Rethinking the Abortion Debate
Abortion is more than just a controversial issue; it is a
polarizing issue. But you knew
that. The question is whether we as a
society can find a resolution to this issue.
Abortion has become the defining issue for many voters, such
that political candidates will win or lose elections over their position on
this one thing.
After years of watching and reflecting on the controversy, I
have reached resolution, at least for myself.
[If you plan to continue reading, I hope you read the whole thing before
you decide if my resolution has any merit beyond my own mind.]
The basic issue is whether the government should be able to
control what takes place inside a human being.
And this much I can agree with those who are pro-choice. As much as I hate abortion and regard those
who perform them as morally bankrupt and those who seek them as sinning against
God and making the biggest mistake of their lives, I don’t now believe that we
should criminalize the activity, in other words, ban it.
The same people who want to tell a woman she can’t have an
abortion are the same people who will complain if the government tells them how
large of a soft drink they can buy, whether or not their child can bring a
lunch from home to school, or what kind of light bulbs they have to buy.
Obviously there is much more at stake in a pregnancy than in
how much pop you should drink, but the fact is that, while that child growing
inside her mother has a separate life from her mother, the life and health of
that child is completely dependent on the mother. That pregnant mother makes choices everyday
that will affect the life and health of that child, whether by drinking
alcohol, smoking, eating right, taking medication, using drugs, taking prenatal
vitamins, and, of course, by seeing a doctor regularly.
If the government wants to prevent her from ending her
pregnancy, it should mandate as well all the other matters of healthy
pregnancies.
The abortion debate is not unlike the gun debate. Gun control advocates want to limit access to
guns in order to limit the possibilities of gun violence. The pro-life people want to limit or ban
abortions to limit the number of preborn children being killed.
By the way, I read today that it is estimated that before
abortion was legalized, there were between 200,000 and 1.2 million abortions in
the United States
every year. We have averaged about a
million abortions a year since. So, as
in the gun debate, outlawing something doesn’t mean you are going to prevent it
from happening. There are already laws
against murder. How is that working out?
Those who oppose more gun control see the bigger problem as
the evil in people’s hearts and the need to address that. Having abortion legal does not make anyone
have an abortion any more than having guns makes someone kill people.
Liberals believe that the government can and should solve
all of society’s problems. This gets the
government involved in more and more areas of our lives. Conservatives believe in liberty, which relies
more on individuals showing self-restraint, virtue, compassion, faith, and
common sense in dealing with the various issues and challenges that come up in
life.
Smoking and drinking large quantities of soda are not wise
health choices, but we prefer that the government not be controlling our lives in
these matters.
When we have talked about making abortion illegal, I think
we may have given the impression that the mother is the main culprit here. I have to ask what kind of morally dead,
heartless people actually work in performing these abortions.
But now, having said all this, as a society, as a
government, as our political and social leaders and educators, I believe we
need to make it clear that, because something is legal, it does not make it
right. And though abortion may be legal,
it is not A right. You do not have a RIGHT to kill your unborn
child. We won’t prevent you from doing
so, but we will try to dissuade you.
The Supreme Court said women have a right to an
abortion. I think that means no more
than that the government cannot legally forbid it. Rights can only come from God.
Our children are our next generation, our future leaders,
our future contributors to society, our most treasured possessions. Something is seriously wrong when over a
million of our children are aborted every year.
Life is not valued, and it is not surprising when there are so many
killings. Life is cheap.
As long as that child is inside its mother, that mother is
responsible for the life and health of that child. Once the child is born or even in the process
of being born, the government has the right and duty to protect that life. [In the rare event that the life of the child
or the mother is endangered at the time of birth, I believe the priority should
be given to the mother. Parents may want
to sign consent forms before delivery who they want the doctors to save first
if it comes to that.]
In Roe v. Wade, the Court extended the right of government
restrictions even further back to the point of viability except in cases of the
life and health of the mother.
The government, meaning our society, has an invested
interest in our children. There are many
laws that affect abortion that any moral government should support.
1) The
government should not financially support abortions. The government has no money but what it takes
from its citizens. Printing money
doesn’t count, because it only devalues the money we already have, so it is
essentially a tax, which is taking money from the citizens. Aborting babies is not in the best interests
of our country, so we as citizens should not be forced to pay for it.
2) Children
should not be given abortions without their parents’ or guardians’
consent. I understand that children
can’t even receive an aspirin at school without parental permission. Abortions are not simple procedures without
major risks.
3) If states
want to mandate waiting periods, sonograms, or other impediments to speedy
abortions, these should be promoted as in the best interests of both mother and
child and not as steps to the future elimination of abortions.
4) It is a
fact, though not widely known or publicized, that many women experience serious
emotional problems after abortions. Aborting
a child is not the same as removing a tumor.
We need to inform women of what many women prior to them have
experienced. What is seen now as an
inconvenience or an unsustainable burden is often seen later as their own child
who they killed.
As time goes on and they see children the same age as what
their aborted child would have been, it can be more than painful. People need to be made aware of these things
before going ahead with this.
5) If every woman
who aborts her child gave birth to that child, the number of women raising a
child in a single parent household would explode. Not only is that the leading indicator that
that child will grow up in poverty, that child also risks much higher chances
of other problems such as their performance in school and getting into trouble.
While, as a society, abortion is sometimes seen as a way to
minimize problem children, it ultimately devalues all children in that it makes
them out to be consumer products, attained for our benefit and discarded or
otherwise avoided when inconvenient.
We need to encourage and strengthen marriages. Families having a mother and a father and
children are one of the most important things that we need to ensure the future
of our country.
Whether you believe that life evolved from swamp gook or was
created by God, women have been entrusted with the gift, the privilege, of
bearing our next generation. Children
are the most treasured things we will ever have. We teach our girls that they need to become
physicists or soldiers or CEOs to really become all that they should be. And children are often depicted as unfortunate
hindrances to that fulfillment.
I believe they have been lied to.
