Are you really anti-abortion, or are you just trying to sell products?

Dear Elevit,

I was surprised the other day, as I was watching TV, to come across your advertisement for Elevit with Iodine.

So much of what we see in the media plays down the value of life in the womb, and it does so because that’s what people want. They want to feel like abortion is okay. They want to feel like it’s not really a person in there, that it is scientifically ‘just tissue’ and that they, therefore, have the right to choose what happens to their body. They want to feel that way, because life is tough, and sometimes things happen, and they want a way out that doesn’t come laden with guilt and shame.

So that’s normally what they give us.

Which is why, Elevit, I was surprised by your ad. This is how it began: “When you’re trying to get pregnant, by the time you find out you are, a little person is already coming to life…”

Hang on. ‘Before you know you’re pregnant.’ So that’s within, what, the first six weeks since conception? And you’re saying it’s already a little person? That’s a big call Elevit, a big call.

And I’d commend you, except I’m wondering this: Do you really believe that, or are you just trying to sell tablets to women who are ‘trying to get pregnant?’

Because sometimes I wonder whether we change the meaning of the word ‘person’ and ‘life’ to suit our agenda. And that’s not cool with me.

Sometimes it’s a baby… sometimes it’s just tissue.

Life at 12 weeks

I was shocked to read this article about John Andrew Weldon who has been charged this week with first degree murder for allegedly tricking his girlfriend into taking an abortive pill when he found out that she was pregnant.

I am shocked not so much by what he did (which is truly horrifying) but by the blatant inconsistency between what is classified as ‘pre-meditated murder’ and what is classified as ‘abortive removal of embryonic tissue.’

When a woman becomes pregnant and wants to keep it, it becomes, in the eyes of the law, a human being who has the protection of the law against any third party who would do it any harm.

When a woman becomes pregnant and doesn’t want to keep it, it is merely a collection of cells that can be disposed of by a common and legal ‘procedure.’

Since when does the definition of life or humanity depend on whether the woman carrying it wants it to be there or not?