{"id":317726,"date":"2024-08-27T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T19:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=317726"},"modified":"2024-09-20T16:01:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T21:01:15","slug":"top-myths-debunked-human-prenatal-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/top-myths-debunked-human-prenatal-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Myths DEBUNKED: Human prenatal development"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Over the years, one of the biggest ways that abortion advocates have been able to convince people that the violence of abortion is necessary and good<\/em> is by dehumanizing the preborn child, simply because he lives inside his mother’s womb. Thankfully, as science and medical technology have advanced, so has our understanding of that hidden life and prenatal development.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the biggest myths the abortion industry peddles about preborn human life and prenatal development \u2014 and what’s really<\/em> happening in the womb.<\/p>\n

Myth #1: A child in the womb is just a \u2018clump of cells.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The truth<\/strong>: From fertilization, the child grows quickly. Though the child has few cells at his or her beginning, those cells are doing important work. At the moment of fertilization<\/a>, the preborn child is already entirely distinct from his mother. His sex, ethnicity, hair color, eye color, and other traits have already been decided, and his DNA is unique from his mother\u2019s and father\u2019s.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

One of the biggest tactics abortion advocates use to assuage abortion-minded women is telling them that the child in the womb is just a \u201cclump of cells.\u201d This argument is easily refuted by the images of children who have been miscarried or aborted \u2014 tiny hands, arms, fingers, and toes quickly dispel any doubt that the child is anything but fully human. <\/span><\/p>\n

Live Action\u2019s I Saw My Baby<\/a> campaign shares stories of women who were duped into believing their children were nothing but clumps of cells, and then were shocked and horrified to witness the tiny human who was expelled during the chemical abortion procedure.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A miscarriage at 12 weeks of pregnancy (gestational), 10 weeks post-fertilization – Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the <\/span>Endowment for Human Development<\/span><\/a>, a preborn child’s kidneys are formed five weeks after fertilization, brain waves can be measured as early as six weeks post-fertilization, and he can respond to touch by seven weeks after fertilization. <\/span><\/p>\n

This rapid-fire development continues throughout pregnancy, as the tiny cells of the embryo miraculously grow into the fully-formed infant ready to welcome the world on the day of his birth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Myth #2: The preborn child\u2019s heartbeat is just ‘manufactured sound.’<\/strong><\/p>\n

The truth<\/strong><\/em>: The <\/span>medical textbook<\/span><\/a> \u201cLarsen\u2019s Human Embryology\u201d states, \u201cThe heart is the first functioning organ in humans. It begins beating rhythmically as early as day 22 and pumps blood by days 24 to 25.\u201d A number of physicians verify this fact<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

As ‘heartbeat laws’ take hold across the nation, so has the claim that preborn children don\u2019t have heartbeats \u2014 and that any sound picked up on Doppler is \u201cmanufactured.\u201d However, t<\/span>hough Doppler technology often can\u2019t pick up the sounds of the preborn child\u2019s heartbeat until around six weeks gestation (four weeks post-fertilization), science shows that the child\u2019s heart actually begins beating much earlier, just about three weeks after fertilization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe narrative that embryos don\u2019t have heartbeats at six weeks\u2019 gestation is a blatant example of misinformation that can be corrected by studying basic embryology,\u201d Dr. Donna Harrison, CEO of the <\/span>American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians Gynecologists<\/a>, told <\/span>Live Action News<\/span><\/a> in 2022. \u201cIn fact, at six weeks\u2019 gestation, the embryonic heart rhythmically contracts to pump blood through its arteries, which flows to the placenta to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. To call this anything other than a beating heart is dishonest, and serves only to dehumanize preborn people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n