A 24-year-old man shared on social media that his earliest childhood memory was from when he was still in his mother's womb.
Justin Smith, who works at Liberty University and serves as worship leader at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., said that after watching a video about abortion, he felt like he needed to share his story.
The 24-year-old man said on a Facebook video post that when he was 8, while his family was having lunch, his mother asked him and his siblings what their earliest memories were.
"I don't think you're gonna believe me," he jokingly warned his mother. As she urged him to share the story, he said, "I think I remember when I was inside you."
Smith described what his earliest memory was. He said he felt like he was floating and around him was some kind of "opaque, bluish light." He could see his hand "silhoutted" in front of his eyes. Then he heard muffled voices and felt people moving all around.
Smith said he remembered the scene so clearly. Even now, when he was 24, the details were still clear to him.
His mother didn't think too much about the story until later in the day when she remembered that when Smith was 20 weeks in the womb, doctors told her there was a tumor in her ovary. The tumor threatened Smith's life and had to be removed.
So she went through surgery in which Smith was temporarily taken out of her womb and placed on top of her stomach while the tumor was being removed. She was awake all thoughout the surgery; doctors couldn't put her under because it would affect the baby.
She remembered the very bright surgical light as the medical staff tended to her.
Smith's mother realized she had never told Smith what happened when he was 20 weeks in the womb, and hearing his account of that day in the hospital made her "freak out."
"I think God gives us all a story, about something, and for something," Smith said on Facebook. "I don't know who this is for, but maybe it's for you."
Pro-choice advocates argue that a fetus is not a human being and therefore does not have the right to life. NARAL Pro-Choice America says that recognizing the "personhood" of a fetus is an "anti-choice tactic" that claims life begins at conception.
"It gives legal rights to a fertilized egg," the group says on its website. "Although details vary, 'personhood' measures typically change a state's definition of the word 'person' to include a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus, with the intent of outlawing abortion."
"Personhood" measures, according to NARAL, are an attempt by the pro-life movement to "take away a woman's ability to make reproductive-health-care decisions" and strip her of her constitutional right to opt for abortion.
Randy Alcorn, Christian author and founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries, debunks the pro-choice belief that the fetus is simply a tissue and not a human being.
"Like toddler or adolescent, the terms embryo and fetus do not refer to nonhumans, but to humans at particular stages of development," Alcorn wrote in a book entitled 'Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments.'
"Semantics affect perceptions, but they do not change realities; a baby is a baby no matter what we call her," he explained. "Every abortion stops a beating heart and terminates measurable brain waves."
According to Baby Centre, babies typically hear sounds from 23 to 27 weeks in the womb. At 23 weeks, the baby will hear more low-pitched sounds, and at 29 to 33 weeks, the baby will be able to make out high-pitched sounds.
Smith's story goes before the 23-week mark and proves that babies in the womb not only can hear sounds but can feel and see -- and even remember.
"I've wrestled a long time with whether or not to put this out there, but it's time. So, here it is, take it or leave it," Smith said. "But I would really appreciate it if you watched."
See Smith's video below.
