The conservative Catholic view is that life begins when the sperm cell fertilizes the ovum or egg cell, which is the most logical. Human life begins when the fertilized egg starts to multiply and grow on its own. Then can we say that life has begun. Its growth towards a fetus starts there. This means killing the fetus from fertilization is abortion, the murder of an unborn baby.
The US Federal and State laws think otherwise. They peg the start of life to when the human heartbeat begins, which is arbitrary, varying from State to State, from 2 weeks to 6 weeks to 20. So, in the US, they are allowed to legally kill a fetus before it attains a heartbeat, which is contested by the Church.
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August 29, 2023 – Archives tr396
By Bernie V. Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com
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The Catholic Church has not issued a formal pronouncement on when human life begins, because it is an issue which has both religious and scientific implications. The Vatican fears to make an absolute statement open to attack from scientists, afraid to make a blunder of a premature pronouncement.
The State Law of Iowa says that abortion is banned six weeks after fertilization, which is the normal time it takes for the fetus to have a heartbeat or to start ‘cardiac activity’, according to newsmax-com, July 14, 2023. The “Texas Heartbeat Act” gives the same period of six weeks when the heartbeat is detected. Texas is the pioneer, the first to promulgate an anti-abortion law. The Iowa-Texas precedent, in a way, throws a monkey wrench on the campaign against abortion.
To say that abortion is banned only after six weeks of fertilization, and abortion ALLOWED before the six weeks, is a dangerous statement, according to anti-abortion advocates, especially if indeed there is human life even before heartbeat is detected. Other States started the ban on abortion anywhere from 15 to 20 weeks after fertilization, hinting that the period has become ‘arbitrary’, and open to debate. The Roe versus Wade precedent reversed by the Supreme Court set the ban at 23 weeks after fertilization.
The safest and most logical policy in order not to murder unborn babies is to say that life begins at fertilization. This is the best theological response to the scientists based on the logic that ‘on its own’, the fetus starts to grow, which is hard for science to dispute, because it implies it is ‘alive’.
It is therefore better for Texas, Iowa and other States with the same provision to amend its abortion laws in order to ‘plug the hole’ of ambiguity. This may be hard to achieve if the pro-abortion advocates contest the amendment.
And it is also better for the Vatican to finally make a definitive stand on the matter soonest, to settle the ambiguity, by stating the theological fact that life begins when the fetus starts to grow on its own.
Meanwhile, while the Church dilly-dallies, In the absence of a Church statement, the faithful is allowed on its own to believe what it wants. Until the Vatican makes up its mind, we are in limbo and it is a free for all of varying beliefs when human life really begins, which makes the law on abortion ban weak and half baked.
Other Legal Aspects of Abortion Laws.
Let us talk about the US situation since it has the greatest number of abortions worldwide. The US legal system is fragmented, making abortion prevalent even within existing bans. Before the start of varying State Laws for or against abortion, the abortion ban covered the entire US nation because of the landmark Supreme Court decision over the Roe versus Wade case (1973). It was reversed by the US Supreme Court after 59 years and about 60 million legal abortions, labelled by anti-abortion as ‘tantamount to genocide’.
The legal fragmentation is a blessing in disguise, however, since many States, especially dominated by Republicans, started promulgating their State laws banning abortion. There was a noticeable shift into anti-abortion. As of July 2022, 13 States had anti-abortion laws, 18 had legalized abortion, and 15 were perceived to shift to anti-abortion. If this shift is realized, anti-abortion will be the predominant US legal trend. Today, there is an ongoing war in Federal versus State Legislatures.
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