The question of life, and more specifically the beginning of life, is something that human beings have wrestled over for centuries. But in recent decades, after the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, it’s taken on new meaning and intensity.
When it comes to a preborn baby in the womb, when does their life begin? Is it at the moment of conception? When a mother feels her baby kick for the first time? Is it when the preborn baby can feel pain? Or is it the moment when they can survive outside the womb?
Focus on the Family provides an answer from physicians and others during its new See Life 2021 six-part video series, culminating in a live event from Dallas, Texas. In the series, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly sits down at a table with members and advocates of the pro-life movement from around the country.
Each episode will focus on answering questions about the pro-life movement and how to get involved.
“It’s not really a matter of when life begins,” Dr. William Lile, D.O., FACOG said on the first episode. “It’s a matter of when does new life begin.
“You have a living sperm from the dad that gets together with a living egg from the mom, and they create a new life. Life begets life. And there’s no doubt, scientifically, embryologically from the obstetric standpoint, life, new life, begins at the moment of conception.”
Dr. Lile then goes into some detail about how an embryo develops.
“It’s not just life, it’s new life. Life that is unique from mom. Life that is unique from dad. It’s just a miracle,” Dr. Lile explains.
If that’s true, then abortion is the killing of a child, plain and simple.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize that every single one of these abortions ends a beating heart,” Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, told the roundtable.
“And the abortion is only successful if a heart stops beating.”
When abortion was first legalized in 1973, life inside the womb was a vague notion to most physicians and researchers. Many believed that preborn babies were merely “blobs of tissue.” But as ultrasound and other technologies have advanced, it’s impossible to deny the beauty and reality of how a preborn child grows and develops inside the womb.
“The science is so persuasive when we can share the truth about what it is,” Katrina Gallic, the director of development for the March for Life, shared at the roundtable.
Life begins at conception, even 95% of scientists agree. So, how do we become a culture of life? That’s the question that Focus on the Family is looking to answer over the next six weeks.
For more, check out the rest of the See Life 2021 episode here.
