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Jen Gunter

Abortionist Jen Gunter: ‘The unborn are zombies’ and a human embryo is ‘not a human’

Icon of a magnifying glassAnalysis·By Cassy Cooke

Abortionist Jen Gunter: ‘The unborn are zombies’ and a human embryo is ‘not a human’

Abortionist Jen Gunter, known for freely expressing her pro-abortion opinions on Twitter, recently posted more tweets ignoring the scientific reality of fetal development. In one tweet, Gunter sneered at pro-lifers who frequently refer to children in the womb as “unborn” by claiming that “unborn” refers to “zombies.”

Gunter, who recently was given a lifetime achievement award from Planned Parenthood Illinois, tweeted, “An embryo isn’t a human, it’s a human embryo. And don’t f***ing tell me what I know as a doctor.” Pro-abortion and pro-life activists chimed in, with some arguing that an embryo is a stage of human development, while others said that because a fetus does not have legal protection, it cannot be human.

One of the pro-life advocates pointed out that Gunter denies the humanity of preborn children, to which Gunter responded by calling them “zombies”:

It’s Dr. Gunter to you. We’re discussing a subject of my expertise. The unborn are zombies. That doesn’t apply here. Use medical terms or at least grown up words. An embryo is an human embryo, it’s not a human.

Robin Atkins
Robin Atkins
@TruthAgape

Gunter claimed the unborn aren't humans. They are. I agree the government has no business to tell a woman what happens in her body. It can tell others not to harm the human in her body.

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Gunter’s point was to illustrate how supposedly ridiculous the term “unborn” is, but even pro-abortion advocates found her comment distasteful. “Dr. Jen, love your work, but this ‘zombie’ comment was a terrible take,” one person tweeted. “I understand you’re trying to equate the ludicrousness of using the term ‘the unborn’ to ‘the undead’ but you’re a big voice for choice, and this is going to be weaponized against the movement.”

Yet the argument meant seemingly nothing to Gunter, who responded, “Unborn is not a medical term, it has no meaning. I refuse to lower myself to their level.” She later added, “I refuse to stoop to the level of forced birthers by using their made up terms. They do not get to choose the language, there are medical terms. They should be used.”

But as someone who prides herself on being a doctor, Gunter seems blithely unaware of how many medical organizations do, in fact, use the term “unborn” to refer to human children in the womb. These include University of California San Francisco Health, Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and even the NHS in the United Kingdom. Additionally, a search of PubMed for the term “unborn baby” in scientific literature yields over 700 results.

Gunter further argued that while a preborn child is a fetus, it still isn’t a human being, oddly claiming that “human” is the adjective, with “fetus” serving as the noun.

It’s not a heart at 3 weeks. A heart pumping blood isn’t a definition of anything. Do you know the difference between an adjective and a noun? Human is the adjective with human fetus, not the noun. This has been explained to you.

Robin Atkins
Robin Atkins
@TruthAgape

Again, what species is a human embryo? At 3 weeks since LMP, when the heart is pumping blood, what species is he/she?

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Yet this, again, is a seemingly unscientific take at odds with the medical community. The Cleveland Clinic, for example, lists both “embryo” and “fetus” as stages of human development. And Gunter’s anti-science takes don’t end there; her argument that the heart isn’t truly beating is easily disproven, with video of a preborn baby’s heart beating available to view online. Far from being a meaningless pulsing of muscle, the video shows the heart actually pumping blood throughout the preborn baby’s tiny body:

Thumbnail for The Beating Heart in Slow Motion: 4 1/2 Weeks Pregnant

As the Endowment for Human Development (EHD) explains, the heart is the preborn baby’s, or embryo’s, first working body system. And it’s necessary, because without blood and nutrients flowing, the child’s body could not grow.

The complexity achieved by the embryo in just the first 3 weeks of development is incredible. Considering the importance of distribYet the early completion of this body system – the first system to begin functioning – is remarkable.13 By 3 weeks early blood cell precursors appear in the yolk sac. This process of blood cell formation is called hematopoiesis. Also by 3 weeks, early blood vessels form throughout the embryo as the network of the early circulatory system begins to take shape.

In the middle of week 3, only 18 days after fertilization, the embryo’s heart appears.

Only 3 weeks and 1 day after fertilization – the heart begins to beat. By 4 weeks, the heart typically beats between 105 and 121 times per minute.

Gunter has lied before about preborn children’s heartbeats, and tried to claim that “life” is something based solely on what the parents want it to be. She has also mocked those in the pro-life movement for trying to help women experiencing unplanned pregnancies by giving homeless women a place to live.

Gunter tries to present herself as someone who is based in logic, science, and reason — yet her repeated outbursts towards the pro-life movement make it appear that she is led more by her pro-abortion agenda than by scientific fact.

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