That’s just your belief that life begins at fertilization/conception. Can you find any scientist who thinks that?
“Human life begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoo development) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” “A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo).” – Keith L. Moore BA MSc PhD DSc FIAC FRSM FAAA, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003. pp. 16, 2.
“Human development begins after the union of male and female gametes or germ cells during a process known as fertilization (conception). “Fertilization is a sequence of events that begins with the contact of a sperm (spermatozoon) with a secondary oocyte (ovum) and ends with the fusion of their pronuclei (the haploid nuclei of the sperm and ovum) and the mingling of their chromosomes to form a new cell. This fertilized ovum, known as a zygote, is a large diploid cell that is the beginning, or primordium, of a human being.” – Moore, Keith L. Essentials of Human Embryology. Toronto: B.C. Decker Inc, 1988, p.2
“The chromosomes of the oocyte and sperm are…respectively enclosed within female and male pronuclei. These pronuclei fuse with each other to produce the single, diploid, 2N nucleus of the fertilized zygote. This moment of zygote formation may be taken as the beginning or zero time point of embryonic development.” – Larsen, William J. Human Embryology. 2nd edition. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1997, p. 17
“The development of a human being begins with fertilization, a process by which two highly specialized cells, the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female, unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.” – Langman, Jan. Medical Embryology. 3rd edition. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1975, p. 3
“Although life is a continuous process, fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed…. The combination of 23 chromosomes present in each pronucleus results in 46 chromosomes in the zygote. Thus the diploid number is restored and the embryonic genome is formed. The embryo now exists as a genetic unity.” – O’Rahilly, Ronan and Muller, Fabiola. Human Embryology & Teratology. 2nd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996, pp. 8, 29.
“Every human embryologist in the world knows that the life of the new individual human being begins at fertilization. It is not belief. It is scientific fact.” C. Ward Kischer, Ph.D., Author, When Does Human Life Begin? The Final Answer, Human Embryologist, professor, University of Arizona College of Medicine.
“In that fraction of a second when the chromosomes form pairs, the sex of the new child will be determined, hereditary characteristics received from each parent will be set, and a new life will have begun.” – Kaluger, G., and Kaluger, M., Human Development: The Span of Life, page 28-29, The C.V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, 1974.
“It is the penetration of the ovum by a sperm and the resulting mingling of nuclear material each brings to the union that constitutes the initiation of the life of a new individual.” – Clark Edward and Corliss Patten’s Human Embryology, McGraw – Hill Inc., 30
“The chromosomes of the oocyte and sperm are…respectively enclosed within female and male pronuclei. These pronuclei fuse with each other to produce the single, diploid, 2N nucleus of the fertilized zygote. This moment of zygote formation may be taken as the beginning or zero time point of embryonic development.” – Larsen, William J. Human Embryology. 2nd edition. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1997, p. 17
Development of the embryo begins at Stage 1 when a sperm fertilizes an oocyte and together they form a zygote.” – England, Marjorie A. Life Before Birth. 2nd ed. England: Mosby-Wolfe, 1996, p.31
“Zygote: This cell, formed by the union of an ovum and a sperm (Gr. zyg tos, yoked together), represents the beginning of a human being. The common expression ‘fertilized ovum’ refers to the zygote.” – Keith L. Moore BA MSc PhD DSc FIAC FRSM FAAA, T.; V. N. Persaud MD PhD DSc FRCPath (Lond.); and Mark G. Torchia MSc PhD. Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects. 4th edition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1993, p. 1
“Embryo: An organism in the earliest stage of development; in a man, from the time of conception to the end of the second month in the uterus.” – Dox, Ida G. et al. The Harper Collins Illustrated Medical Dictionary. New York: Harper Perennial, 1993, p. 146
“Embryo: the developing organism from the time of fertilization until significant differentiation has occurred, when the organism becomes known as a fetus.” – Cloning Human Beings. Report and Recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Rockville, MD: GPO, 1997, Appendix-2.
