September 26, 2024 Daily Devotion

Conception Does Not Depend Upon Any Particular Religious Belief

Deuteronomy 30:19

Father Tony Lusvardi, SJ continues his homily:

While it’s not going out on a limb to say that conservatives are the majority in South Dakota, favoring greater governmental intervention in society—as liberals do—does not in principle contradict Catholic teaching. Last week I quoted a progressive atheist, Nat Hentoff, who explained that acknowledging that human life begins at conception does not depend upon any particular religious belief. We know that a child in her mother’s womb is not a goldfish or a frog, but a human being in a stage of development every human being passes through.

The unique genetic code of that boy or girl is present in every cell of his or her body and is distinct from the body of the mother. Half the time, after all, it’s a boy. The claim that restrictions on abortion are infringements on the mother’s body is rhetorical manipulation. The baby’s body is what’s at stake in an abortion. It is not the mother’s skull which is crushed with forceps; it is the baby’s.The accusation that pro-lifers want to “control women’s bodies” is propaganda pure and simple. Prohibiting abortion no more tells a woman what she must do with her body than prohibiting slavery tells business owners how to run their company.