Some folks watch the Super Bowl for the game, while others tune in for the commercials. Doritos has a history of clever and entertaining Super Bowl ads, and their spot for Super Bowl 50 did not disappoint (watch it here). That said, not everyone liked it. For instance, the folks at NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) spent their evening commending and condemning Super Bowl ads. Here is a screenshot of their tweet about the Doritos spot:
How sad, indeed, how completely inhuman to be angered by someone “humanizing” unborn babies. What is the fetus if it is not human? Merriam-Webster defines the word “fetus” as:
an unborn or unhatched vertebrate especially after attaining the basic structure plan of its kind; specifically: a developing human from usually two months after conception to birth.1
To do anything but humanize a human fetus is to live in delusion. Upon conception, all the genetics that make the child a distinct person are present. What do the genetics say about the fetus? It is 100% human. The fetus is not a growth like a cyst or a tumor inside the mother’s body, rather, it is a distinct life, with its own DNA. Consider some facts about the development of the unborn child2 :
- Week 6, the baby has a heartbeat and brainwaves that can be recorded
- Week 8, the child’s fingers and toes have developed
- Week 10, the baby has fully formed and functioning internal organs
- Week 13, the baby is able to swallow and suck (ie. thumb in the mouth), and has a distinct fingerprint
- Week 17, the child has finger nails, toe nails, eyebrows, and eyelashes
- Week 23, the baby startles and jumps at loud noises
- Week 26, the unborn child can distinguish between voices
Medical advances have revealed these and many more astounding facts about the development of a child in the womb. Those who maintain that a fetus is not a human are willfully ignorant. They refuse to consider the evidence showing that a fetus, though wholly dependent upon the mother, is a distinct person.
But science has merely confirmed what those who honour and respect the Creator of life have always known. Tertullian, a 2nd century Christian apologist wrote:
To prohibit the birth of a child is only a faster way to murder; it makes little difference whether one destroys a life already born or prevents it from coming to birth. It is a human being, who is to be a human being, for the whole fruit is already present in the seed.3
In a society where abortion was legal and accepted, Tertullian and other writers affirmed the sanctity of life. Abortion advocates, whether those of antiquity or our contemporaries, dehumanize the unborn child. In the pro-choice perspective, abortion is not the murder of an innocent life, but simply the termination of a fetus or pregnancy. Speaking with softer and deceptive terms doesn’t change what is taking place. A spineless preacher might warn folks about that place which is not pleasant to speak about. His attempt to minimize and avoid talking about hell does not chaange the truth about hell, nor the condemnation which awaits those who do not turn to God. Hell is hell, and abortion is abortion.
According to the World Health Organization there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions worldwide each year.4 Each day, we kill about 125,000 children before they have an opportunity to take their first breath. Every hour, our world sentences 5,210 babies to death; that is almost 100 children every minute!
Think with me for a moment. Do you suppose the international community would turn a blind eye if someone simply wiped Kenya (pop. 38 million) off the map? What if a year later, Argentina (40 million) was snuffed out? And then the next year Tanzania (43 million) is destroyed? Ukraine (45 million)? Spain (46 million)? Columbia (48 million)? South Africa (50 million)? 5 You get the picture? Rightfully outraged, people would condemn these annual atrocities, and demand accountability for the perpetrators. Yet every year, society tolerates the killing of 40-50 million unborn children, in fact, some even celebrate it as “a woman’s right to choose”.
Though the Bible does not specifically address abortion, it provides information that clearly reveals God opposes the killing of an unborn child. Psalm 139:13-16 and Jeremiah 1:5 reveal that God knows us from before our birth, even before our conception. We are not a clump of tissue in a woman’s body; but are people known and created by God. Exodus 21:22-25 shows that God values the life of an unborn child, equating it to the life of a grown man.
The United States Congress enacted the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in 2004, a.k.a, the “Laci and Conner’s Law.” It recognizes a child in the womb as homo sapiens, at any state of development6 , and thus a legal victim if they are injured or killed in a list of over 60 federal offenses. In addition to the federal law, at least 38 states have fetal homicide laws, and at least 23 of those apply to the earliest stages of pregnancy.7 Just recently, a member of Canadian Parliament has introduced a private member’s bill described as “Cassie and Molly’s Law” (Bill C-225),8 which if passed, would recognize violent crimes causing injury or death to an unborn child.
As good as it is to have such laws in place or being considered by law makers, it does make one wonder. What distinguishes the unborn child killed by a violent criminal act from the unborn child killed by a conspiracy between the mother and a doctor? The determining factor is whether the child is wanted or not. Two children, both 3 months along in the womb; both are killed, but the murderer of one is prosecuted for his crime and the murderers of the other are protected by laws that allow unwanted children to be disposed of – murdered.
If we applied the spirit of these same laws to the rest of society, it would be legal to murder someone, so long as it could be demonstrated that the person was unwanted. I imagine most people would be appalled by such a suggestion. Oh, that folks would find it equally appalling to kill any human, wanted or not, in the womb or out.
- m-w.com ↩︎
- babycenter.com ↩︎
- tertullian.org ↩︎
- WHO.int ↩︎
- wikipedia.org ↩︎
- gpv.gov/ ↩︎
- ncsl.org ↩︎
- parl.gc.ca ↩︎
Links: YouVersion | GROW magazine
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