The amazing, complex development of an unborn baby at the earliest stages of pregnancy often gets buried in the abortion debate.
But it is amazing, and scientists know so much more about unborn babies than they did in 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade.
A recent CBN News article highlighted some of these findings as the high court appears likely to overturn Roe this summer and allow states to protect unborn babies again.
“Some in the pro-choice crowd say a person’s life doesn’t actually begin until he or she is outside the womb, but the science shows an unborn baby at 15 weeks gestation is a living, breathing human being with unique DNA who can already feel pain,” author Andrea Morris wrote.
“In fact, by the time a baby reaches 15 weeks, her little heart has already beat nearly 16 million times and every major organ has developed,” she continued.
Follow LifeNews on the Parler social media network for the latest pro-life news!
An unborn baby is a unique, living human being from the moment of conception, and numerous biology and medical textbooks, scientists, medical experts and others confirm this.
CBN News pointed to a fascinating article by Katrina Furth, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, that provides a picture of what scientists now know about the developing child in the womb.
According to the article “15 Facts at 15 Weeks”:
- A baby’s heart starts beating about 22 days after fertilization.
- The baby’s heart pumps 26 quarts of blood per day.
- By 15 weeks, the baby’s heart has already beat approximately 15,800,000 times.
- In total, a baby’s heart beats about 54 million times between conception and birth.
- Brain connections formed by 15 weeks’ gestation last into adulthood.
- Starting at 10 weeks of gestational age, the fetus begins the breathing process.
- The kidneys already filter toxins.
- Intestines have started the lifelong contractions that propel food through the digestive system.
- Surgeons have successfully performed surgery on 15-week old babies in utero.
By 15 weeks, unborn babies show a preference for their right or left hand; they can respond to touch and bend their fingers as if to grasp an object, according to research cited in Furth’s article.
And yet, abortion activists deny much of this, claiming unborn babies do not have heartbeats or feel pain until later in pregnancy. All the while, they support the killing of nearly 1 million unborn babies in abortions every year in the U.S.
Since Roe v. Wade, more than 63 million unborn babies have been aborted. But after nearly 50 years, it is clearer than ever that each of these babies was a unique and irreplaceable human being who deserved a right to life.
