By Dave Andrusko
Without fail, the categories of posts on National Right to Life News Today that receive the most reader response are those especially adroit at combining appeals to the head and to the heart. They come in a variety of packages, limited only by the creator’s creativity.
There are those that illustrate that most miraculous process–how you and I each started out the same but ended up each unique. And then there are pro-life music videos. Here’s an example of the latter: “The case against abortion: prenatal development.”
Only 3 minutes and eleven seconds long, the video borrows from many of the finest resources—in print and online—to create a fast-paced, riveting, and absolutely convincing case against abortion.
With a pulsating music score in the background, a question flashes across the screen: “At what point does it become wrong to intentionally abort a developing human being?”
Options range from conception through birth.
We see a snapshot of a Gallup poll where 2/3rds support a first-trimester abortion but only 10% support a third-trimester abortion. Why the discrepancy?
Because the former “kills a baby” while a first trimester abortion “kills a bunch of cells….”
Or does it?”
The remainder of the video races through a highly entertaining, richly informative/persuasive tour conclusively demonstrating the developmental continuity of human beings whose maturation unfolds just the way it is supposed to–unless he or she is aborted.
“The case against abortion: prenatal development” begins with a quick perusal of the prenatal photography taken by the late Lennart Nilsson in his classic, “A Child is Born.” We see in these photos the developmental milestones and how remarkably intricate the child is even in the first weeks.
Next to flash on a screen is that statement, “Nucleus [Medical] Media creates award winning medical illustrations.” Now we are shown the unborn as if her mother’s body is translucent. Again, it is remarkable how developmentally sophisticated the child is even in the first trimester.
“On the outside chance you’re still envisioning the first trimester embryos and fetuses as shapeless clumps of tissue…” we are then introduced to “The biology of prenatal development.”
This documentary utilizes six different imaging technologies to give you unforgettable images of the growing baby at the embryonic and fetal stages. The breath-taking real-time pictures detail the human embryo in the first three weeks. Without thinking, you have absorbed another lesson in early prenatal development, including the fact that six weeks, embryos have measurable brain impulses.
Then the first of two key truths wrap up, “The case against abortion: prenatal development.”
“They may not look like a baby yet, but they look exactly as a human being should look, 21 days after conception.”
To finish the point, we see highlighted text from Geraldine Lux Flanagan’s book, “Beginning Life” that reads,
“In the hours of conception, every aspect of the genetic inheritance for the new individual will be determined once and for all.”
The inescapable conclusion?
“At any stage of pregnancy abortion kills a rapidly developing, genetically distinct human being.”
Do yourself a big favor and watch, “The case against abortion: prenatal development.”
And please send me links to pro-life videos that you particularly like at daveandrusko@gmail.com.