The Palm Beach Post reported that the winner of the December five-kilometer race was Sonja Firend-Uhl, “who was six months pregnant with her unborn child.” This prompted a letter to the editor, which is, in part, reproduced below.
“The paper often refers to the unborn as if they were live people. Speaking biologically or physiologically, they are not live humans. We hope they will be born and born alive, but that’s in the future. For now, it is a fetus and two are fetuses. This usage ought not to discomfit those whose religion believes something else; I think even Catholics/Orthodox Jews would not deny the use of ‘fetus.’
“I am not trying to start a religious contretemps but there are two sides to that issue also. Calling a fetus a girl is offensive to many people. Science will inform us that a female fetus is just that, a fetus. It becomes a girl only at birth.
“Can we please try to get a better grip on this slippery slope and be more watchful how we use these words? In some cases, perhaps we don’t have to go there. The woman was pregnant and she ran a race. Do we need to know any more details?” Signed/Naomi Baxter
What’s a Christian to do when they read such foolishness? Look at the response of one reader in Sunday’s paper who objected and then gave the following reasons.
“Several years ago, I was pregnant with an ‘unborn boy’ for eight months, when he died. He is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery with the marker, ‘Baby Boy Haines,’ and I still grieve for him.
“Even though he did not live until he was born, I find it repulsive to refer to him as just a fetus. He lived inside me and was a living being for eight months. Yes, I am a Christian, I believe in God, and I believe the Bible is God’s word to guide us. In Luke the second chapter, Elizabeth was six months pregnant with John the Baptist, and in verse 41 it says that the ‘baby’ (not fetus) leaped in her womb. This is only one example among many that states this.
“The letter-writer says that your paper often refers to the unborn as if they were live people. I believe they are. She says calling a fetus a girl is offensive to many people. It is offensive to me, and I suppose many others, to call my baby a fetus. He was my son. And if the Bible calls it a baby, who are we to disagree with God?” Signed/June (Haines) Pack. Thank you, June, for silencing such drivel!