Web Letters: Misjudging Women

Women,

I respect your right to choose whether to bring a child into this world. It is a fundamental right that under normal circumstances all women deserve. That being said, your right to choose in normal circumstances stops when you decide to have sex. If you are not ready to have a child or do not want one, then don't make the mistake of having sex, because while you may think that it is all about pleasure, it was actually intended for procreation (i.e., creating new life). It was intended to be used in marriage between two loving parents willing to nurture and love their children. The act of aborting a child has been stated as many things, but the most important and often overlooked fact is that it is a form of murder, or as in the case of the countries who allow it like the United States, genocide. Some of you may feel that birth is when the child's right to life begins, and I respect your opinion, but I ask; How do you define life? Dictionary.com and numerous other dictionaries define it as such: 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.

The one common point I would like to emphasize is growth. Everything that is alive grows. Life does not start when something has grown for nine months but at the exact moment when growth starts. Just as a plant grows, so does a child. A plant starts as a seed that is planted in the ground and watered. By itself the seed yields no growth, but with the water it starts to sprout. The moment water touches the seed it begins to grow. It may not be visually evident yet, but the seed has begun life. Most scientists would agree that a plant is alive before you can even see it come out of the ground, because it is growing and adapting and still needs nourishment to survive. This is the same as a child. As soon as the mother and father, no matter who they are or how they came together, have sexual intercourse and the sperm fertilizes the egg, the growth and life begins. The unborn child still needs the nourishment of its mother to survive, which illustrates growth even more. If the unborn child were not alive, then what happened to the mother would not affect him or her. We see this with mothers who smoke and do drugs, it has an adverse effect on the children. It can hinder growth and consequently other development such as brain function. Pregnant mothers have cravings for a reason, the child in their womb needs much of the nourishment's the mothers bring in so they must get back what their body lacks from feeding both of them.

I would like to leave you with a few thoughts. The federal and state governments and Supreme Courts recognize that life begins well before birth. They have ruled it as such many times and no one has had much argument about it. The dictionary defines murder as the killing of one human being by another. As recently as the Laci Peterson Trial, the state of California ruled that Scott Peterson was guilty of a double murder when he killed his wife and their son who was still in her womb. Scott Peterson appealed, but it was upheld by the state of California. This is not the only time a pregnant woman has been murdered and the defendant charged with double murder, therefore the government has ruled that life begins before birth. The final thought I would like to leave you with is this: If your mother and fathers had decided to abort you, just think how different the world would be. Every person makes a contribution, just think if the beautiful child that was just aborted (over 3,200 abortions occur everyday in the United States) would have cured AIDS, cancer or solved the financial problems of the United States. Ninety-three percent of all US abortions were cited because the child is inconvenient or unwanted.

Sixty-five percent of women who have an abortion have never been married. Fifty-two percent of abortions in the US are for women aged 25 and below. (These statistics based on research by The Center for Disease Control and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.)

Paul Pierce

Prince William County, VA