The video below may be too graphic for those who are sensitive about medical procedures or who have lost a child. Since it’s near the top of the article, we’ve added extra space after this warning.
This might be the most important few seconds of video you’ll ever see:
The video was initially posted by Jonathon Van Muren of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform with the statement, “This 8-second video of a first-trimester baby tells you everything you need to know about how wrong abortion is.” The perfectly formed pre-born baby is clearly shown arching its back and moving its tiny arms and legs.
According to reporting by Nancy Valko at LifeNews.com, this baby was only eight weeks old, or just under two-thirds of the way through the first trimester (which ends at about 13 weeks). It’s unclear whether the baby is eight weeks old or the mother was considered eight weeks pregnant. The latter would make the baby just six weeks old, because doctors date pregnancies from a mother’s last period, which is usually about two weeks before the egg is released and conception is possible.
This baby was removed because the pregnancy was ectopic, meaning the embryo implanted somewhere other than the uterus (almost always in one of the fallopian tubes). Such pregnancies are extremely dangerous to the mother and child. Unless an emergency surgery is required, ectopic pregnancies are treated either by a drug called Methotrexate or by surgically removing the tiny human via laparoscopy (using very small incisions and guided by a tiny camera on the end of a thin tool), according to the American Pregnancy Association.
At six weeks post-conception, a baby’s heart is beating and the tiny human can reflexively twist his trunk and move his head. According to an article by Dr. Julie-Claire Becher, fetal movement of the limbs begins at around 7.5 weeks post-conception, and by 14 weeks more complex movements like thumb sucking and yawning occur. Although the movement shown in this video is involuntary, it shows without a doubt that babies at this age are not merely “fetal tissue” or “products of conception” or “polyps.” This baby is discernibly not a clump of cells. He or she is a human being.
While some pro-abortion advocates might dismiss this movement as merely triggered by random electrical signals from the spinal cord and therefore insignificant, consider that newborn babies have virtually no control over their movements and can barely hold up their own heads at three months old. If voluntary movement were a measure of humanity, three-month-olds would also just be “products of conception,” not deemed actual babies.
According to 2018 polling by Gallup, six in 10 Americans think abortion should be legal in the first trimester. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 91.1 percent of all abortions are performed in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and 65.4 percent of all abortions are performed between before or at the eighth week. It can’t be much before, however, because usually women don’t know they are pregnant until between the fourth and sixth weeks.
Again, a baby’s heart is already beating at six weeks old, which is before many women even realize they’re pregnant. At seven weeks, he’s 10,000 times bigger than at conception and already has tiny buds for arms and legs. At eight weeks, in addition to that astonishing limb movement, a baby is already the size of a raspberry and all the major organs are under construction.
At nine weeks, toes are visible and all the essential organs are formed. At 10 weeks, babies have tiny tooth buds and can flex from the elbows. Those between 11 and 13 weeks are at least the size of a lime and have developed tongues, ears, and nasal passages, and are beginning to grow fingernails. They might stretch or even do somersaults. Movement that can be felt by some mothers is just a few weeks away––especially if it’s not their first baby.
That is the kind of human life that gets brutally cut short by first-trimester abortion. If you’re one of those six in 10 Americans, think about what you’ve just seen. Does first-trimester abortion sound alright to you now?
