While I was looking up YouTube videos pertaining to my video project, I stumbled across the social injustice of partial-birth abortions. A partial-birth abortion is the physical removal of a fetus at the second trimester. Characteristics such as the head, nose, and fingers are readily seen at this point through the uterus. This video documents the grotesque step-by-step procedure of an Ohio abortionist on a baby at 24 weeks of gestational age.
First, the abortionist uses forceps, guided by an ultrasound, to locate the feet of the baby. From here, the feet and the body of the baby are pulled out of the birth canal, leaving the head of the baby in the uterus. At this point, the forceps is jammed into the baby’s skull to create a hole. A pair of scissors is used to enlarge the hole, and a suction cap is inserted to suck the brains out of the baby, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed.
In 2003, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was passed, prohibiting abortion in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. However, abortion in the first trimester is not illegal. What is the difference between a fetus at the first and second trimester of pregnancy? The baby is still the same person. At no point during fertilization does the fetus become a non-human life form. A baby at the first trimester is still a human being. Therefore, it is wrong for the law-enforcing body of the USA to discriminate people in their different stages of human development. Instead, the United States Congress should recognize and enforce for babies, as it should for all human beings, the unalienable right to life.
Leadership for Social Change | Saint Louis University 
I don’t see how people can even argue that a fetus in the first trimester is not human life. It has its own human DNA, its heart is pumping blood, and many of its features are fully developed. When a baby is born prematurely, we don’t say, “Since this child was not in the womb for the full nine months, let’s just throw it out. It isn’t human.” That would be ridiculous. It is equally ridiculous to say that a fetus in the womb is not human life.
I completely agree. Life in all forms is a blessing and it is our job as human beings to conserve the lives of our own kind. We gawk at animals that eat their own young, but then look away when someone kills an unborn baby. When did it become ok to decide which humans are fit to come into this world? Do we really want to be like the Spartans, killing our children as we please?
I agree with both of you. A life is sacred no matter what stage it is in. Obviously, the topic is controversial. However, I don’t understand how anyone could look at a video like this or information on the process and see it as acceptable. The right to life is something that everyone has, but when a human is just a baby, they aren’t given the right to defend themselves. They are being stripped of their most sacred right, the right to life. We live in a country built on the foundations of freedom, but many babies will never have a chance to experience that.
I remember in high school we learned about Mother Theresa’s teachings against abortion, I though I would share it. It shows the effects that abortion has on the mindset of America and the greater issues it leads to:
“By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, that father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. The father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion”
“A person’s a person no matter how small,” this quote from Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who illustrates my view on the issue. I agree that all life is sacred, no matter how small or early on in the stage of development. However, I am torn on the issue of abortion. While I do not agree with abortion in the second and third trimester, I do believe that every woman has the right to decide for herself.
I agree that though abortion is a controversial topic, life is precious. Everyone has the right to life no matter if they are 80 years old or unborn. Quite honestly, that video was a little difficult to watch. I do not know how anyone, whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, could look at that video and not say that abortions and the killing of innocent life is wrong. If we, the adults with the knowledge and skills are not able to defend the defenseless, what hope do they have?