Debate: should abortion be banned
Side: abortion should be banned

“For You created my inmost being;You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in a secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16. God created you, He created me, and He has created everybody. Life is a gift. Nobody has a right to take away that gift. Life starts at conception. Mother Teresa said "What is taking place in America is a war against the child … And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another." This war against the child is abortion. If I tell a pregnant woman she can kill her baby, why can't I tell a man that it is alright to murder a three year-old. What is the difference between killing a baby nine weeks after conception and murdering a child nine weeks after birth? During the Holocaust, approximately 11 million people were killed between 1933 till 1945. These people include Jews, homosexuals, Slavics (Russians, Poles, and others), Gypsies, mentally and physically disabled, Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Christians found helping the targeted people. That was fifty years ago and today Hitler and the Nazis are known as criminals and mass murderers. But why are the doctors who perform abortions not called criminals or mass murderers? From 1973 to 2005, over 46 million abortions have been performed. This is much higher death rate than from the Holocaust. For abortion the approximate death rate is 1.4 million babies each year. The approximate death rate for the Holocaust, however, is about 917 thousand people a year. The Nazis targeted the people they did because they believed they were inferior to themselves. Women who have abortions kill their babies because they believe that they are superior to these children. To this day, Germans have collective shame because of what the Nazis did, even though they did nothing to help. In fifty years will Americans have collective shame because so many abortions were performed? Will Americans be known as mass murderers and criminals?  Dr. Richard Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission,said "We lose more babies through abortion every year than the total fatalities in all of the wars in which we have ever participated, commencing with the French and Indian War and including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, and Gulf War II.” In 2005 1.2 million abortions were performed. Even though this number is the lowest since 1974, this is still too many abortions. Every twenty seconds a child is aborted. Fifty-six percent of women who have abortions are in their twenties and sixty-one percent of women who have abortions have one or more children. According to Guttmacher Institute, the reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner. Many pro-choice posters say “My Body. My Right.” Woman don't take into consideration that their decision to have an abortion affects not only their body, but the unborn babies. Jeremiah 1:5 says "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” The Lord knew you, even before conception!  Women who have abortions are only thinking about themselves. What have they forgotten? Have not considered that this baby is a living person? Three weeks after conception a baby has a heartbeat and at four and a half months she can experience pain. By nine weeks, he has begun to develop blood vessels, eyes, lungs, ears, arms, legs, mouth, nose, the color of his eyes, fingers, toes, brain, joints, teeth, spinal cord, nervous system, and facial muscles. He can also hiccup frown, squint, turn his head, touch his face, breath (without air), stretch, and yawn. He is well proportioned, about the size of a thumb, and every organ is present. Exodus 21: 22-25 says “If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” But instead of condemning women who have made this choice, we should come to them with compassion, offering them help. After a woman has an abortion, her initial response in most cases is a feeling of relief. Then, with repression and denial, she avoids the problem, usually for years —5 years is common, 10 or 20 not unusual. Guilt, regret, remorse, shame, lowered self-esteem, dreams and nightmares, flash-backs, anniversary reactions, hostility toward men, crying, despair, and even suicide attempts are symptoms of Post-Abortion Syndrome. Many women turn to drugs and alcohol as a way of masking the pain. Anniversary reactions are an increase in symptoms around the time of the anniversary of the abortion, the due date of the aborted child, or both. We should also inform women who are considering abortion about the procedure and effects of abortion and other options such as adoption. Crisis Pregnancy Centers can be found in most metropolitan areas. Many Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Illinois metropolitan areas offer pregnancy tests, ultrasound services, adoption plans, parenting education, clothing rooms, and post-abortion help. According to Hope Pregnancy Ministries ninety percent of abortion-minded women choose life after seeing their ultrasound. Luke 1:42-44 says “In a loud voice Elizabeth exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” When Mary enters Elizabeth's house, John, an unborn baby, leaps for joy because he is in the presence of the Christ, another unborn baby. Dr. James I. Lamb, executive director of Lutherans For Life, said “Both Mary and Elizabeth experienced an ‘unplanned’ pregnancy. Both their babies were still in their wombs. Both trusted God in seemingly impossible situations." That the Christ would become a baby shows just how sacred life is.