My heart aches for women facing crisis pregnancies, but in the early days, there was no question whether a pregnant woman was carrying a human being or not. Everyone knew she carried a child. And every woman who plans a pregnancy knows the moment she has confirmation of conception that she is carrying a precious human life.
Life is a miracle. I didn’t see it that way when I became pregnant in college. I was ashamed, afraid and anxious to get out of the situation in which I had put myself. Fear is never a good compass. I chose abortion and the unforeseen consequences lasted for years. The character of Hannah in The Atonement Child is based on my personal experience. Evie is based on my mother’s abortion experience.
I repeat: Life is a miracle (and so is God’s grace and mercy).
When a man’s sperm fertilizes a woman’s ovum, the DNA in 46 chromosomes happens, meaning the new individual human life of that small cell contains the full instructions of sex (male or female), eye color, intelligence, and so much more. The unique life of a human being has begun. The woman carrying that tiny ovum has become a mother. She is a vessel of life. Motherhood does not start when the baby is born. It begins when the woman conceives. The new life attaches to the mother’s uterus and can be detected in a home pregnancy test.
Within three weeks, a heartbeat can be detected, and that same heartbeat will continue for the rest of the individual’s life. By six weeks, an electroencephalogram can detect brain waves. At seven to eight weeks, the baby is swimming and swallowing. Taste buds and teeth buds begin to form. Every organ system is in place by the 10th and 11th week – skeletal structure, nerves, circulation. The baby has fingerprints! At three months, the mother can feel her baby moving. At four months, that little boy or girl lets Mom know something miraculous is happening within her.
At twenty weeks, the baby can hear her/his mother’s voice. (And the father’s, too. Rick used to talk to our three children when they were in utero. And they recognized and responded to his voice in the delivery room.)
God and science are often cast as enemies, but I believe science is an upholder of faith. The question is whether they will see the truth.
“You (God)formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You. When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, Your eye saw my substance being, yet unformed…” Psalm 139:13-16
Every child is planned and known by God. Every child has God-given gifts and a God-given purpose. And every woman who conceives takes part in a miracle.
All this is information a woman has a right to know.