From Patrick Hardyman
Blanchardville
To the Editor:
“Human development begins at fertilization when a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoon) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell — a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual... The zygote is the very same organism that exits the womb nine months later as a newborn child... The child in the womb needs the same things that we all need outside of the womb: nurture, care, protection, and a hospitable environment.” (Tearing Us Apart by Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis, 2022 pp 21, 23)
The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are LIFE, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 3 reads: “Everyone has the right to LIFE, Liberty, and the security of person.”
The first modernized country in the world to legalize abortion was the former Soviet Union in 1920. (Wikipedia) The United States Supreme Court on January 22, 1973, in two companion cases Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton joined the Soviet Union in making abortion legal throughout the country. Since that time nearly 65 million preborn children have lost their lives because seven of the nine men serving on the court in 1973, created a new right that doesn’t exist in the Constitution.
The vast majority of abortions in this country are done for elective reasons like economic factors or age while according to the Guttmacher Institute only 1.5% of all abortions are for rape and incest. In some cases, like treating an ectopic pregnancy or a cancerous tumor and the unborn child unfortunately dies, this is not an abortion. The “intent” was not to kill the preborn child but to save a life.
In a few weeks Christians throughout the world will begin the season of Advent when we read and hear about two beautiful conception/birth narratives of John the Baptist and JESUS of Nazaret, that can be found in the Gospel of Luke chapters one and two. Both men started their “human life” journey as a single-cell zygote!
