11/14/23 10:41 p.m.
Editor’s Note: This story contains explicit descriptions of abortion. This is a guest review that was submitted by a member of the Rice community. The views expressed in this review are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Thresher or its editorial board. All customer reviews are fact-checked to the best of our ability and edited for clarity and brevity by Thresher editors.
Last semester at West Servery, I found my flyer, “Pro-Life After Roe: Catholic Answers to FAQs,” vandalized. “FORCED BIRTH” was scrawled over “Pro-Life” in large block letters.
I was disappointed; these flyers were intended to engage the Rice community in healthy conversation. “Pro-Life after Roe,” like all conferences hosted by the Catholic Student Association, provided the Catholic Christian perspective on various topics and a space for healthy conversation. With these conferences, I want people to engage with teachings grounded in truth, mercy, and love.
One of these teachings is that every person has an inherent and immutable dignity. Human life is sacred from conception until natural death. 96% percent of self-selected biologists, 85% of whom identify as pro-choice, say human life begins at fertilizationaccording to an investigation in the 2022 Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson. The Church considers this living fetus as a human being person in its mission to protect all people – immigrants, the elderly, the disabled, the convicts, the homeless, victims of trafficking, the unborn, single mothers: all forgotten in our “eat or eat” society. be eaten.” In contrast, the pro-choice movement prioritizes the mother’s choice over the life of the fetus; the pro-life movement values both the life of the mother and that of the child.
In addition to the Church’s position on personhood, “Pro-Life After Roe” addressed questions such as: What about cases where the mother’s life is threatened by the pregnancy?
For legal, medical and moral purposes, the Church, the pro-life movement and the current law under Dobbs define abortion as the intentional killing of a fetus. In some medical terminologies, an abortion can also refer to a miscarriage or a procedure that saves the mother’s life, such as the removal of an ectopic pregnancy. It seems necessary to me to make this distinction to avoid any confusion: The intention And action from an abortion are distinct because an abortion acts on the fetus to destroy it inside the uterus, unlike a miscarriage and life-saving medical care.
In a medical abortion, carried out up to nine weeks of pregnancy, the patient swallows two tablets: first, mifepristone cuts off the fetus’s access to nutrients by terminating implantation. Then, misoprostol triggers labor in the dead fetus. During a surgical abortion, abortions in the first trimester are normally performed using a suction device that separates the fetus and sucks out its parts. In a second trimester abortion, a drug can be injected to cause a fetal heart attack. Then, pliers dismember the fetus. Finally, a suction device and a sharp curette remove the remaining fetal parts.
If a fetus is removed to provide medical care to the mother, the fetus is not killed in the womb. Instead, a fetus can be carried as long as possible, then delivered via early induced labor or cesarean section and immediately placed in the neonatal intensive care unit or comfort care depending on its viability.
For example, a cancerous uterus would harm the life of a pregnant woman. Since the intention is not to kill the baby and the procedure itself does not act on the fetus to destroy it, this hysterectomy is not an abortion since it preserves the life and dignity of the mother and the child even if the child does not survive. These alternative procedures to abortion are protected by Dobbs because it is life-saving maternal medical care.
The interview also touched on cases of rape and incest. These are evil and criminal acts that must be fully punished, but no child should be punished for their father’s crimes. The mother must be supported throughout this difficult pregnancy and not be subjected to the “solution” of abortion, a “solution” which takes away her baby forever and does not remove the trauma of rape. Once again, the pro-life movement provides women who have experienced rape or incest with the dignity, love, and resources to care for their existing child.
Pro-life organizations offer women free resources like accommodation, prenatal care and baby clothing, continually supporting the lives of every mother, father and child. Even after an abortion, organizations exist to heal mothers and fathers from post-abortion psychological trauma.
As I saw from my vandalized flyer, minority opinions on this college campus are often ignored. I would like to see our Rice community practice critical thinking and healthy dialogue on these difficult topics so that every perspective can be considered.
Although the Catholic Church opposes abortion, you don’t need religion to know that every human life has value. Do you think every person deserves to fight, regardless of the circumstances? How do you defend the dignity of the forgotten in our society? The homeless, the infirm, single mothers, the unborn – they all need our care and attention.
