If a child asks about abortion, having been startled by a billboard or sidewalk protester claiming "Abortion is murder" or "Abortion kills babies," it is important to explain that babies are people, and people have minds. In other words, people have the ability to think thoughts and feel emotions. But if a body does not have a mind, then there isn't a living person inside that body. It's also important to point out that there is a difference between having an ability and using the ability. For example, you have the ability to sing even when you're not singing. So when someone is sleeping, they still have the ability to think and feel even though they're not using it. The same goes for someone who is unconscious or in a coma—their mind is still there, even though they aren't using it at the time. But when a person's mind is completely gone, we call that brain death. When someone is brain-dead, they've passed away. Their body is still there, but the person is gone—they've moved on to Heaven. 

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You know that after a person passes away, the body left behind is called a corpse, right? Well, before someone lives, before there is a mind, there first has to be a body. And we call that body a fetus. So, when a woman starts pregnancy, her body starts growing a fetus. And that fetus has a lot of growing to do before it can hold a new mind. It takes about 23 to 25 weeks of growth before the fetus develops the brain parts to have a mind. Before 23 weeks, the fetus doesn’t have a mind yet, so it isn’t a baby. Then, after 23 weeks, the fetus becomes a baby.

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It is very, very important that women have access to abortion before 23 weeks. Some women need an abortion because they find out that they aren’t healthy enough to stay pregnant or to give birth. In that case, abortion saves their life. Some women have an abortion because they get pregnant and then realize they don’t have enough money to support a baby yet. Babies need a lot of things, like food, diapers, clothes, toys, and doctor visits, and those things cost money. Babies deserve to be cared for properly. If a pregnant person realizes they don't have enough money saved up to properly care for a baby, then the responsible thing to do is get an abortion and prevent a baby from coming. It would have been better, of course, to figure out whether or not they have enough money to support a baby before starting a pregnancy, but sometimes people make mistakes. Lastly, sometimes medical testing shows that the fetus is not developing okay. Sometimes we can see that the fetus has organs that didn’t grow right or that the fetus is missing entire organs. Without abortion, then a baby would come to exist with bad organs and then the baby would experience a lot of pain and not get to live very long. That isn’t fair to a baby at all, so in that case, it is better to have an abortion to prevent a baby from suffering. Abortion is a very important medical procedure that saves lives and prevents suffering.

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If someone ever comes up to you and tells you that all abortions kill babies, then all you need to do is politely say, "Please go read RespectPeople.org," and then walk away. Let the website do the explaining so that you can move on to enjoy your day.

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