I came upon
this article about a pro-life rally in Sioux City Iowa. It mentioned the presence of Melissa Ohden, who said that she had survived an abortion attempt in the womb.
Curious to learn more about her story, I googled her name on the internet and
found her blog. It's a very personal story.
In one post, she tells of how she learned the truth from her adoptive mother when she was age 14:
Nothing could have prepared me for the words that came next; not an ounce of my being could have ever fathomed the great secret that the world around me had harbored the past 14 years of my life. “Your mother had an abortion during her fifth month of pregnancy, and you survived it.”
All at once the wind was sucked out of my lungs and my stomach turned sour. Tears streaming, cries racking my body, my mother consoled me that night, and our lives were forever changed.
Supporters of Legal Abortion (SOLAS for short) want to make some kind of distinction between the human being at the fetal stage, and at the post-natal stage, as if the two stages made the baby into two entirely different creatures.
The way they attempt to frame the issue goes something like this:
Before birth, Melissa Ohden did not exist.
After birth, Melissa Ohden existed.
As if her body were an entirely different body.
Now of course, we're looking at this from the post-natal perspective. From the pre-natal perspective, SOLAS speak as if the fetus were a
nobody because he has no consciousness or any number of characterisits because they do not know
and cannot know that unborn child.
But Melissa Ohden was not a
nobody in the womb. She was simply waiting to
be known.
Just because she did not have consciousness at the time of the abortion
doesn't mean she did not exist.
In the same way, just because a fetus does not possess the characteristics of a newborn does not mean he's not fully human with his own
personal identity. True, that personal identity is not known. But the fact that it is not known does not mean that that that unborn child does not have his own uniqueness, his own inherent likeness.
SOLAs often consciousness the defining characteristic of whether or not a fetus is a person, i.e. equal to born human beings.
But here's the point: the reality of human existence, humanity and human identity
does not depend on anyone's consciousness.
It does not depend on the fetus' consciousness.
It does not depend on society's acknowledgement.
It does not depend on the mother's acknowledgement.
Once a fetus exists, a distinct individual, with his unique characteristics, exists.
As the old cliche goes, a fetus is not a potential human, but a human with potential.
Every potential is different.
The way some SOLAs speak of the fetus, it's as if he's this interchangeable glob.
The attitude seems to be: you've seen one fetus, you seen them all.
But that's not true.
The unborn are just as distinct as any born human beings.
Even pregnant moms can know the truth of this. Babies don't all kick the same way in the womb. Some babies are stretchers-- long, drawn out kicks. Some might be compared to soccer players, and other little ninjas with non-stop action.
All fetuses are different.
When the mother was "ending her pregnancy", she was not just putting an end to an undesired state. She was taking action to end the life of a specific human individual.
That's what some SOLAs don't seem to realize.
In Canada, every year, over 100 000 human individuals are killed.
SOLAs treat them like human waste, or "blobs of tissue". In fact, they fall back on calling them "zygotes" or "clump of cells" without any regard to the fetus' individuality.
They cannot come to grips with that individuality. They must dehumanize the unborn.
That individuality exists at all stages-- from the zygote to birth and beyond.
Melissa Ohden was Melissa Ohden at the zygote stage. At the blastocyst stage. At the embryo stage and the fetal stage. It's just that the world did not know it.
She was the same being at birth.
They are all one and the same.
The thing about abortion is that we don't get to see who was actually aborted. Melissa Ohden was lucky. She survived. We can look around on her site and see what she's all about.
But there have been millions and millions of individuals who have been lost. We never got to see them. They are just as distinct as Melissa Ohden.
They are nameless, faceless, anonymous. It's easier to kill when you consider that the being killed is an embryo, and not a distinct person.
I think that's one reason why showing abortion-minded women an ultrasound often changes their mind about abortion. Not only do they see the humanity of the unborn, they implicitly sense that
that baby is an individual.
Not some abstract concept.
Not some tissue.
But someone with an identity, the human essence waiting to be known and loved.
SOLAs often attribute negative ulterior motives to pro-lifers. They are as certain as any fundamentalist that supporting fetal rights is about controlling women.
I believe that some of them cannot see it any other way because they would have to confront the humanity of the fetus and the logic of opposing his
human rights.
If SOLAs were to acknowledge the individuality and the humanity of the unborn, they would come to the unbearable conclusion that they were promoting the widescale slaughter of human beings, just like in variuos genocidal regimes.
They must maintain the belief that fetuses are all the same; they are no more than a clump of tissue and organic processes that possess nothing distinctive or worthy about them.
If people really come to know who and what a fetus is, and maintain that all human beings are worthy, they cannot support legal abortion.
That's why SOLAs just about never confront the reality of the fetus or the nature of abortion.
They'd have to confront ideas like the fact that Melissa Ohden almost died because of them.
It's too unbearable.
