Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Abortion is Barbaric

There is nothing enlightened about abortion. And now that cameras can see into the womb, life is undeniable. Now that preemies survive life outside the womb at a younger age than many of those aborted, the barbarism of this practice is clear to those who have eyes to see.

As a matter of advancing the cause of women, why is someone who treats her body as a commodity to be admired?

Why is a woman with so little self-respect as to have sex without commitment to be admired?

Why is a woman who has so little care for her child that she would sentence her to death be lauded as enlightened?

No. A thousand times no.

Abortion is a moral wrong.

Feminists scream about choice, but what choice does this child have, ripped from life?

And do you know the leading cause of death in black America?

Roe v. Wade should be overturned, if only to turn this debate back to the states--which is all it does. Abortions do not suddenly become illegal if Roe v. Wade is overturned, it merely restarts the arrested development of the debate summarily cut off by the courts from the people back in 1973.

There are arguments that need to be resolved, and it's long past time.

Women have more opportunity now than in the early ’70’s. Surely fair-minded observers will note that feminism in the US has largely succeeded from an economic and educational standpoint. To bear a child as a single mom these days brings no shame, though the breakdown of the family was one of several negative cultural consequences, including abortion:
One of the greatest ways women have devalued children is by accepting abortion. A respected feminist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, once said “"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
Overseas, abortion is associated with sex selection, which more than likely leads to the abortion of girls. During this election process, talk of the hanger coming back is fear-mongering. While abortions are in decline in the US, abortion pills have made the process easier, the internet as well. Of course, all this has unintended consequences--the ease and social complicity in sexualizing younger and younger girls, their being abused by older men, or in some cases coerced by members of their own family to have abortions or take abortion pills--a significant number with life-threatening or even fatal consequences--I guess I should say not just fatal for the baby.

I am not absolutely opposed to abortion for any reason, but the start of the debate should recognize that abortion snuffs out innocent life.

Putting a baby on death row for the crime of simply being conceived is pure evil.

And repeated use of abortion as birth control is criminal.

There are alternatives.

In all honesty, can we really look our daughters in the eye, or sons for that matter, and tell them that living a sexually hedonistic lifestyle is just fine, all about "personal fulfillment" and without hurtful consequences? That some lives are more "equal" than others? That is the unacknowledged subtext of being pro-abortion.

A society that holds life so cheaply is not admirable. It is neither enlightened nor civilized. It is not a guardian of individual and civil liberty when it so easily sanctions robbing its most vulnerable and innocent of life.

--crossposted at blogher

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