Civil Religion reader Spyguy asks an excellent question located on the comment board under Abortion: Dehumanizing the Vulnerable:

“From a biological standpoint, there is a reason the AP uses that terminology. Not that they are right or wrong, but an explanation should be done. For there to be a pregnancy, TWO things are required (and, in full disclosure, I have no medical background). One, fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Second, the fertilized egg (using AP’s wording) needs to be implanted in the uterine wall to effect development. Then, and only then, does pregnancy happen. AP’s point is that the Colorado law would define a person at the first point, not the second. As you likely realize, the point of this law is to ban emergency contraception, which stops the second point, stopping pregnancy. That is why emergency contraception is referred to (incorrectly, by my opinion) as causing an abortion. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks. “

So glad you asked, Spyguy.

In my youth, fertilization and conception meant the same thing, the beginning of pregnancy. Implantation came later. Ah, then entered the birth control pill in the mid-sixties:

When the birth control pill came along — and when it was realized that high doses of the pill inhibit implantation, thus killing the new human — family planning lobbying efforts went into high gear, the goal being to change the definition of pregnancy.

The lobbyists knew the public doesn’t much like the word abortion, and they were quite willing to say so. “Change the definition of pregnancy,” went the cry, “and we won’t have to use the word abortion.”

The No Room for Contraception website has an excellent history of this Brave New World success story:

“Up until the mid sixties, the question of the beginning of pregnancy wasn’t a subject of serious debate. It was well accepted, based upon sound science, that, that conception occurred at fertilization (that is, the union of sperm and egg).

It was also accepted that anything which prevented implantation in fact caused an abortion, as recognized by the US Government and described in a 1963 public health service leaflet:

‘All the measures which impair the viability of the zygote [newly created human] at any time between the instant of fertilization [union of sperm and egg] and the completion of labor constitute, in the strict sense, procedures for inducing abortion [1] …..’

For the rest of the article, go to this link. Read and remember.