Dispel the fog on abortion
A family member’s recent Facebook post perpetrating the lie that only one person’s body is of concern in an abortion reminded me that facts are inconvenient things when ideology trumps truth. But like a pesky bill collector, facts don’t go away just because you ignore them, and they bear repeating…often. Because maybe if disregarding their relentless calls becomes more inconvenient than hearing them, they will at last be answered and addressed. And so I resubmit this post from March of 2013.
Sometimes I feel like we’re all in a stupefying fog, though the denseness varies depending on where you stand. Horrible, evil things are happening every day, near and far, and we don’t see them. Or we see “through a glass, darkly,” not fully apprehending what is going on. And we’re not responding as we would if the fog were to lift, and the cruel, immoral, barbaric deeds were laid bare in their stark brutality.
A group of pro-life protesters recently picketed a local family planning agency in my area, and letter writers have charged them with disseminating false information and attempting to deny women necessary services, referencing rights of free speech and women’s health, and the importance of not imposing one’s beliefs on others. All valid concerns. But they contribute to the fog that clouds the reality of the horror that is abortion. I understand that the agency doesn’t perform or refer for abortions and much of their focus is on conception prevention. But if they’re providing value-neutral information on how to obtain one, and their stand is that it’s a viable option for a woman with an unplanned pregnancy, t
hen they are rightfully targeted for protest.
Because abortion is not a reproductive health “choice.” That’s the fog hiding or distorting the truth that abortion is a deadly deed done on a living child. It happens to be performed within a woman’s body, but it’s not done to her. A life is snuffed out, but not hers. An innocent life. A helpless life. A child…forcibly and intentionally killed.
It shouldn’t matter that at 2 or 4 weeks gestation it’s not a cuddly-looking cherub, and resembles a tadpole more than a human. That’s the beauty and miracle of life. How else do you suppose that a new human should be produced? Could new life begin as a fully-formed, aesthetically pleasing, 7 lb. 9 oz. infant body? Human reproduction is no less miraculous than that would be, but much more practical, and beautiful.
Yet these helpless, innocent, fully-human but hidden children are every day poisoned, suctioned out, dismembered, and stabbed, with no one to defend them. Just google “abortion procedures” for yourself, and persevere through the fog. Don’t allow the cold, clinical terminology, like “cerebral material,” cloud the harsh reality that tiny babies are being violently killed in ways that purveyors of blood and gore in the film industry take great delight in portraying for their audience. And if they were done on a living child outside the womb, would bring charges of murder.
As they did for the Philadelphia abortionist, Kermit Gosnell, on trial now for the deaths of seven babies born alive, one that he joked was “big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.” He is charged with murder, though up until only a few years ago, what he did would have been perfectly legal within the womb. Location is everything.
A friend recently made me aware of a captivating video depicting the marvelous wonder that is human gestation. It would be worth another 10 minutes of your time. Efforts like this contribute greatly to dispelling the fog.
