St. Patrick Church

• At 10 weeks nails and fingerprints begin to emerge in patterns that will uniquely identify this child throughout life.
   

• By 11 weeks the fetus can produce a variety of facial expressions, including a smile.
   

• Between 12 and 16 weeks fetuses often touch their mouths, up to 50 times an hour. Teeth begin to grow by 13 weeks. Beginning at 14 weeks behavioral differences between boys and girls appear: female fetuses move their mouths much more frequently than males.
   

• By 16 weeks an unborn child produces many of the same hormones as adults, for example, a painful procedure will trigger the release of cortisol and other stress hormones.
   

• Rapid eye movements—the pattern of movements seen during dreaming—begin between 18 and 21 weeks after conception.
   

• Between 20 and 24 weeks after conception, the unborn child responds to loud noises, pressure, movement, pain, taste, light, heat, and cold.
   

• Children born at 24 weeks post-conception have a greater than 80% chance of survival.
   

• Long before the completion of full-term pregnancy at 38 weeks from conception, the unborn child is listening and learning from the external environment.
   

• Newborns prefer their mother’s voice to any other; they prefer familiar lullabies heard before birth to those heard only after birth.
   

• Every child, at every age of development, brings us God’s smile and invites us to recognize that life is his gift, a gift to be welcomed with love and preserved with care always and at every moment.
   

• How then can Americans remain indifferent to the killing of these marvelous little boys and girls in fertility clinics, and laboratories, and in abortion facilities throughout all nine months of pregnancy?
   

• We must work with urgency to change our attitudes and laws, helping others to discover, celebrate, and cherish the miracle that is every human being, from the beginning of our life’s adventure at conception to our last breath before entering eternity.

To get involved in such pro-life efforts, go to www.usccb.org/prolife/getinvolved.shtml

~ Reprinted from "Respect Life" from Copyright © 2009, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
Washington, D.C. 0906

For more information about the Respect Life Group at St. Patrick

contact Mrs. Lisa Thompson (724.746.3459)
 

Catholic Mobilizing Network for the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty - www.catholicsmobilizing.org

USCCB Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty - www.usccb.org/deathpenalty

The Pennsylvania Moratorium Coalition (of which the PCC is a member) - www.pamoratorium.org

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) - www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

What Every Catholic Should Know About Issues That Concern Life

Abortion - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/index.shtml

Assisted Suicide - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/euthanas/index.shtml

Capital Punishment - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/cappunish/index.shtml

Human Cloning - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/cloning/index.shtml

Contraception - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/contraception/index.shtml

Disabilities - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/disabilities/index.shtml

Embryo/Fetal Research - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/embryo/index.shtml

End Of Life Issues/ Euthanasia - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/euthanas/index.shtml

IVF/Reproductive Technology - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/ivf/index.shtml

International Issues - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/intissues.shtml

Morning After Pill - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/contraception/morningafterpill.shtml

Natural Family Planning - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/nfp/index.shtml

Partial Birth Abortion - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/pba/index.shtml

Post Abortion Healing - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/postabortion/index.shtml

Roe vs. Wade - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/roevwade/index.shtml

RU-486 - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/ru486/index.shtml

Stem Cell Research - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/stemcell/index.shtml

Unborn Victims of Violence Act - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/victims.shtml

Women and the Culture of Life - www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/women/index.shtml

My Defending Life Series - www.PriestsForLife.org/defendinglife

Silent No More Awareness Campaign - www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org/healthcare