“In man the term ’embryo’ is usually restricted to the period of development from fertilization until the end of the eighth week of pregnancy.” – Walters, William and Singer, Peter (eds.). Test-Tube Babies. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 160
“Embryo: The developing individual between the union of the germ cells and the completion of the organs which characterize its body when it becomes a separate organism… At the moment the sperm cell of the human male meets the ovum of the female and the union results in a fertilized ovum (zygote), a new life has begun… The term embryo covers the several stages of early development from conception to the ninth or tenth week of life.” – Considine, Douglas M. (ed.). Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia. 5th edition. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976, p. 943
“Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)… The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.” – Carlson, Bruce M. Patten’s Foundations of Embryology. 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, p. 3
Wouldn’t an abolition bill outlaw miscarriage treatment?
Miscarriage and abortion are two completely different things. Heartless, psychopathic abortion supporters have worked to linguistically and legally link miscarriage and abortion so that they can scare people into believing that abortion bans outlaw miscarriage treatment. It’s no surprise that murderers are also liars. No abortion ban ever written would outlaw the removing of a deceased fetus from the uterus. OK SB1729, for instance, has language establishing that “This chapter shall not apply to…a spontaneous miscarriage.”
Since not everyone is a Christian, shouldn’t we argue against abortion from a secular perspective?
We aren’t as interested in personal opinions as we are with objective truth, and the only objective standard of truth is God’s revelation to man. An atheist can have a personal opinion that abortion is good or bad, but he cannot ground his opinion in anything objective.
As William Lloyd Garrison wrote, “Take away the Bible, and our warfare with oppression, and infidelity, and intemperance, and impurity, and crime, is at an end: our weapons are wrested away—our foundation is removed—we have no authority to speak, and no courage to act.”
God, the transcendent source of all morality, is the only standard by which evils like abortion can be adequately rebuked. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can open the eyes of the wicked abortion supporters who do not have an intellectual problem but a moral one.
You can’t legislate morality, right?
You can ONLY legislate morality. Every law legislates based on someone’s view of morality. Every law is an instance of those in power establishing what citizens must not do because it is wrong. Speed limit laws are based on the immorality of risking your life and that of others. Child support laws are based on the immorality of a father leaving his family. Laws are inescapably moral. The question is not whether morality will be legislated but whose morality will be legislated? In the case of abortion, the question is will pro-child sacrifice people or anti-child sacrifice people be writing the laws?
Can People Who Disagree With You Join The Abolitionist Movement?
The Abolitionist Movement is an explicitly Christian movement. That should hopefully be extremely clear after reading through the Norman Statement. But can people who have disagreements with us work with us or join the Abolitionist Movement? Well, it depends on what the disagreement is. We love and rejoice in the great privilege of working together with many Christians in the Abolitionist Movement who disagree on a whole variety of different doctrinal matters. The movement is represented by Presbyterians, Baptists, Southern Baptists, Free
Will Baptists, reformed believers, non-reformed believers, Calvinists, Armenians, post-millennials, a-millennials, pre-millennials, dispensationalists, and we could go on. But what we all agree on (as laid out in article 11 of the Norman Statement) is that:
“We affirm that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, and to the glory of God alone.⁶ We affirm that all sinners are commanded to repent and believe the gospel and upon doing so are justified before God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and caused to love God and His Law and to walk in zealousness for the good works that God has prepared.⁷ We affirm that Christ’s kingdom is at hand and that He will continue to work until all His enemies are defeated and justice is established in all the earth.⁸
WE DENY that there is any salvation from sin outside of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as described in the Bible alone. We deny that a man’s works contribute in any way to his salvation.⁹
And since the Abolitionist Movement is an explicitly Christian movement, it is impossible for us to partner with non-Christians, or for non-Christians to join the movement. But also an unbeliever who fully understands the five tenets of abolitionism would be inconsistent to still want to be recognized as an abolitionist. You see, three of the five tenets of abolitionism are: 1) Gospel-Centered 2) Biblical, and 3) Body driven/Obligation of the Church, the Body and Helpmate Bride of Christ.
You are not Gospel-Centered if you hold to no gospel, or a false gospel (as sadly, the Roman Catholic Church – for example – does.)
It is not Biblical to hold anything other than the Word of God as your sole infallible rule of faith.
It is impossible to be driven and led by the body/church of Jesus Christ if you are not part of that church and cannot identify who the church of Jesus Christ is and is not.
