Pro-Lifers Restrategize, Advance with 'Personhood'

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter Friday, January 22, 2010

In a fiery address on Thursday, Hunter told pro-lifers that they can end abortion regardless of Roe v. Wade as history has taught.

"There was no Supreme Court decision that ... overturned Dred Scott. That is not what freed slaves," he noted. "Dred Scott never got overturned and look at me, I'm free."

Rather than focus solely on Roe v. Wade, pro-lifers are being urged to turn much of their efforts to state personhood amendments.

The personhood movement can succeed, said Hunter.

Thirty-two states are pursuing personhood amendments. Composing precise language in the ballot initiatives is critical, medical ethicist Dr. Dianne Irving cautioned on Thursday.

Pro-lifers need to be picky with their words to avoid legal loopholes, she said.

"If you use the wrong science [or] words, it not only leads to a misdefinition of who is a person, it also leads to malformed consciences," Irving told an audience of pro-life youths and adults, while noting that science is on their side. "We need to get the language straight so our consciences can be well formed."

Neither fertilization nor conception is defined as the "beginning of biological development." Rather, the development of a human being begins "the instant when the sperm and the ovum touch" through sexual reproduction, according to Personhood Colorado. And in the case of a cloned human being, his or her biological beginning is when the DNA in the cell/cells is deprogrammed or reprogrammed to the same state of differentiation as a human organism.

While science may explain when life begins, for Christians, the Bible couldn't be clearer on the question.

Reading from the book of Jeremiah, Hunter said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

God recognizes a person and his or her purpose long before he or she is born, Hunter noted.

Conference attendee Savanna Buckner, 17, couldn't agree more with Thursday's speakers.

"Abortion is just sick," the Stafford, Va., student said. "It's against God's law and against natural law."