{"id":201004,"date":"2019-04-30T06:50:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T11:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=201004"},"modified":"2019-04-29T01:26:38","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T06:26:38","slug":"lack-truth-logic-common-ground-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lack-truth-logic-common-ground-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of truth and logic makes finding common ground on abortion difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On April 23rd, the Des Moines Register published an opinion piece titled,\u00a0\u201cPro-life and pro-choice advocates can work together to reduce abortion.\u201d<\/a> The author, Timothy Olson, claims to be engaged in a good-faith attempt to find the middle ground on abortion<\/a>. Despite his professed objectivity, Olson\u2019s piece has several inaccuracies and misleading assertions about key questions surrounding the issue of abortion and human life in the womb. As a result, some of his core conclusions fail to stand up to scrutiny.<\/p>\n

#1: “<\/b>I came to believe that conception was a biological, not spiritual, event and that abortion in the first 20 weeks was the moral equivalent of contraception. In preventing a person, abortion and contraception were exactly the same.”<\/b><\/p>\n

Olson does not offer a satisfying explanation of why a preborn baby less than 20 weeks is comparable to a non-person that can be \u201cprevented.” He rationalizes his position by claiming that ensoulment — the moment in which a human being gains a soul — is what alone grants the baby rights. Yet this is an unnecessary — not to mention non-scientific — over-complication of the question of when life begins. As Secular Pro-Life<\/a> points out in responding to a similar argument, there is no need to appeal to theology:<\/p>\n

This question absolutely has a scientific<\/a> answer<\/a>. Embryology textbooks state that a new human organism exists upon formation of a zygote. This organism has a continuous life cycle which will eventually end at death. You, as a human organism, were once a zygote. In a biological sense, that’s when your life began.<\/em><\/p>\n

Olson\u2019s flawed logic also extends to his 20 weeks claim. What changes at 20 weeks to make abortion suddenly go from not wrong to wrong? He presents no evidence or facts to support his assertion. Though claiming to respect biology, Olson ignores all the biological signs of human life that we have found, thanks to advances in neonatal science, including that preborn babies\u2019 heartbeats starts as early as three weeks<\/a> after conception, brainwaves start around six weeks<\/a>, and research shows they may even feel pain as early as eight weeks<\/a>. On close examination, his belief about when abortion should or should not be permissible is nothing more than that: an unfounded belief.<\/p>\n