The following definitions come from Webster’s dictionary.
Abortion – expulsion of a fetus from a women’s womb before it is viable.
Fetus – the unborn young of an animal while still in the uterus or egg.
Viable - able to live, spec. developed enough to live outside the uterus; capable of growing
Life – that property of plants or animals which makes it possible for them to take in food, get energy from it, grow, etc.
Uterus – a hollow, muscular organ of female mammals in which the ovum is deposited and the embryo and fetus are developed.; womb
Ovum – a mature female germ cell.
Germ cell – a cell from which a new organism can develop.
An abortion is the expulsion of ‘the young’ from a woman’s womb before it is ‘developed enough to live outside the uterus. (Implying that it was living inside the womb previously.)
Now some biological facts:
Cell division is growth
The unfertilized egg contains a limited amount of nutrients so that growth can begin while the placenta is built and attaches to the uterine wall to continue the flow of nutrients.
Here is a quick albeit incomplete rundown of the process of making babies.
The ovum is deposited in the uterus. If it is not fertilized after a certain period it is expelled by the body. If it is fertilized by the male germ cell, known as sperm, something happens. The fertilized cell divides in two, the cell forms a conduit, called a placenta, to transfer nutrients to it and wastes away from it. Both are indicators of life. We now have three, at least. At a certain point in the cell division process comes the decision, encoded in the DNA of the cells, to begin differentiating into organs and bones. Now we have sentience going on. By all scientific definitions this is life!
Thus, by either the dictionary definition approach or the biological (scientific) approach abortion is the willful taking of life, or as the law defines that action...murder!
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