Many unbelievers do believe in nullification, immediatism, and criminalization because these are strong, biblical ideas. But abolitionism is far more than this and has much more theological depth than just these applications of what we believe. Holding some ideas that are part of the abolitionist position does not make you an abolitionist, any more than a Roman Catholic agreeing with a protestant that Jesus Christ is God and the Son of God does not make the Roman Catholic a Protestant. No, partial agreement with abolitionists only means that you hold to or agree with some abolitionist ideas.
Abortion is murder, yes, and it must be abolished. We can agree on that, and thanks to God’s common grace we do agree with many unbelievers on this point. But the reason murder is wrong is because God says so. Murder is a sin against our Thrice Holy God, a violation of His law, and an unjustly taking of the life of one of His image-bearers. Abortion is sin, but the only cure to sin is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been entrusted to us, His bride, the church.
There are plenty of people who embrace a worldview of darkness that has been set up against the kingdom of God, and yet they are also anti-abortion. But even though they agree with us that abortion is wrong, they are on the opposite team in this battle. They love and cling to a worldview that opposes the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself has commanded us love our preborn neighbor as ourselves, and whose instructions and teaching we look to for our marching orders. When abortion is abolished, He alone will get the glory. So, when someone holds a worldview apart from the Christian worldview and yet opposes abortion, since their worldview cannot justify their opposition to child sacrifice, they are living in hypocrisy – they know the truth of God’s law written on their hearts that murder is wrong, and yet they spit in God’s face by clinging to a worldview that is rebelling against Him.
Dear reader, if this description fits you, or you find your spirit rising up in protest against what we are saying here, we urge you to hear us on this: you must repent of your sin, turn to Christ, and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. You need the substitutionary atonement and the saving righteousness of Jesus Christ – just as much as every abortion-supporting person does.
You see, we are not merely at war with abortion. We are at war with EVERY. SINGLE. WORLDVIEW. that has been set up against the knowledge of Christ, and this is why we cannot partner with those who hold our enemy’s worldview. When those holding our enemy’s worldview say they are in support of our end goal, usually they assume that our end goal is merely “abolishing abortion.” And they are wrong. Our end goal is abolishing abortion to the glory of God. The measure of our success is not how many babies we see saved, how many abolition bills are passed, or even the number of people whose hearts are changed, but rather the measurement of our success is faithful obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
So yes, unbelievers do support abolition bills, they may even donate to an abolitionist organization, which are good things to do. But whatever level of support they give, their actions must never change how abolitionists are seeking to evangelize and convert these very same people. We do want Roman Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Agnostics, self-professed Atheists and Agnostics, and everyone who falls into this category to support the abolition of abortion, but more than that, because we love these people and we know that there is no salvation for their souls to be found in these false teachings, we long for them to come to faith in Christ alone. And therefore, because we recognize anti-abortion unbelievers as part of our mission field alongside the unbelieving abortion supporter, we do not seek to partner with them to play any role in our organization or in the Abolitionist Movement.
What does this mean practically? If a Muslim or otherwise unbelieving lawmaker comes to us telling us that he wants to run a bill of abolition in his state, would we bid him good riddance? No, we would be glad to see God’s common grace in his life through the fact that he opposes abortion and wants abortion to be abolished, and we would call him to repentance in Jesus Christ for his sin, while explaining how Jesus is the reason why we are going about this work of abolition. Yes, we could also give him the language for the bill that we would want him to use, but when we have a rally for the bill, instead of calling the people to celebrate the lawmaker running the bill, inviting him to speak on stage, and putting him forward as a hero, we would encourage the audience to pray for his repentance and salvation, and as they have conversations with him, to implore him to turn to Christ in faith for his salvation.
For further understanding our position on this, check out:
Dusty Deevers: The Five Tenets of Abolitionism
The Liberator Podcast: Episode 62 on The Five Tenets Of Abolitionism
Dr. Steven Lawson on Roman Catholicism and Ecumenism
What about rape and incest?
Rape is a terrible crime. It should be a capital crime. For some reason, the secular culture is not willing to go this far. Those who commit this heinous act should face swift justice and victims of rape should receive the support of their families and communities. But it is insane and evil to murder a child for the sins of the father.
The argument for murdering babies conceived in incest is pure eugenics. That a child has a higher likelihood of having certain disabilities does not mean we should murder them.
Isn’t forced birth just like forced organ donation?
Outlawing abortion is not the same thing as forced organ donation for four reasons.
