Today marks the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion for all nine months of pregnancy. We should be alarmed that some students this week are celebrating a decision that allows abortion until the very end of fetal development.
Last year, Northwestern Students for Life (NSFL) raised awareness of the exceedingly high number of abortions each day in the United States by displaying thousands of American flags along Sheridan Road. We are pleased to report that this number has decreased since last year to 3,300 each day, but are saddened to note that 20 percent of all pregnancies still end in abortion.
This year, we hope to demonstrate why even one abortion is tragic.
Unfortunately, society appears to be at an impasse. "Pro-choice" advocates ask how anyone could object to a woman's right to choose abortion while "pro-life" proponents ask how a procedure so gruesome could be performed at all.
We instead want to ask, "What is being chosen?"
If the fetus is simply a clump of undifferentiated cells, then no one should get in the way of a woman's personal choice. If the fetus is a human being, however, then the abortion debate is a civil rights issue of the highest order. Depriving any person the right to life without due process of law is a grave legal and moral injustice.
How, then, do we know the fetus is a human being?
In Monday's Daily, the College Feminists' treasurer described aborted fetuses as "dead babies" ("Anniversary refocuses issue"). What the College Feminists' spokesperson considers to be a termination of human life is a truth we all must consider.
Last year in these pages, NSFL outlined the scientific case for life: that, after seven weeks, the fetus has the full presence of all organ systems, a unique DNA, a working nervous system, and, yes, a beating heart.
And what kind of status does this life deserve? Prenatal care and standard medical texts such as "The Unborn Patient: The Art and Science of Fetal Therapy" acknowledge that the fetus is a patient. Even federal law recognizes a "child in utero" - allowing a murder of a pregnant woman to be tried for two federal crimes instead of one. Are we surprised when an expecting mother who sees an ultrasound calls what is inside her a "baby"?
2008 Woodie Awards
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Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 35
Julia
posted 1/22/08 @ 6:38 PM CST
Perhaps the women choosing to continue their pregnancies after viewing an ultrasound do so because the crisis pregnancy centers coerce them. These centers are notorious for falsely advertising and fail to provide women with ALL of their available options. (Continued…)
Nikolia Rallis
posted 1/22/08 @ 10:45 PM CST
After a women leaves a crisis pregnancy, does she not then have the choice to go to an abortion clinic and terminate her pregnancy? Perhaps women who see the ultrasound choose to continue their pregnancy because they see the humanity and beauty of the child within them. (Continued…)
Matt
posted 1/23/08 @ 12:37 PM CST
Wow. I must have missed the transition of the Daily from reputable student newspaper to pile of inflammatory conservative bullshit.
I hope Students For Life have to face Roe v. (Continued…)
DON ALBERTSON
posted 1/23/08 @ 2:17 PM CST
WHY DONT WE CUT THRU ALL THE "LIBBERAL BS," AND GET TO THE MESSAGE TAHT NSFL, R TRYING TO MAKE - ABORTION IS BABYKILLING, AND BABYKILLING IS A SIN, AGAINST JESUS CHRIST. (Continued…)
AH03
posted 1/23/08 @ 2:29 PM CST
Matt, why does the pro-life argument make you so upset? For the most part, that point of view has been thoughtfully presented and defended. So has the pro-choice side. (Continued…)
Jojo
posted 1/23/08 @ 4:34 PM CST
"A human life begins when a diploid complement of human DNA is initiated to begin human development. Therefore, a life can be initiated by the fusion of sperm and egg or by the introduction of a diploid nucleus into an enucleated egg (i. (Continued…)
AH03
posted 1/23/08 @ 8:17 PM CST
Matt, I have been anything but coy, and I have very purposefully avoided making religious statements or inferences of any kind. Please do not mislead people as to the nature of my comments here. (Continued…)
Matt
posted 1/23/08 @ 10:38 PM CST
At the end of the day, it's impossible to have an intellectual debate about abortion. It all comes down to people's beliefs about the meaning of life and when life begins. (Continued…)
Eric
posted 1/25/08 @ 1:54 AM CST
I agree with Ashley 100%.
My personal feelings:
I am pro-life because I think the possible reprecussions of aborting a fetus (you might be killing a person) are worse than the certain reprecussions of not aborting one (a woman has to go through 9 months of pregnancy, labor, etc. (Continued…)
Matt
posted 1/25/08 @ 10:01 AM CST
"There are many important issues in the abortion debate, and the question of when life begins is one of them, though it is hardly the only one. This issue is a philosophical/religious issue. (Continued…)
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