“Allow the children to come to me,” Jesus said. “Don’t forbid them, because the kingdom of Heaven belongs to people like these children.”
–Matthew 19:14 (Common English Bible)
Whether or not it has touched our own lives, the issue of abortion is a deeply personal one. Sadly, it is also used as a political weapon in elections and when there’s a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Of course, it’s been the law of the land since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
It is not my desire or duty to alter your opinion on abortion. I suspect our individual views are founded on moral, social, and/or religious considerations. I would like, however, for all of us to give serious and deliberative thought to the issue.
The Court decision in 1973 was predicated on the 14th Amendment, interpreted by the justices to mean citizens of the U.S. have a right to privacy–a right to privately decide how to live their lives and make decisions. Ironically, the 14th Amendment also guarantees that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
How do we square the legal interpretation of the amendment giving women the right to choose with the consequence of a baby’s loss of life? Where is the due process for the baby who is a victim of abortion? Think about it.
I’m not a lawyer, but to me, when we talk about the right to privacy, we’re referring to individual persons. In an abortion, there are two people involved, and that makes all the difference.
Let me give you a simple example. We’d all agree I have the right to make a fist and swing my arm wildly through the air. Correct? That right, however, ends a fraction of an inch between my fist and your nose. Once your nose–the second person–comes into play, everything changes. How is abortion any different? Think about it.
In a September 26, 2020 Wall Street Journal article by Tricia Bruce, she discussed her study on Americans’ thoughts on abortion. She found that, with regard to abortion, we are pretty much a 50-50 country, as we are with so many other issues. Sadly, it also revealed that many of those polled admitted they didn’t give abortion a lot of thought. Also cited was “the paradox that most Americans don’t ‘want’ abortion but nonetheless support legal access to it.”
I suspect for most people abortion isn’t a binary choice between always protecting the unborn child and a woman’s absolute right to choose. There are murky layers in-between. No doubt it is a complex issue, clouded by considerations that include the circumstances of the conception, the mother’s health, and the baby’s viability.
The one-year death toll from Covid 19 is now well over 500,000. We all agree that’s awful. For the year 2018, the CDC officially reported the number of legal abortions at over 600,000. Catch that? Six hundred thousand. In 1992, President Clinton said abortions should be safe, legal, and rare. Even if one agrees they should be safe and legal, no one can posit they are rare.
Other than a risk to the mom’s health and/or survival, I see no reason to sanction late term abortions, where viable babies are birthed and then left to die. With the availability of genetic testing and sophisticated ultrasound technology, problems that would make a baby’s viability impossible should be determined long before the pregnancy advances so far. Think about it.
By God’s design, women are endowed with the ability to give the gift of life to another human being. That gift is a blessing, but it can be a burden under certain circumstances. Rather than debate responsibility for one’s reproductive health or cast blame, we need to look for answers for women who find themselves facing unplanned parenthood but don’t want to have an abortion.
There are solutions. A pregnant woman, especially if she has no partner to call upon, could go to family members, close friends, or even her church family for the support she needs to continue a pregnancy to term and deliver a healthy baby. She might be surprised by the level of support she’d receive.
The other option is adoption. There are hundreds of thousands of couples in the U.S. waiting to adopt a baby–far more than the number of babies available. A pregnant woman who consents to adoption is twice blessed: blessed to give birth to new life and then blessed to give another family that same new life.
Especially today, society is bending over backwards to be the voice for the oppressed and downtrodden. Who will be the voice for the unborn?
The issue of abortion will arise again on the political landscape; I have no doubt about that. It behooves us all to be informed and to give it our utmost consideration.
What do you think?
5 Comments
Leave A Comment
“Allow the children to come to me,” Jesus said. “Don’t forbid them, because the kingdom of Heaven belongs to people like these children.”
–Matthew 19:14 (Common English Bible)
Whether or not it has touched our own lives, the issue of abortion is a deeply personal one. Sadly, it is also used as a political weapon in elections and when there’s a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Of course, it’s been the law of the land since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
It is not my desire or duty to alter your opinion on abortion. I suspect our individual views are founded on moral, social, and/or religious considerations. I would like, however, for all of us to give serious and deliberative thought to the issue.
The Court decision in 1973 was predicated on the 14th Amendment, interpreted by the justices to mean citizens of the U.S. have a right to privacy–a right to privately decide how to live their lives and make decisions. Ironically, the 14th Amendment also guarantees that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
How do we square the legal interpretation of the amendment giving women the right to choose with the consequence of a baby’s loss of life? Where is the due process for the baby who is a victim of abortion? Think about it.
I’m not a lawyer, but to me, when we talk about the right to privacy, we’re referring to individual persons. In an abortion, there are two people involved, and that makes all the difference.
