changed his mind.
Reason? New scientific facts have
come to light. Religion has played
no role. Says Dr. Nathanson:
"I have no religious views and
never have had. AIJ my opinions
result from a secular, scientific
point of view."
But because the "medica! liter–
ature" is absolutely replete with
examples of the indh·idual per–
sonality of the unborn child, Dr.
Nathanson now concludes,
"It
is
atrocious for anyone now to main–
tain that a fetus is simply a lump
of meat, or something insignifi–
cant or an unprotectable life."
What does the new scientific
knowledge mean for Dr. Nathan–
son?
"1
have now concluded that in
my work as head of the abortion
clinic in New York, I presided
over the death of 60,000 innocent
human beings and the destruction
of a like number of families."
Remember, this was the man
who was once one of the world's
most powerful proabortionists!
He is like the apostle Paul was to
the early Christians. Once a fero–
cious destroyer of unborn life, he
now has lent bis influence to
protecting it.
Common , Simple Humanl ty
Men could have known the truth
about abortion from God's Word.
They can still know it from scien–
tific fact. They can also know
abortion is wrong from the
inher–
ent cruelness
of the abortion pro–
cess itself.
When you realize just what a
doctor must do to perform. abor–
tion, you realize just how much
our society, confronted by two
alternatives, has "ehosen death"
(see Deuteronomy 30: 19). When
you understand just how abor–
tions are being performed today
you can understand how calloused
and cruel our "civilized" society
has become!
There are three ways now used
to perform abortions. By far the
most preferred way is the suction
method. A vacuum tube is in–
serted into the womb, and the
unborn child is literally vac–
uumed out, and in the process
torn limb from limb. Afterwards,
someone must go through the
"remains" to see if all the parts
of the body are accounted for,
lest any remain behind in the
womb.
This is the "best" method of
abortion because the victim re–
mains unseen by all but the lab
examiner. But the victim was a
human being anyway.
Thomas Gulick, writing in
Hu–
man Events,
relates how one
nurse, who used to help with
these kind of abortions, changed
her mind. One day the doctor
tried to perform a vacuum abor–
tion on a woman whose child was
already too big to fit through the
vacuum tube. The nurse got a
shock. "1 saw
a little foot–
caught in the end of the suction
tube." Tears carne to her eyes.
Before she hadn't had to look at
the dismembered child. At that
point, the nurse began to have her
doubts about abortion ("Even
Abortionists Having Second
Thoughts,"
Human Events,
April
12, 1980).
Because the vacuum method
doesn't work after the child grows
to a certain point, usually after 12
weeks, two other methods must
be used.
For unborn children between
12 to 17 weeks old, there is the
D&E (dilation and evacuation)
technique. In D&E, a surgeon
goes up into the womb with for–
ceps and grabs the unborn child
and tears it out. The body of the
unborn child must first be ripped
apart so that it can pass through
the cervix. Sometimes D&Es are
performed on unborn children as
old as 20 weeks. When they are,
their skulls must be crushed as
well as their bodies torn apart.
One abortionist, Dr . Warren
Hern of the Boulder Abortion
Clinic in Boulder, Colorado, has
said of the D&E:
"The sensations of dismember–
ment fiow through the forceps
The PLAIN TAUTH