When Does Life Begin?

When does life begin?

Human fertilization occurs with the joining of a human egg and a human sperm cell. Most human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, making a total of 46. (Chromosomes contain coils of DNA, the chemical that carries genetic information.) Human gametes (sperm or egg cells) have only one set of 23 chromosomes. When fertilization occurs, a zygote is formed. This fertilized egg contains 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent. Because egg and sperm cells go through a process called Recombination where DNA is swapped around, every fertilized egg is unique (with the exception of identical twins). The single cell zygote contains all of the information necessary to turn that one cell into a complex organism.

When you were a zygote, that cell was YOU! If that zygote had been destroyed, YOU would have been destroyed. Allowed to grow, that zygote would not become anything but YOU. YOU began at fertilization.

Abortion destroys a human being. Continue to cry out to God to end the atrocity of abortion in our nation.

May God have mercy on our nation.

In the Image of God

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:27) "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7) All human life is valuable because God has attached value to human beings. This means that not only is the unborn human precious; precious, too, is the life of the abortionist. We in the pro-life movement often transfer our disgust with the act of abortion to the abortionist. Our battle is not against the one doing the abortion; our battle is with the enemy of God who wants to devalue human life. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12) Continue to pray for an end to legalized abortion; continue to pray for the rescue of those babies headed to the slaughter; continue to pray for a change of heart in those doing abortions. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit..."(Ephesians 6:18)

May God have mercy on our nation.
United to Stop Abortion

Freedom Ride for Life

On May 4, 1961, in an effort to force the Kennedy administration to support the Civil Rights Movement, an interracial group of Freedom Riders boarded a bus in Washington, D.C., and began a journey to New Orleans. Rather than following the rules of the day in which white passengers took the front seats and black passengers took the back seats, the white Freedom Riders sat in the back of the bus and the black Freedom Riders sat in the front. At rest stops, the black Freedom Riders used the "Whites Only" areas and the white Freedom Riders the areas designated for blacks. The journey was peaceful until the bus reached Alabama. Anticipating problems, the Freedom Riders divided into two groups. The first group was attacked by a mob in Anniston. The bus ended up being firebombed. Members of the second group were beaten in Birmingham. Sympathetic people came to continue the ride, but renewed violence prevented riders from reaching New Orleans. However, the Freedom Ride was successful in that it forced the Kennedy Administration to take a stand in favor of civil rights for all people.

Recognizing the need to bring attention to the plight of babies being aborted in the United States, Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is leading another Freedom Ride, seeking "to transform the culture of death into the culture of life" (see lifenews.com). King is joining with the Priests for Life in leading not only the Freedom Ride, but also a prayer campaign, music fest, and other events to be held in cities across the United States. For a list of events that have been planned, see the Priests for Life website. May God use these human efforts for His glory and stop the destruction of unborn life created in His image.

May God have mercy on our nation.
United to Stop Abortion

Elena Kagan and Abortion

When seeking confirmation for the office of solicitor general in 2009, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan filled out a 51-page questionnaire for the Senate Judiciary Committee in which she was asked to list the organizations to which she belonged or participated in since she was graduated from law school. She wrote the following:

"In a questionnaire I submitted to the Senate in connection with a judicial nomination in 1999, I listed membership in the National Partnership for Women and Families as a result of charitable contributions. I have no current memory of whether such contributions ever made me a member of this organization." (The Wall Street Journal).

The National Partnership for Women and Families, whose president calls Kagan "a superb and brilliant choice" for the Supreme Court(National Partnership), is a defender of women's access to "reproductive health services", a euphemism that includes access to abortion. Note the following statements taken from nationalpartnership.org:

"The National Partnership celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, helps New Jersey become the third state to provide paid leave, and plays a critical defensive role in stopping some of the harmful Bush Administration changes to the Family & Medical Leave Act and regulations affecting women's access to reproductive health services."

"What a difference a year makes! The National Partnership helps lead coalition efforts that result in significant victories, such as enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Children Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, repeal of the global gag rule, and passage of economic security and health information technology provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."

"We also engage in Supreme Court cases that involve discrimination, sexual harassment, a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health decisions, equal and full application of the Family & Medical Leave Act, and other critical issues."

"Federal judges determine whether companies will be penalized for failing to stop discrimination or sexual harassment, whether workers qualify for time off under the Family & Medical Leave Act, or whether women will have access to the reproductive care they need."

"Our goal is to ensure that the courts operate fairly and free of bias, and are not used to turn back the clock on women’s progress."

