When Lynn Grandon sees abortion, she sees murder. Proudly pro-life, Grandon – the director of the Respect Life office at Catholic Charities Denver – views the overturning of Roe v. Wade as empowering to pregnant citizens, who are now able to raise what could potentially be the next President, Pulitzer Prize winner, or award-winning artist. 

Grandon worked in women’s health for over 30 years, and turned to Christianity out of curiosity. “I was what one would classify an Evangelical Christian as from the time I was a child, and that’s how I was raised.  I was the director of a Women’s Health Care Center in the Midwest, and I had a woman come into my office and say to me, ‘Did you know that serious Catholic women don’t use birth control?’ And being in women’s health I said, ‘I don’t even know what you mean by that,’” Grandon said. “She stressed that women can learn and it [tracking your cycle] is such a safer way for them to master their bodies and their fertility, rather than putting dangerous chemicals in their body.”

This understanding pushed Grandon to question the side she was on, and her research pushed her towards Catholicism. But her arguments for pro-life are stritcly non-Christian. “What good is it going to do if I quote Bible verses to a person and they don’t even know the Bible?” she said. “They don’t even understand the Bible. It’s fruitless to do that.” 

Her background, as she explains, is what forces her to look at things from a scientific perspective. “For me the only viable way to discuss any human being is to use objective biology. Because that crosses all cultures. You can talk about that anywhere in the world.” 

With her experience in women’s health spanning multiple generations, Grandon’s arguments focus primarily on science and human anatomy, as opposed to moral or biblical reasonings. “I learned about science, medicine, and the value of humanity and what abortion does to the female body, both short term and long term,” Grandon said. “To me, that science was undeniable. Science is what solidified me and I’ve never had anyone be able to discount the science. And it makes me sad when pro-choice people say deny the evidence, the science.”

The science Grandon refers to is applied examples of biology and genetics. “When people say things like, ‘It’s not really a human being,’ I just politely say, ‘Well, then what? What else could the offspring of two human beings be? They can’t be a giraffe or a tadpole, right?’ It’s genetics.”

Her application of these examples also argue against popular pro-choice phrases. “When women with uteruses nowadays say ‘It’s my body, my choice,’ I politely say back to them, ‘If you can see, it’s not your body. It’s someone else’s body. It has totally different DNA. If it’s a little boy inside your body, every single cell in that new life’s body is male,’” Grandon said. 

Grandon’s arguments against abortion extend beyond just science, however. In referencing Dred Scott v. Sandford, a Supreme Court case upholding slavery and denying slaves the right to citizenship, Grandon exclaims her fears about history repeating itself. 

“150 years ago in our country, certain states’ justification  for having slaves was that although he [a slave] may have a heart and a brain, and he may be a human life, biologically, a slave is not a real person. And so what bothers me now is here we are 150 years later and we are saying, although he may have a heart and a brain and he may be a human life, biologically, a child that is still inside his mother’s womb is not a legal person,” Grandon said. “I think we have to use human history to analyze what we’re doing as a human race. And we have to understand that humanity is not something to throw away for convenience or selfishness. It’s so much deeper than just making laws.”

In viewing a fetus as a human life, Grandon sees deepness in every law passed and every ban created. In her eyes, each act against abortion is seen as a prevention of mass murder. “If this child is born, and does receive light, I believe that every human being that is conceived has a purpose and a reason to be at the time in human history where they are placed,” Grandon said. 

Having a child is difficult, especially for those young, unemployed, or in poverty. Grandon has a solution. “There is no woman in Denver that, if they find themselves in any kind of dilemma, would be left alone, because we [Catholic charities] have safe houses for women that are experiencing domestic violence. We have maternity homes. We have homeless shelters for families. We have every single thing because we have figured out how to help any woman in this area if she finds herself in trouble,” Grandon said. 

As for those who view having an abortion as saving a child from a bad life, Grandon has an answer for that too. “In the United States of America, there are way too many people beautifully willing to come alongside and take care of all of these women and families that are in crisis,” Grandson said. “They’re not alone.”