Most of these babies are very premature; the earliest a baby can be born and live is 23 weeks, and many of our NICU neighbors were born at around 28 weeks. They have to be in an incubator, often they aren't able to swallow and so are fed through a tube, and sometimes the parents aren't able to hold them because they are too small or have too many medical attachments. Premies are small, skinny, and odd-looking because they were born before they had the chance to put on fat. My son was considered one of the cutest babies in the NICU because he was chubby and looked like a full-term baby with full cheeks and rolls.
The babies in the NICU are under constant supervision from loving, intelligent nurses who are determined to get them healthy and get them home. Parents spend tens of thousands of dollars to keep their child there; on average the NICU costs $3000 a day and many infants stay for weeks (one of our NICU neighbors had been there over three months). Doctors and nurses not only take care of medical needs but change the babies' diapers and teach them how to bottle feed, as well as comfort and support the parents. So much money, time, and effort goes into making sure that 23-week premie grows, heals, and goes home.
So why is it that a fetus inside the womb at 23 weeks is considered "a blob of cells", "an inconvenience", or "not really alive"? By the end of the fourth week of gestation that little human has a face and a heartbeat even though it is only 1/4 of an inch long! The baby has a brain by the end of the second month, and is fully formed but tiny by the end of the third month (1). Furthermore, that "blob of cells" has a gender, hair color, eye color, nose shape, foot size, and all those other genetic traits already decided in the DNA from day one, when it is no more than a fertilized oocyte dividing into two, then four, then eight cells. Even when the baby is literally a ball of cells it still is the beginnings of a human being, what will become a little boy or girl with blue eyes and a tiny nose.
Abortion takes that potential and snuffs it out before it has a chance to be realized. Whatever that child might have been is gone. God let that body begin to form so one of His spirit children would have a home to experience this life in, and it is not up to us to decide who gets to come and who doesn't.
I understand that many people believe that abortion is a woman's choice because it is her body and the fetus is an unwelcome guest. Think of it this way (inspired by a meme I recently saw on the internet): When you drive a car, you need it to get where you're going. You are not a part of the car, and yet you cannot get out of the car until you reach your destination. Likewise, that fetus is in the woman's body, but is not a part of the woman's body. It cannot leave the uterus until it is fully developed, or gets to where it needs to go. Just as you are separate from the car, so is the baby separate from the mother's body. Unlike you and the car, the baby did not choose to be there. He/she depends on the mother to keep them safe because they don't have a choice in the matter.
In 2011, over 1 million abortions were performed in the U.S. (2). (The CDC has a different number, but since reporting abortion statistics is optional, I'm going with a different source [3].) Many people believe that abortion should be legal in the case of rape, incest, or danger to the mother's heath, but those situations are much rarer than they are made to seem. Only 1% of abortions are from rape or incest (4), whereas the "three most common reasons—each cited by three-fourths of patients—were concern for or responsibility to other individuals; the inability to afford a child; and the belief that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents (3)." As for concern for the health of the mother, I believe an emergency C-section would work just as well as an abortion, and then the baby at least has a chance to live instead of being killed before it got a chance.
Abortion is one issue where I stand strongly on one side and am not swayed by other arguments. I understand that I do not understand all situations, but I do know that every child of God deserves the chance to live. If they are not meant to survive, then that's the Lord's decision, not ours.
Pregnancy is hard. Childbirth is hard. Raising a child is hard. Giving a child up for adoption is hard. Miscarrying or having a baby die shortly after birth is hard. Paying NICU bills is hard. Dealing with the shame of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy is hard. Changing your life to accommodate a surprise pregnancy is hard. The thing is, the best things in life are hard. Abortion is the easy way out, even if the process of deciding and having the procedure is not easy.
I went through crazy blood sugar levels, worrying about a potential heart surgery for my baby, having a giant needle stuck in my spine before having my abdomen cut open, seeing my baby for the first time with an I.V. in his head instead of a cute hat on it, living in Salt Lake and staying in the NICU for most of the day for four weeks, having a huge ugly scar which has totally ruined my sex drive, and having over $10,000 in medical bills to have our son. I look at him sometimes and say, "You are the most expensive thing in my life," but I say it with a smile. In the grand scheme of things, can you really put a price on a child? Can you decide the worth of that soul inside your womb, or whether it gets to live or not? It doesn't matter what you want, how you feel or whether you have the money. That baby is depending on you to give him/her the chance to live.
"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" (5). That means every soul--yours, mine, and that four-week-old embryo with the faintest little heartbeat.
1. http://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases_conditions/hic_Am_I_Pregnant/hic-fetal-development-stages-of-growth
2. https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states
3. https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/abortion-reporting-requirements
4. http://www.abortionno.org/abortion-facts/
5. Doctrine and Covenants 18:10
