Abortion and the Fundamental Christian

Abortion is a tricky moral subject, one I am thankful I have never had to deal with on a practical basis.

It is also a topic Christians like to trot out whenever their are floundering in a moral discussion. They assume all atheists are pro-abortion, and so, whatever the topic, say atheists cannot be moral if they condone the murder of humans.

Is a single cell with human DNA a human being? We all shed skin daily, and that skin is dead cells with human DNA. No one sheds a tear for those cells, so why shed a tear for a fertilised cell?

The fertilised cell has the potential to be a person, but is not itself a person. It has none of the attributes that we value in our fellow man. Nevertheless, Christian fundamentalists insist that a fertilised cell has the same rights as an adult, and specifically that killing a fertilised cell is murder.

What they do not seem to realise is that a huge number of fertilised cells never make it to the second week of pregnancy:

Here is a page at MedlinePlus, which appears to be a US government agency:

Around half of all fertilized eggs die and are lost (aborted) spontaneously, usually before the woman knows she is pregnant. Among women who know they are pregnant, 15 to 20 out of every 100 will have a miscarriage. Most miscarriages occur during the first 7 weeks of pregnancy. The rate of miscarriage drops after the baby's heartbeat is detected.

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001488.htm

Other links:

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a majority of pregnancies never go past the first few weeks, and even after a clinical diagnosis of pregnancy (using ultrasound), there's still about a 25 percent chance of miscarriage. Many miscarriages occur so early in the pregnancy that the woman may not have even been aware she was pregnant.

http://www.parentingweekly.com/preconception/preconception_information/types_of_early_miscarriages.htm

It’s estimated that almost half of all pregnancies end in miscarriage — many occurring just weeks after conception. Once a woman knows she’s pregnant, the chance of a miscarriage is 15-20 percent, with the majority happening in the first 10 weeks.
It’s estimated that almost half of all pregnancies end in miscarriage — many occurring just weeks after conception. Once a woman knows she’s pregnant, the chance of a miscarriage is 15-20 percent, with the majority happening in the first 10 weeks.

https://www.babble.com/pregnancy/causes-miscarriage-chances/

A miscarriage is a pregnancy that spontaneously ends before the 24th week. Unfortunately, miscarriage is very common, with around 10 to 15% of recognized pregnancies ending this way (1, 2). Most happen within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (3, 4) and it is thought that as many as 40% of eggs that are fertilised miscarry, although frequently too early in pregnancy to be noticed (5).

https://www.yourdocmedical.co.uk/articles/309

Miscarriage is the most common type of pregnancy loss, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Anywhere from 10 to 25 percent of all known pregnancies end this way, and more than 80 percent of these miscarriages occur within the first 12 weeks. There is a lot of debate over the actual rate of miscarriage, however, because you may have one before you even know you're pregnant. In these cases, the loss usually goes undocumented. When these unrecognized losses are taken into consideration, the estimated rate of miscarriage is anywhere from 50 to 75 percent.

http://www.parentingweekly.com/preconception/preconception_information/miscarriage.htm

It is thought that as many as half of all pregnancies miscarry before the fertilised egg even implants in the womb. Early after implantation, and before a pregnancy is clinically recognised, around 30% will miscarry.

https://www.huggies.com.au/pregnancy/miscarriage/risk

Research has shown up to 70 percent of all conceptions end in miscarriage.

http://www.pregnancycorner.com/loss/chemical-pregnancy.html

The risk is around 15 or 20% once the woman knows she is pregnant. This is the figure usually quoted, because afterall this is the figure a pregnant woman wants to know about. This link makes that very clear; it is talking about confirmed pregnancies:

A miscarriage is when a pregnancy is lost before 24 weeks of pregnancy. It is thought that around one in five confirmed pregnancies ends this way.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/when-pregnancy-goes-wrong.aspx

If half of pregnancies fail like that, that means that for every person alive today, there was a fertilised egg that failed to make make to to the second week of pregnancies. That is billions of dead human beings, dead babies - as Christians define them.

And this is how God engineered us! If you prefer, this is how God chose to curse mankind. Either way, this is billions of people dead because of God.

Worth thinking about when fundamentalist Christians are accusing atheists of condoning murder.