July 30, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – In just a week, a Facebook video depicting preborn humanity in vivid details has amassed tens of millions of views.
Hashem Al-Ghaili is a Yemeni man who lives in Germany and works as an independent “influencer” primarily through his popular Science Nature Page on Facebook. He also shares informative content on YouTube and Flickr, and his work has inspired people to seek him out as a public speaker and media consultant.
One of his most recent videos, first uploaded to YouTube on June 3 but shared on Facebook last week, illustrates the entire process of fertilization, implantation, development, and birth. The Facebook version features different music and informative captions added throughout.
“Welcome to Life!” reads a caption at the end of the film.
The video begins with an egg’s release into the fallopian tube, egg and sperm “fus[ing] to form a zygote” in fertilization, and the zygote’s implantation in the uterine lining. From there the audience sees “rapid” cellular division, with the embryo quickly taking on a recognizably-human shape.
The apolitical video does not explicitly stake out a position on the debate over when life begins, although settled scientific criteria establish that the physical life of a distinct human organism begins at fertilization, rather than implantation. This consensus has been established for years in mainstream medical and biology textbooks, with many abortionists and even some pro-abortion activists admitting that the procedure they champion kills living babies.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a purportedly-impartial medical authority that in reality advocates for forcing medical professionals to provide abortion referrals, redefined “conception” in the 1960s to refer to implantation rather than fertilization, for the purpose of making contraception more culturally acceptable. Even so, a 2011 survey found that most OB/GYNs continue to say life begins at fertilization, not implantation.
The video goes on to highlight several milestones of fetal development, such as the brain, nose, mouth, ears, and intestines beginning to form at six weeks; the heart being fully developed by ten; the baby beginning to kick at 18 weeks; and more.
Despite preborn babies being fully alive and human from the start of pregnancy, displaying most of the secondary characteristics associated with life by the end of the first trimester, and being able to feel pain by 20 weeks (and potentially earlier), abortion is effectively legal through all nine months in the United States and Canada. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans would ban most abortions, and pro-abortion activists intensely oppose laws requiring abortionists to offer women ultrasound images, fearing they would cause such numbers to rise further still.
As of the time of this writing, Hashem Al-Ghaili’s video has been on Facebook for “about a week,” during which it has been viewed 39 million times and shared more than half a million. Al-Ghaili’s Facebook page has more than 27 million followers.