1) There is a difference between ordinary and extraordinary levels of care. Donating organs to someone in need is an extraordinary level of care that should not be mandated. Simply not murdering your child is an ordinary level of care that should be mandated.
2) Children are only in the vulnerable position of needing their parents’ care because their parents created them in that vulnerable situation. When you put someone in a vulnerable position, you have a greater obligation to care for them.
3) Giving up an organ permanently is not the same thing as allowing offspring to live for nine months in the reproductive organ that was made for them to live in. In the same way that children have a right to their mother’s milk after they is born, they have a right to their mother’s uterus before they are born.
4) Not giving up an organ permanently is not the same thing as using forceps, suction devices, or chemical to actively kill a baby.
Do abolitionists support IVF?
Common IVF practice includes the fertilizing of more eggs than can be implanted, the discarding of “low grade” embryos, and selective reduction abortion if too many embryos successfully implant in the uterus. The result is 32 human beings are conceived for every one live birth.
Such practices are self-evidently wicked. Though some believe there is an ethical way to practice IVF, we believe that the creation of life should not be done by scientists in a lab, but rather through the God-ordained method for creating life: intercourse of husband and wife.
Our page on IVF delves into this topic with significant depth, and includes resources for further research and education. AbolitionistsRising.com/IVF
Isn’t consciousness what makes us valuable?
Some people will acknowledge the humanity of a human embryo but will argue that they are not worthy of protection until they have consciousness or sentience. Such people reject the notion of human rights. They believe that only a special class of humans have value. They are bigots, no different than those that perpetrated the holocaust and race-based chattel slavery.
The image of God in human beings is where we get our objective value, and we all bear the image of God equally. We thus have equal value and are equally deserving of the protection of the laws. The view that value derives from consciousness would result in those who with greater cognitive capabilities and consciousness being of more value than others. Putting human value on a sliding scale like that will always end in a atrocities.
Under an abolition law, would ever single aborting mother be charged with 1st degree murder?
No. An abolition bill simply makes preborn children equal under law. So all the immunities, justifications, and mitigating factors considered in all other criminal cases would also be considered when charging and trying people for abortion. Each instance would be considered on a case-by-case basis based on the facts of each case. Some men and women would get charged with first degree murder. Some would get charged with third degree murder or manslaughter. Some would not be charged at all, such as those women being coerced. It all depends on the facts of the case.
If abortion is criminalized, won’t it just happen in less safe ways, unsafely?
If abortion is criminalized as murder, there will be far fewer abortions. Many expecting couples will not risk murder charges, and many other couples will be more sexually responsible and not make babies until they are prepared for babies.
But there certainly will be some who risk murder charges and get the abortion anyway. How do we know that? Because killing born people results in murder charges and people still do it. There will be men and women who violate the law possibly in back alley-type abortions. That is not the fault of people who believe that murder should be illegal and that all humans have rights. It is fault of people pursuing abortions in back-alleys.
What about bodily autonomy? What about my body, my choice?
The body inside a pregnant mother’s body is not her body. Bodily autonomy is not an absolute license to use one’s body in any way they choose. Specific to this case, you cannot use your body or the idea of bodily freedom to intentionally kill an innocent human being.
If I had an abortion prior to the passage of an abolition law, will I go to jail?
No. Every abolition bill applies only to crimes committed after the passage of the bill. OK SB1729, for instance, says “This act is prospective only and shall not apply to conduct committed prior to the effective date of this act.” This is consistent with American law which prohibits ex-post facto prosecution.
Can’t we end abortion without prosecuting mothers?
To put it simply, no. If someone is legally permitted to commit an act without any possibility of legal penalty, then that act is legal. In no way, shape, or form has abortion been abolished if mothers are permitted to self-manage an abortion with legal immunity.
The video on the right demonstrates exactly how easy self-managed abortion is.
Aren’t preborn humans just clumps of cells?
In the atheistic worldview, we’re all just clumps of cells, including the person raising this argument. But we’re not just clumps of cells. Humans are not simply the matter that makes them up. We are eternal souls. We are image bearers. And that begins at the moment we begin to exist, which is at fertilization.
What about children who will be born into poverty or suffering?
Can you kill a born child because they are poor? No? Then you can’t kill a preborn child because they might turn out to be poor. Help the poor, certainly, but don’t murder them. Murder is only an appropriate answer to poverty or suffering if you’re a psychopath.