Why Preborn Children Deserve Protection in Law
- Faye Barnhart
- Sep 19
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 27
I was recently on social media where someone with unidentifiable numbers for a name said, "You're not killing a child, it's just a fetus." Well, "fetus" is Latin for "young one". It would be like saying, "You're not killing a human, you're just killing an adult".
Calling someone by a different name does not change who they are. We all went through fetal development, childhood, and adulthood. We were not less human than we are right now at any stage.
As human beings, we go through multiple developmental stages and call ourselves many things based on our age - embryo, fetus, toddler, teenager - our developmental stage only defines our age and does not make us any less human.
A child during fetal development is the exact same child they will be following birth. These are actual babies, whether we call the child a baby, fetus, preborn, newborn, infant, or child. Regardless of what we call them, they are still living human beings. They are already living in the world with us. They are still children dependent on adults to protect them.
Just because we call a certain segment of living human beings a name to dehumanize them, does not give us the right to kill them.
The child with their own unique living human DNA in their first cell - and every cell of the body - has never been and will never be anything but a living human being. A human being can only be a human being, just as a puppy can only ever be a dog, a colt can only be a horse, and an eaglet will always and only be an eagle (and is protected by law before even being hatched!).
The human child is always a human child regardless of how young.
From the moment light flashes when two gametes (ovum and spermatozoa) meet and become one, a new human being comes into existence. No one else will ever have their DNA, fingerprints, face, personality, brain, heart, or soul. This human being has never lived before, and however long they live, this will be their only experience in the world.
If any one of our cells, including our very first cell, were found on any other planet, scientists would say we found human life. Scientists who specialize in studying human beings during our earliest development agree (96%) that we are fully living human beings the moment of our first cell when we are conceived.
Nothing will be added to our very first cell except nutrition, oxygen, and time, just as we continue to need throughout our lifetime.
In every cell of our body is six feet of genetic code which is the exact same DNA that was in our first cell the moment we were conceived. Scientists can tell from any one cell of our body if we are male or female.
No one else could ever be you.
A child has a heartbeat that will last their entire lifetime - however long they live - by 21 days from conception. We have our own brain waves that can be detected by 34 days from conception, approximately the same time a mother suspects or finds out she is pregnant. A child will move away from touch to his or her face by seven weeks of a forty-week pregnancy.
Abortion is the intentional killing of a living human being causing their untimely death. Much like shooting a man in his own home blind-folded, just because we close our eyes to the child who is peacefully at home within their mother does not make them any less visibly human or our act of killing them any less heinous.
An induced abortion occurs after a mother discovers she's pregnant when a child already has their own unique living human DNA in each of hundreds or thousands of organized cells and systems, heartbeat, blood type, brainwaves, recognizable face, fingers, toes, and will move away to try to get away from abortion instruments.
These children are no less living and human than you and me. Intentionally killing a child is unnecessary, and pregnant mothers deserve better. Fathers are responsible to speak up to protect and care for their children and the women in their lives. Churches and communities are needed in support of the miracle of new life and childbirth.
Law needs to recognize that humans do not have the right to kill other humans.
These are the same children they will be following birth. This is why it needs to be illegal to kill a child at any age or developmental stage. We must stop drugs intended to kill human beings and focus on saving lives rather than intentionally destroying lives.
The law instructs people that something is morally wrong. And people have to knowingly break the law to harm someone. We have laws even though we know some people will break the law. Slavery still happens, but when good law is enforced, fewer people are victimized by the crime and people can be legally rescued and protected.
God shows us in Scripture how He views children in the womb as equally valuable and worth protecting as an adult. In Exodus, God gives a glimpse into the womb long before ultrasound.
"If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows. But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life— eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe." (Exodus 21:22-25)
Before ultrasound, God was showing us that the child has hands, feet, and even teeth (under their gums). God shows us that their little lives are no less valuable than a full-grown man causing their harm.
No matter what we call ourselves, no one is justified in taking away any innocent human being's right to continue living. Whether it's with a gun or surgical clamps, purposefully ending someone's life is morally wrong, regardless of your relationship, how you dehumanize or demonize them, how much they inconvenience you, or if you are in a position of power and trust and they are dependent on you to protect them.
To quote the philosopher Dr. Seuss, "a person's a person, no matter how small." To that, I can only add that a person is a person no matter what we call them.

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