Dear Colkoch,

Do Catholics/Christians need a compelling case for the legal concept of full personhood at conception?  In Jeremiah 1:5, God said, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you". All human life - including that of the unborn is sacred in God's eyes and must not be wantonly destroyed. When the Blessed Mother was pregnant with Jesus, Holy Scripture tells us in Matthew 1:23, "Behold the Virgin shall be with child, and bear a son." Jesus Himself began His earthly human life as a tiny embryo. In Holy Scripture Jacob and Esau are called "children" while they are in the womb. It is improper and I have no doubt hurts God terribly to use language when speaking about a child that has been conceived as "a clump of cells" or "tissues" or "tumors". But we can see why - Imagine talking about abortion honestly and actually admitting that it is a "baby","child", " human life created by God" that we are aborting? If all contemplating abortion were told/believed this, they would not abort.