Top Myths DEBUNKED: Human prenatal development

By Bridget Sielicki

Over the years, one of the biggest ways that abortion advocates have been able to convince people that the violence of abortion is necessary and good is by dehumanizing the preborn child, simply because he lives inside his mother’s womb. Thankfully, as science and medical technology have advanced, so has our understanding of that hidden life and prenatal development.

Here are some of the biggest myths the abortion industry peddles about preborn human life and prenatal development — and what’s really happening in the womb.

Myth #1: A child in the womb is just a ‘clump of cells.’

The truth: From fertilization, the child grows quickly. Though the child has few cells at his or her beginning, those cells are doing important work. At the moment of fertilization, the preborn child is already entirely distinct from his mother. His sex, ethnicity, hair color, eye color, and other traits have already been decided, and his DNA is unique from his mother’s and father’s. 

One of the biggest tactics abortion advocates use to assuage abortion-minded women is telling them that the child in the womb is just a “clump of cells.” This argument is easily refuted by the images of children who have been miscarried or aborted — tiny hands, arms, fingers, and toes quickly dispel any doubt that the child is anything but fully human.

Live Action’s I Saw My Baby campaign shares stories of women who were duped into believing their children were nothing but clumps of cells, and then were shocked and horrified to witness the tiny human who was expelled during the chemical abortion procedure.

According to the Endowment for Human Development, a preborn child’s kidneys are formed five weeks after fertilization, brain waves can be measured as early as six weeks post-fertilization, and he can respond to touch by seven weeks after fertilization.

This rapid-fire development continues throughout pregnancy, as the tiny cells of the embryo miraculously grow into the fully-formed infant ready to welcome the world on the day of his birth.

Myth #2: The preborn child’s heartbeat is just ‘manufactured sound.’

The truth: The medical textbook “Larsen’s Human Embryology” states, “The heart is the first functioning organ in humans. It begins beating rhythmically as early as day 22 and pumps blood by days 24 to 25.” A number of physicians verify this fact.

As ‘heartbeat laws’ take hold across the nation, so has the claim that preborn children don’t have heartbeats — and that any sound picked up on Doppler is “manufactured.” However, though Doppler technology often can’t pick up the sounds of the preborn child’s heartbeat until around six weeks gestation (four weeks post-fertilization), science shows that the child’s heart actually begins beating much earlier, just about three weeks after fertilization.

“The narrative that embryos don’t have heartbeats at six weeks’ gestation is a blatant example of misinformation that can be corrected by studying basic embryology,” Dr. Donna Harrison, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians Gynecologists, told Live Action News in 2022. “In fact, at six weeks’ gestation, the embryonic heart rhythmically contracts to pump blood through its arteries, which flows to the placenta to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. To call this anything other than a beating heart is dishonest, and serves only to dehumanize preborn people.”

Myth #3: Babies can’t feel pain until very late in pregnancy.

The truth: A 2017 study found that preborn babies in the first trimester have “adult-like” patterns of nerves, indicating that babies may feel pain as early as eight weeks gestation. Even researchers who are admittedly pro-abortion have conceded that preborn children most certainly experience pain by 12 weeks. 

The idea that a child may feel the abortion taking place makes some people uncomfortable, so the abortion industry peddles the lie that these children are incapable of feeling pain. Science says otherwise.

The painful effects of an abortion procedure are demonstrated in a horrifying way in the film “The Silent Scream,” which uses actual ultrasound video footage showing a 13-week-old preborn child being killed by a suction aspiration abortion. As the abortionist attempts to dismember the preborn baby, she is seen trying to escape the suction curette while her heart rate doubles. As the abortionist does his work, the child’s mouth opens in a ‘silent scream,’ indicating she did likely feel the impact of her violent death.

Though pain is often used as a marker for whether or not abortion should be permitted, it’s also irrelevant to the question of a preborn child’s humanity.

Regardless of whether or not the child feels pain, no human being should be subjected to death by the poisoning or dismemberment of abortion.

Myth #4: Babies in the womb aren’t ‘conscious’ beings.

The Truth: A 2016 study led by Dr Marisa Lopez-Teijon of the Institut Marques in Barcelona showed babies “singing” to orchestral music as early as 16 weeks. A 2017 study from the University of Kansas found through monitoring babies’ heart rates in the womb, that they can distinguish between different languages in utero. Research conducted in 2022 even found that preborn children had preferences for certain foods; when their mothers ate things they didn’t like, they responded by making sad or disgusted faces, seen via ultrasound technology.

Despite the fact that they are hidden in the womb, preborn babies demonstrate time and again that they really are aware of what’s going on in the world outside, and that they even have their own likes and dislikes.

Apart from scientific research, there have been many anecdotal incidents of babies responding by jumping or moving in the womb when exposed to certain music or voices. Recent American Idol winner Abi Carter shared a story to demonstrate that she was musical before she was even born, as her mother heard her ‘humming’ while listening in on headphones during an ultrasound appointment.

“My mom is a singer herself,” Carter shared. “So I was always listening to her sing from the womb.”

Preborn human beings are the youngest, most defenseless human beings, which means they are most worthy of protection and compassion — not to be targeted for death because they are vulnerable.

Editor’s note. This appears at Live Action News