Life's truths

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

One argument used to support abortion, especially in the 1960s and '70s, was that the fetus was not really human, but basically just a mass of cells, perhaps like a glob of something spilled on the floor.

Of course we know that's not true. Interestingly enough, science knew it then too. Recently Frances Roloff, a Compass reader from New London, sent us a copy of a McCall's magazine story (August 1965) as it was condensed in Reader's Digest (November 1965).

The article was written by Dr. Margaret Liley with Beth Day. Dr. Liley, a practicing pediatrician and the mother of five, is the wife of Dr. William Liley, the New Zealand obstetrician who pioneered fetology - the diagnosis and treatment of babies while they are in the womb. (He is the inventor of amniocentesis, which he devised to diagnose and treat fetal problems in the womb or at birth; he was sickened that it had been perverted to a screening that sometimes led to abortions.)

She wrote that the baby swims in amniotic fluid with little gravitational pull in a womb that is neither silent nor completely dark. In the womb, the child can distinguish between light and dark, and hear street noises, crashes, bangs, music and Mom's heartbeat and intestinal rumblings, she wrote. (I once heard her husband give a speech in which he likened the womb to living on a busy street.)

If Mom becomes upset and screams, the sound won't frighten the baby, though the resulting changes in the mother's hormonal levels will have an effect.

Babies grow restless at night because, when Mom lies down, her backbone and the baby's backbone press, uncushioned, against each other, so the child must move about until it finds a comfortable spot. Then Mom can rest too.

In the womb, babies suck their thumbs, drink large quantities of amniotic fluid, and cry and flail about if they are hurt. Birth is even harder on baby than it is on the mother. During birth, the baby's blood pressure and temperature both go up "as he is brutally ejected from his safe, warm, weightless world" and the child may protest by waving his arms and legs, Liley said.

As soon as the baby gets a lung full of fresh air, loud cries of distress rapidly follow. "When he emerges he is exhausted, badly hurt, dazed by the harsh light. The kindest thing you can do for the battered, weary little fellow is to give him a warm cuddling and reassurance as quickly as possible," Liley said.

Yet the change isn't as drastic as we might think, Liley said, because "He has for months been busily champing, sucking, drinking, feeling, kicking, listening, sleeping." After some rest, the baby is ready to face the world, she said.

This week, as we sadly recall the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion - and the lies that decision was based on - it's good to recall the truth, as it was known then and has been proved even more convincingly since. The miracle of life is an extraordinary gift that begins at conception, then continues to blossom.