Hannah* didn’t know how many weeks she was in her pregnancy. She knew she wasn’t very far along which is why she was strongly considering having an abortion. Her situation wasn’t ideal so an abortion seemed like the most plausible choice.

But Hannah didn’t get an abortion. She was able to hear her baby’s heartbeat at her appointment. On the ultrasound she saw that her baby had fingers and toes. She was already 12 weeks pregnant! Seeing how far her baby was developed she said if she had an abortion it would be the equivalent of “murdering her child”. However, she also stated if she were only a week pregnant than maybe that would be different.

You’re never really “one week pregnant”. A woman is never technically pregnant at one week—but her body is preparing for pregnancy. It is a part of a normal cycle that women go through every month, which is why if pregnancy is not successful a woman will have her monthly period.

This is important because many women seeking abortions are not fully aware of this and how fast their baby will develop. At around three weeks in pregnancy is when conception happens. Around the fifth week is when many women discover they are pregnant because it is the most reliable pregnancy symptom—a missed period.

Hannah’s* baby already had moving fingers and toes at only 8 weeks after conception is remarkable! And her baby’s heartbeat could have been detected as early as five and a half weeks in pregnancy. Which would have been a little over a week or two after conception.

If more people knew that life begins at conception then certainly they would have the same mindset as Hannah—an abortion is murdering an innocent child.