The media has been lamenting the fact that Kagan has a short paper trail (i.e. US News and World Report). With little, if any, written words concerning her beliefs on abortion, Kagan can avoid taking a stand on this controversial issue during her confirmation hearings by speaking political double talk. So how do we know her position on abortion? Look at where she has contributed her money. The National Partnership for Women and Families is a supporter of women's reproductive freedom. No where on their website did I see concern expressed for the unborn. Kagan's monetary contributions speak for themselves.

May God have mercy on our nation.
United to Stop Abortion

Breast Cancer/Abortion Link?

Does having an abortion increase one's chances of breast cancer? Planned Parenthood says, "No. No. No. No. No. There is no truth to this at all. It is one of those nasty myths invented by anti-choice organizations to frighten women away from having an abortion. Two years ago, the federal government put together a team of researchers to review the many studies that have been done on this over the years. They decided that there were flaws in the studies that linked abortion and breast cancer. The best studies, including one of 1.5 million women in Denmark, have found no link between cancer and abortion — none."

Does having an abortion increase one's chances of breast cancer? "Medical News Today" reports that "An April 2009 study by Jessica Dolle et al. of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center examining the relationship between oral contraceptives (OCs) and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in women under age 45 contained an admission from U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) researcher Louise Brinton and her colleagues (including Janet Daling) that abortion raises breast cancer risk by 40%."

Contradictory "evidence" abounds proving there is/is not a connection between breast cancer and abortion. So what is the answer? According to Dr. Joel Brind of Baruch Medical College, "...the public has little awareness of the extent to which medical research is politicized. The mantra 'Keep abortion safe and legal,' is at this point deeply ingrained, to the point where both the profession and the media ignore and suppress evidence of the risks associated with abortion." Dr. Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., states in "The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons" that "Sorting out the science and truth of the matter is of the utmost importance so that relevant informed consent information can be provided to women considering an abortion. Consensus and political correctness must not inhibit the open discussion and evaluation of the scientific data." Setting aside the moral considerations of abortion, there is ample evidence to sustain reasonable concern about a link between abortion and breast cancer. Organizations that claim to care about women's reproductive health issues should provide all available information concerning abortion and breast cancer, and then let patients themselves decide if they want to take this risk.

May God have mercy on our nation.
United to Stop Abortion

Battle of Public Funding of Abortion Moves to States

Although the Nelson-Reid Compromise to the health care reform legislation did not prohibit federal funding of abortion, it did specify that “A state may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange in such State if such State enacts a law to provide for such a prohibition.” (Newsweek). On April 24, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law SB 1305, making Arizona the first state to officially opt out of including abortion in the federally mandated state health insurance exchange. Today, Tennessee became the second. House Bill 2681/Senate Bill 2686 became law (see capitol.tn.gov) without the signature of Governor Bredesen. Although he did not sign the legislation which was passed by the Tennessee General Assembly, abortion supporter Bredesen did not veto the bill. Americans United for Life has developed a program, The Federal Abortion-Mandate Opt-Out Act, to help state legislators in opting out of abortion coverage in the state health exchanges. They report that 29 states have already introduced or are planning to introduce opt-out legislation. Please pray that your state legislature will follow suit.

May God have mercy on our nation.
United to Stop Abortion

Is Wrong Ever Right?

In 1961, Leonard Hayflick, an employee of Wistar Institute (a research division of the University of Pennsylvania) concluded that fetal cell lines had great potential in the production of vaccines. Dr. Sven Gard of Stockholm, Sweden, who had supplied Hayflick with fetuses for his research, hand picked a fetus from healthy parents with no family history of disease or cancer to send to Hayflick for vaccine production. Lung tissue from this fetus, a female at 3-months gestation, was used to produce the WI-38 human diploid cell line. Around 1970, MRC-5, a second human diploid cell line, was established in Great Britain by the Medical Research Council. The fetal lung cells used in this line came from a male at 14-weeks gestation. These two cell lines continue to thrive in laboratory conditions today.

In order to produce a viral vaccine, scientists need to grow large quantities of the specific virus. Almost all viruses need to be placed in living cells to reproduce. For several decades, scientists have used cell lines WI-38 and MRC-5, lines developed from aborted fetuses, to prepare hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines. Of the vaccinations recommended by the CDC in the United States, the following are usually derived from cell lines from aborted fetuses:

Polio
Measles, Mumps, Rubella
Varicella-Chickenpox
Hepatitis-A

Human cell lines have proven to be effective cultures for the production of vaccines, but biotechnology holds much promise for producing vaccines without using human cells. However, unless pharmaceutical companies are pressured, they will not underwrite the cost of developing an alternative culture. As Christians, we must make our objection to the use of aborted fetuses in vaccine production heard. Wrong is never right.

Sources: Children of God for Life; ViroMed Laboratories; National Network for Immunization Information; Laurence F. Roberge, M.S.; American Life League;

May God have mercy on our nation.
United to Stop Abortion