Let me give you a simple example. We’d all agree I have the right to make a fist and swing my arm wildly through the air. Correct? That right, however, ends a fraction of an inch between my fist and your nose. Once your nose–the second person–comes into play, everything changes. How is abortion any different? Think about it.
In a September 26, 2020 Wall Street Journal article by Tricia Bruce, she discussed her study on Americans’ thoughts on abortion. She found that, with regard to abortion, we are pretty much a 50-50 country, as we are with so many other issues. Sadly, it also revealed that many of those polled admitted they didn’t give abortion a lot of thought. Also cited was “the paradox that most Americans don’t ‘want’ abortion but nonetheless support legal access to it.”
I suspect for most people abortion isn’t a binary choice between always protecting the unborn child and a woman’s absolute right to choose. There are murky layers in-between. No doubt it is a complex issue, clouded by considerations that include the circumstances of the conception, the mother’s health, and the baby’s viability.
The one-year death toll from Covid 19 is now well over 500,000. We all agree that’s awful. For the year 2018, the CDC officially reported the number of legal abortions at over 600,000. Catch that? Six hundred thousand. In 1992, President Clinton said abortions should be safe, legal, and rare. Even if one agrees they should be safe and legal, no one can posit they are rare.
Other than a risk to the mom’s health and/or survival, I see no reason to sanction late term abortions, where viable babies are birthed and then left to die. With the availability of genetic testing and sophisticated ultrasound technology, problems that would make a baby’s viability impossible should be determined long before the pregnancy advances so far. Think about it.
By God’s design, women are endowed with the ability to give the gift of life to another human being. That gift is a blessing, but it can be a burden under certain circumstances. Rather than debate responsibility for one’s reproductive health or cast blame, we need to look for answers for women who find themselves facing unplanned parenthood but don’t want to have an abortion.
There are solutions. A pregnant woman, especially if she has no partner to call upon, could go to family members, close friends, or even her church family for the support she needs to continue a pregnancy to term and deliver a healthy baby. She might be surprised by the level of support she’d receive.
The other option is adoption. There are hundreds of thousands of couples in the U.S. waiting to adopt a baby–far more than the number of babies available. A pregnant woman who consents to adoption is twice blessed: blessed to give birth to new life and then blessed to give another family that same new life.
Especially today, society is bending over backwards to be the voice for the oppressed and downtrodden. Who will be the voice for the unborn?
The issue of abortion will arise again on the political landscape; I have no doubt about that. It behooves us all to be informed and to give it our utmost consideration.
What do you think?
5 Comments
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Dr E
I think you are right on target. One only has to witness the brutality of an abortion to know there is something wrong here. A “women’s right to choose” makes her a target for an abuse she must live with for the rest of her life. This is another area where the church must step in and offer hope and love rather than condemnation. I have often wondered if proponents of Roe V Wade cling to it because as long as abortion is legal, that somehow makes it OK. -
Agree with every word. Thank you for writing this!
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How many of those 600,000 women were using abortion as simply contraception? If so, we have multiple safe choices available including hormonal agents which can be used before or after intercourse. Additionally, mechanical means exist, again, safe and effective. None of this is rocket science. Apparently, additional education, individual responsibility and drug/device availability is required. So, if you inhibit fertilization, abortion problem solved.
As far as the religious objections, I defer to someone smarter than I. -
Difficult to be a middle-of-the-roader on abortion…
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Speaking as someone who has an adopted child in the family and how much we all love this child, it is unfathomable to me how abortions especially late term ones, should even be considered. There are so many couples that desperately want a child and are unable to birth one of their own. You are right on: twice blessed is the mother who births her child then legally gives him/her to another woman who can raise the child with as much love as she had birthed him/her herself. Abortion should be condemned.
Dr E
I think you are right on target. One only has to witness the brutality of an abortion to know there is something wrong here. A “women’s right to choose” makes her a target for an abuse she must live with for the rest of her life. This is another area where the church must step in and offer hope and love rather than condemnation. I have often wondered if proponents of Roe V Wade cling to it because as long as abortion is legal, that somehow makes it OK.
Agree with every word. Thank you for writing this!
How many of those 600,000 women were using abortion as simply contraception? If so, we have multiple safe choices available including hormonal agents which can be used before or after intercourse. Additionally, mechanical means exist, again, safe and effective. None of this is rocket science. Apparently, additional education, individual responsibility and drug/device availability is required. So, if you inhibit fertilization, abortion problem solved.
As far as the religious objections, I defer to someone smarter than I.
Difficult to be a middle-of-the-roader on abortion…
Speaking as someone who has an adopted child in the family and how much we all love this child, it is unfathomable to me how abortions especially late term ones, should even be considered. There are so many couples that desperately want a child and are unable to birth one of their own. You are right on: twice blessed is the mother who births her child then legally gives him/her to another woman who can raise the child with as much love as she had birthed him/her herself. Abortion should be condemned.