Planned Parenthood, SIECUS admit: Life begins at conception (by Diane Dew)

'... at least one [sperm] will reach the egg, fertilize it,
and conception will take place. A new life will begin.'
-- Conception, Birth and Contraception
Approved by Planned Parenthood and SIECUS in 1969
as "a fine book" with a "solid base for understanding ... reproduction"

.
Planned Parenthood, SIECUS admit:
Life begins at conception

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The year was 1969 ... Law and politics had not yet "altered medical science."* The terminology of medical texts had not yet been changed to depersonalize life in the womb. (The pregnant woman was "the mother" and the fetus was "the child" or "baby.") McGraw-Hill Inc. was publishing a book on Conception, Birth and Contraception and needed some input from an authority on the subject. It turned to Planned Parenthood and the Sex Information & Education Council of the United States.

"This book provides a solid base for understanding the anatomy of reproduction," wrote Mary S. Calderone, MD, Executive Director of SIECUS, in her Introduction to the 129-page book. "Access to such fine books as this one will assure our young people that ... finally adults are becoming willing to 'tell it like it is.'"

Similarly, "Dr. George Langmyhr of Planned Parenthood Federation of America ... reviewed the material on contraception," state authors Robert J. Demarest and John J. Sciarra, MD, PhD, in their Foreword.

Within the pages of Conception, Birth and Contraception, however, the pro-life position is presented with pictorial and verbal accuracy. The book clearly pushes contraceptives, with some faulty information on the safety of the IUD, etc., but the personhood of the unborn is fully supported throughout the text.

In fact, the book's own glossary definition of the term "fetus" begins with: "An unborn child." Pregnancy, likewise, is defined as: "The condition of being with child."

In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, of course, today's Planned Parenthood -- largest abortion provider in the world -- would never admit that life begins at conception, or depict the infant in utero, in full-page illustrations, as a person. To do so, would suggest not only a violation of rights, but even murder, in the diabolical Roe v. Wade decision.

No doubt today's SIECUS, as well, would attempt to discredit the pro-life (factual) content of this "fine book" which it's leader in 1969 described so positively.

Some excerpts
Following are some excerpts from the book, approved by Planned Parenthood and SIECUS four years before the legalization of abortion:

"... at least one [sperm] will reach the egg, fertilize it, and conception will take place. A new life will begin." (page 15)

"... the egg which, if fertilized, gives rise to a new life." (page 3)

"From fertilization to delivery, mother and child are as one for approximately 266 days. At the end of the period the mother delivers the infant into the world ..." (page 3)

"It is the female who carries the baby during the nine months of its prenatal life." (page 17)

"However small it may be, the egg is about two thousand times as large as the sperm that must fertilize it. ...it carries the food the growing embryo will use during the first few days of its life." (page 26)

"... to grow within the mother." (page 32)

"The inherited characteristics of the baby to be born ... are determined by material within the egg and sperm ... each mature egg contains genetic material carrying the inheritable characteristics of the mother ... the child receives inherited characteristics from both parents." (page 50)

"The placenta ... transfers nourishment from the mother ...." (page 53)

"... ectopic pregnanc[ies] ... are dangerous to the mother and provide no possibility of a live child." (page 53)

"The growth of the baby within the uterus takes nine calendar months." (page 57)

"The sex ... could also be determined by examining under a microscope cells which are present in the amniotic fluid ... however, the doctor would have to puncture the amniotic cavity. This procedure is not undertaken except under very unusual circumstances having to do with the baby's health. So until the baby is delivered, no one knows whether it is a boy or a girl." (page 61)

"... the bloodstreams of mother and fetus ... never touch, and the blood in each remains separate. Oxygen and nutrients pass through the placenta, from the bloodstream of the mother to the fetus, and waste products from the fetus pass in the reverse direction into the bloodstream of the mother." (page 64) [i.e., the fetus is not part of the mother's body]

"... a doctor examining the mother can hear the fetal heartbeat ... The mother can feel the movement ... its arms and legs ..." (page 65)

"... the doctor may perform an operation called a cesarean section and remove the baby ..." (page 68)

".. its head is well down in the pelvic area of the mother -- the ideal position for it when the birth process begins." (page 68)

"The new life that has been growing within the mother for approximately nine months is now ready to enter the world. The passage of the baby through the birth canal is called delivery, and the process by which this is accomplished by the mother is called labor... Occasionally, a baby is born before thirty-eight weeks ... and the baby's chance of survival depends upon its weight and state of development at birth. When it is time for delivery, the mother begins to experience uterine contractions.... felt by the mother in her back ..." (page 72)

* Roe v. Wade (1973) legalized infanticide, i.e., murder by abortion

Baby, 14 weeks gestation

Think about it ...

If legislation could alter medical science, we could all simply "vote" for the elimination of AIDS worldwide, and that problem would be solved. But of course that's impossible. If AIDS kills today, legislating otherwise would not alter the fact: it kills. In the same sense, if the fetus was a person and deserving of legal rights and protection before abortion was legalized, it is still murder today -- regardless of any paperwork claiming otherwise.

If abortion was murder on January 21, 1973, it is still murder today.