National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers

In honor of the National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers, I thought I would like to write a quick note about why I do not appreciate abortion providers! It's only fitting.

Anyone who has read this blog for more than a couple of entries has probably gotten the idea that I am pro-life. Well, here it is officially: I am. I have not done a lot of abortion-specific articles simply because this is a natural birth blog rather than a right-to-life blog, but I want every part of this blog to be life-affirming. It is a bit intimidating to even write on the subject, just because I know that most natural birth blogs (being, as the movement is, wrapped up in feminism and patient/women's rights) are pro-abortion, and I know that I risk both negative backlash and lost readership. However, one must stand for what one believes is right, and it's time for some pro-life birth blogs. However, if you are pro-choice, know that I love you! If you would like to have a calm, respectful discussion, feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back with you. If you would like to be incendiary and hateful, please don't bother leaving a comment. I've seen the abortion debate degenerate too often into a screaming match, and this does not do anyone any good.

It is also difficult to write on the subject simply because with abortion, one risks descending into what can only be described as a diatribe - a derisive denunciation of the other side (think Ann Coulter) which generally gets people on one's side saying, "Yeah! That's right!" and people on the other side even more deeply divided and set against what you had to say. That is not the purpose of this article. My one purpose is to have pro-choice readers examine their views and question the goodness of what they are defending.

My history, for the record: I was raised pro-abortion and stayed that way, strongly, until sometime around early college, when I took a good look at what it was I was defending - and thereafter began the gradual journey into my current pro-life position. On the way I slid through most of the "in between" positions - "wrong except in rape/incest/fetal abnormalities," "wrong except in rape/incest," etc. Only when I finally came to the resting place of acknowledging all human life as sacred did I know true peace on this issue.

There are only two possible justifications for abortion: (1) Abortion is okay if the unborn child is not a human being, and (2) Abortion is okay if there are certain groups of human beings who do not have the same rights as other human beings.

As to the humanity of the unborn, let's get realistic. Either the unborn child is fully human and thus sacred from the moment of conception, or no human life is sacred (as one abortionist so aptly put it, "What exactly is it about passage down the birth canal that suddenly makes a baby sacred?"). All of the "non-human to human" transition points that have been thought up (such as "not human until the heart starts beating," "not human until the age of viability," "not human until breathing on its own") are purely artificial human constructions that have no basis in objective fact. From the moment of conception, the baby's hair color, eye color, personality traits, and an innumerable host of other characteristics are already determined. The baby is growing and developing from day one. All attempts to dehumanize the unborn infant (calling a baby a "fetus" or "products of conception") are just that - human attempts to reason away the humanity of an infant so that its killing does not seem so heinous.

And if an unborn infant is human, then the idea that some human beings just don't have rights is absolutely despicable. All human beings deserve the right to a natural, God-ordained (rather than humanly-ordained) lifespan which cannot be pushed aside for the convenience of other human beings who don't want to deal with the bother of an "unwanted" or inconveniently handicapped child.

The abortion movement has been wrapped up in some absolutely lovely, mouth-watering terms: Freedom. Choice. Every child a wanted child. Women's rights. Patients' rights. Privacy. But at the end of the day, what do we find? Do we find freedom and empowered women? No. We find the horribly mutilated bodies of countless babies (over 50 million since 1973) being thrown out with the trash in biowaste bags. And that is the literal truth. Go look at some abortion pics on the internet and tell me what you see - you will see dead babies. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no freedom - only death, in the most brutal way and visited upon the most innocent, vulnerable and fragile of all human beings, those who most deserve our tenderest and move loving care and protection.

I could write all day about this subject, going into the various reasons for abortion and defending my position. But I don't need to get long-winded. Maybe I'll cover some of those subjects later. For now, I just want the thoughtful reader to truly think.

Thus, if you are pro-life, get active! Participate in 40 Days for Life. Participate in the Red Envelope Campaign. Go find an abortion clinic and spend some time in prayer there.

And if you are pro-choice? Please spend some time in deep thought. Think past the rhetoric, the campaign slogans, the propaganda. Realize what "choice" means. And decide whether or not that "choice" is where you want to put your heart.

Closing with the words of Mother Teresa:

"Yours is the one great nation in all history which was founded on the precept of equal rights and respect for all humankind, for the poorest and weakest of us as well as the richest and strongest. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. I have no new teaching for America. I seek only to recall you to faithfulness to what you once taught the world. Your nation was founded on the proposition very old as a moral precept, but startling and innovative as a political insight that human life is a gift of immeasurable worth, and that it deserves, always and everywhere, to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect."