Researchers at Lancaster University in the UK recently released the results of a study on the visual
development of babies in the womb. What they found is that unborn babies at 34 weeks are like newborn babies in preferring face like stimuli. The research team used a light source to project a
pattern of three dots in the shape of eyes and a mouth through the uterine wall and measured the
way the baby responded using ultrasound. To the surprise of even the lead researcher on this project, the findings show that babies of 34 weeks gestation will turn their heads to track the face like pattern in the shape of a triangle: two dots on top (like eyes) and one dot on the bottom (like a mouth).

Absolutely amazing. There was no such movement when the team projected three inverted dots in the shape of a triangle (One dot on top, two on the bottom), demonstrating that it was not the lights
alone which the babies preferred. Lead researcher, Professor Vincent Reid, had this to say: “…we have shown that the preference for face like shapes is already present before birth.”

This is the amazing science of life in the womb. Not fairy tale stuff. Not make believe. This is the
science of human life, made possible by our rapidly advancing technology such as 4D ultrasound. For those of us working to protect and nurture life – science is in our corner. This is one more study that
drives that point home. Not surprisingly, NPR called the research as provocative. And it is. The more
we learn about the science of life in the womb, the more we understand that in every abortion, a human life is being destroyed.

So is it research provocative to the culture? Provocative and convicting.