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Saturday, May 28, 2005

When the POC really is just tissue

Two common prochoice euphamisms for the fetus destroyed by abortion -- "products of conception" and "pregnancy tissue" -- realy do accurately apply in those unusual circumstances when there is no fetus present in a pregnancy.

The two conditions in which a woman shows all the symptoms of pregnancy but is not sheltering a new human being are gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) and blighted ovum.

In GTD, the conception results in what is called a "hydatidiform mole." This is a cluster of tissue with an appearance somewhat similar to a bunch of grapes. In blighted ovum, a placenta and amniotic sac form, but there is no fetus in the sac. Some researchers seem to believe that a blighted ova is caused by the same abnormal conception process that causes hydatidiform moles. Others say that they are two different kinds of abnormalities.

Actually, the existence of hydatidiform moles underscores the prolife position. One need only compare a fetus with a molar pregnancy of the same gestation age to see very clearly the difference between "pregnancy tissue" and a viable embryonic human being. In fact, even in a partial mole, there is a clear difference between the doomed fetus, which is recognizably a fetus, and the molar tissue. For those of you with a strong stomach, here are a removed mole, a blighted ovum opened after it was expelled, and aborted fetuses, for your comparison:

Hydatidiform Mole
Blighted Ovum
First Trimester Abortion Photos (Warning: Very Graphic!)

You can see that the mole really is just a blob of tissue. Ditto for the blighted ovum. Nobody is going to be harvesting lungs, liver, thymus, long bones, or neural tissue from either because there are none. When there is a tiny human being present it's different. No matter how thoroughly shredded the embryo is, you can still see recognizable human body parts, such as arms, legs, hands, feet, and face. Only the degree to which the organs are damaged would stop a procurement company from harvesting a heart or a head.

To reiterate for the benefit of the terminally clueless: Prolifers don't oppose removing tissue. We oppose killing fetuses. Any questions?

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2 comments:

  1. I can't believe my stomach was strong enough to handle that...

    I'm a pro-lifer, as well...but your picture of the aborted 1st trimester "fetus", even though cut-up, was somehow poignant.

    How is that possible? The 3-d graphics and graphical representations of what's going on inside my uterus don't quite display just how clearly HUMAN my baby's features are at so early a stage.

    They look more tadpole than human... and I keep waiting for the pictures that belong to the week that my baby actually starts LOOKING like a baby...but he already does...

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  2. Whew, ok....I'm holding my stomach at the moment trying not to hurl.
    How can any pro-choicer stomach those photos of abortions? When I clicked on the link there was another click on link at the bottom that said 'abortions in progress'....not only did that look horrible for the mom but the baby was coming out in pieces.

    Oh gosh you could see that it was all tore up. Poor baby, never had a chance with a scared mom like that.

    Keep doing what your doing, exposing the truth.

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