Common Abortion Terms

Delayed Ensoulment

• The belief that the soul did not enter us until sometime after we are conceived, and only after our souls join with us, then we become formed.

• Aquinas believed ensoulment was the 40th day for males and 90th day for females. This belief was influenced by Aristotle’s tripartite division of human beings into vegetative, animal, and rational.

• Before ensoulment, termination of the pregnancy was considered a great sin of contraception but not as serious as abortion. Sometimes referred to as quickening, when the mother first feels the movement of her baby.

Formed vs. Unformed

• Formed versus unformed fetus comes from a Septuagint translation of the Old Testament passage Exodus 21:22-23.

• If a woman is struck and the fetus is unformed, the man must only pay a fine, but if the woman is struck and the fetus is “formed” and dies, Lex Talionis.

• This formed an early belief that abortion was only wrong if the fetus was perfectly “formed,” in the image of a human, but prior to a fetus being formed, it is not abortion to terminate the pregnancy.

RU486 “Abortion Pill”

• <10 weeks

• Two drug combination: Mifepristone stops the production of progesterone (necessary for the embryo to stay attached to the uterus. It will thus detach, like with other miscarriages and thus end of pregnancy. The detached embryo/fetus will no longer survive.

• Misoprostol, taken 48 hours later, then causes the fetal tissue to be expelled within 48 hours of taking it. 95% effective if taken up to 8 weeks.

Steps of Conception

1. Ovulation

2. Sperm Transport

3. Fertilization

4. Implantation

When does fertilization occur?

Within 12-24 hours of ovulation, when sperm cell and egg cell combine to form a zygote

When does implantation usually happen?

About 6 days after fertilization, when zygote burrows into uterine lining