Unborn child, mother are separate people

Are you now your mother's body? Of course not. When were you your mother's body?

Your first day of school, all giggly, scared and cuddly? Nope, you already had your own personality and facial features. How about when you were two weeks old? You crying, 2 a.m., she gets up to feed you. She needs sleep and you need to be fed. There was no confusion about who was who and at 2 a.m., she gave you top priority.

Were you your mother's body when you started to kick in the womb, 16 to 20 weeks after conception? She knew the difference between a cramp and you kicking. That kick was you, not her. Were you your mother's body when with joy or with regret she announced "I'm pregnant." Definition of pregnancy: "After the egg is fertilized by the sperm and implanted in the lining of the uterus." At that moment, your life had just begun; you with your own DNA. Science has made it clear that each person's DNA is unique. That new person just begun in your mother's womb was always you and nobody else.

By law, you are allowed to improve or damage your own body, any way you want, but not at the expense of another person's body. And that fetus (if you are pregnant} … it is its own body. It is not you and it is not your body. Thou shalt not kill it.

Joseph Mallie

Cedar Rapids