The focus then shifted to a 10-year-old girl who was raped and traveled from Ohio, where most abortions are illegal, to Indiana to have an abortion. Dr. Phil asked his audience members for their thoughts on the matter.
One woman directed her comments to Rose, saying, “You just want to legislate evil. That’s really how it feels when I hear you speak, especially when you’re talking about a 10-year-old girl who was raped. To hear you say that, you know, they should just have that anyway is disgusting.”
“I really think you’re a traitor to your own, and I will never be able to agree with you,” she added. “There is nothing you could possibly say to justify that level of lack of empathy.”
Rose responded: “Abortion is devastating to women’s mental health.”
The audience member interrupted, questioning, “Do you know what it’s really like to get raped and then have to have the child? What kind of trauma is that that you’re inducing on somebody?”
“The trauma is from the rape. The child’s an innocent party there,” Rose said.
“The child isn’t born yet. It’s not there,” the audience member interjected back.
Rose responded: “Our fundamental human right, that we all share in this room, is life. It’s the first human right. Laws are meant to protect the weak. In a society, who’s the weakest? Who’s the weakest in the society? A child. They don’t have a voice. They can’t speak.”
“Whether you live 10 minutes or 10 years or a hundred years, you’re human life and you have the right to not be killed. And that’s what the pro-life fight is all about,” she continued. “That’s what we’re fighting for. A culture of life where we provide real health care. You know, abortion is the intentional destruction of an innocent human life. We can do better than that.”
The pro-life case for life from the moment of conception
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The guests also debated the question of when human life begins after Dr. Phil commented that “there is no consensus among the scientific community.”
“There is, Dr. Phil. Ninety-six percent of scientists say that life begins at fertilization,” Rose stated.
A study conducted by a University of Chicago doctoral student showed that a majority of biologists believe life begins at conception. Of the 5,577 biologists who responded to a survey he sent out, 96% supported this fact.
“When do you say human life begins then?” Rose asked.
Dr. Phil replied, “Well, it doesn’t matter what I think, I don’t care what I think. What I’m saying is the scientific community does not have a consensus about when life begins.”
“A single-cell embryo is a unique, new human life,” Rose stated.