“Pro-Choice” Christian
Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico claims that he is a “pro-choice” Christian because “there is a lot of biblical evidence to support that opinion,” like God asking for “Mary’s consent” to conceive Jesus.
IN FACT, all abortions take place AFTER conception, the facts of science are clear that every new human life begins at fertilization, and the Bible accords with those facts. Here are the specifics:
The American Heritage Dictionary of Science — which was written by nine highly credentialed scientists under a “precise editorial review” to maintain “a standard of excellence” — states that “life” is “characterized” by 4 attributes: “growth, reproduction, metabolism, and response to stimuli.”
In humans, those 4 defining characteristics of life are all present during or soon after fertilization, which occurs when a sperm and egg unite to form a zygote, or the earliest stage of a human embryo:
- Growth: Per the textbook Essentials of Human Development: A Life-Span View, “Fertilization begins the period of the zygote,” and “the zygote grows rapidly through cell division.”
- Reproduction: Per a paper in the Biochemical Journal, “Sexual reproduction in mammals results in the formation of a zygote, a single cell which contains all the necessary information to produce an entire organism comprised of billions of cells grouped into multitudinous cell types.”
- Metabolism: Per the medical text Human Gametes and Preimplantation Embryos: Assessment and Diagnosis, “At the zygote stage,” the human embryo metabolizes “carboxylic acids pyruvate and lactate as its preferred energy substrates.”
- Response to stimuli: The Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology defines a “stimulus” as “any event or phenomenon, such as radiation, electrical potential, or addition of molecules that leads to excitation of a tissue or cell.” Experiments have found that human zygotes respond to such stimulants. For example, a paper in the journal Human Reproduction Update documents that a compound called platelet-activating factor “acts upon the zygote” by stimulating “metabolism,” “cell-cycle progression,” and “viability.”
Nor is a zygote just a form of human life, like a skin cell. It is an actual human life. As explained in Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia, “At the moment the sperm cell of the human male meets the ovum of the female and the union results in a fertilized ovum (zygote), a new life has begun.”
In keeping with the facts above, clinical literature is explicit that each new human life begins at fertilization. For example, the Encyclopedia & Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Allied Health states that “human reproduction” is “the process by which the male’s sperm unites with the female’s oocyte, creating a new life.”
In accord with those facts, the Bible states:
- “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you’….” (Jeremiah 1:4–5)
- “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalms 139:13)
- “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.” (Luke 1:15)
In short, Talarico’s rationale is scientifically and biblically illiterate.
