Abortion is hard on little babies

Abortion is hard on little babies. Before the above statement is branded as too emotional and sensational to warrant consideration, can I refer to the article published in Salient April 17 on Abortion and Women's Rights. In it, Dr Margaret Sparrow stated "Life is a continium. An ovum is alive. A sperm is a living, moving cell. Both contain 23 chromosomes." However, an ovum can never develop as a human being by itself; a [unclear: sperm] can never develop as a human being by [unclear: itself;] Both will die if not united with the other. [unclear: Dr] Sparrow continued to say that at the moment of fertilisation "we now have a single-celled zygote with the full complement of 46 chromosomes, and a sexual identity, genetically male or female." It is then, at fertilisation that a new and unique being is created. Any organism with the chromosomes and genes proper to a human being can be nothing less than human. It is scientifically false to claim that" 'human life' is different from 'human being', the latter being the status accorded to all members of society. Embryonic human life has only the potential to become a human being." After all, only a human being can develop a human brain. A human brain cannot develop before a human being exists. A human brain begins to develop soon after fertilisation and is, in fact, the first organ to begin to develop.

The Women's National Abortion Action Committee who seek repeal of all abortion laws in New Zealand complain that "the facts are buried under a heap of secrecy and hypocrisy". Yet the most crucuial fact in the whole abortion issue is ignored by them: that we have all been human beings from the moment of fertilisation. Let's be honest. Abortion is not so much the problem of unwanted pregnancy, as it is a raising of the question whether pregnancy is a relationship between two human beings — both possessing the right to life. Abortion is not so much the problem of unwonted pregnancy as a matter of unwanted evidence.

Today all human beings, whether born or unborn, have legal rights: to sue, to inherit, to be given blood transfusions, and to be protected before birth and after. Yet it is imperative that their one right, without which all other rights are meaningless, must be protected — the right to life itself.

WOMAAC should note again that a successful abortion is always lethal to the unborn child. Or in other words, it's not really too emotional to declare "Abortion is hard on little babies".

Cath Bergin