The Question of Life: A Practical Answer

Over the past three decades, few issues have proven to be as
enduring and as controversial as the issue of abortion. While abortion itself
is as old as human nature, Roe v. Wade pushed the matter squarely into the center
of the public's consciousness. Since 1973, the debate that has raged on can be
distilled into two central questions:

1) When does life begin?

2) What role should the government play with respect to the practice of obtaining and/or providing abortions?

As the Faith, Family, Freedom Alliance was founded to promote Judeo-Christian values and uphold the sanctity of life, our answer to the first question is unequivocal; life begins at the moment of conception. As such, our answer to the second question must be that it is the government's duty to intervene on the behalf of the unborn.

Every argument made for or against the procedure of abortion begins in assumptions which stem from these primary concerns. Thus, a principled case for protection of the unborn must begin with a clear definition of "life" before proceeding to a case for government action.

Life can be succinctly defined as "the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally."

According to Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, a human embryo meets this definition of life. According to the Encyclopedia, an embryo is "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."

Proponents of abortion have often responded to such evidence with the claim that while the embryo or fetus may in fact constitute a living organism, it cannot be considered fully human. On the contrary: Human Embryology and Teratology categorically notes that "fertilization is a critical landmark [in the process of life] because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed...The embryo now exists as a genetic unity."

As an organism which develops the capability to metabolize, adapt, and reproduce, an embryo meets the definition of life.

Its genetic uniqueness, as well as its developing cognitive abilities, classifies it as human.

As human life, an embryo or fetus is deserving of legal protection for reasons both Biblical and pertaining to good governance.

The Bible unequivocally illustrates the high premium that God places on human life. When instructing the Hebrews in the forming of a nation, God made it clear that murder was expressly forbidden. Leviticus 24:17 states that "If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death." Numbers 35 spends nearly 20 verses on the moral and legal ramifications of murder, and rightly so; a nation must be able and willing to protect the lives of its citizens. God's Old Testament law consistently applies "eye for an eye"  to the unborn as well as adults.

In addition to God's law, the American legal tradition carries its own justifications for furnishing the unborn with legal protection. However, opponents of such protection consistently raise the specter of "government invasion of privacy" in order to end such discussions. 

In fact, one of the central fallacies surrounding the abortion debate concerns the use of the word "privacy." For decades, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws and other pro-abortion advocates have sold abortion by billing it as "a private decision between a woman and her doctor." In fact, in the written majority opinion of Roe v. Wade, Justice Harry Blackmun made multiple references to Roe's "right to privacy."

The supreme irony, of course, is that the "right to privacy" was lauded by the same Supreme Court majority which imposed abortion on demand by judicial decree across the United States. The fact of the matter is that there is nothing private about abortion, whether legalized or not. Prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion was a matter of state law; after Roe, it became a national legal issue.

As the Fifth Amendment declares that US citizens shall not be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," it is simply not possible for the government to remain neutral on the issue of abortion--whether the federal government outlaws abortion, retains Roe v. Wade, or allows the states to craft their own abortion laws, the federal government will have a profound influence on the issue.

Rule of law is predicated on equal protection that is extended to all quarters of the population; certainly no subset of society is more vulnerable or more in need of legal protection than the unborn. 

Though science, religion, and the legal code often find themselves on the opposite sides of a multitude of disagreements, there is an unusual degree of clarity in the synthesis found on the issue of abortion.

The procedure itself is nothing less than the termination of human life.

God's law and our own consciences demand action.

Our government is bound by its own mandate to enact a shift in policy.