Echoes in Eternity

This past week marked the 35th anniversary of the monstrous Roe v. Wade decision, a Supreme Court opinion that has led to the number of children murdered that you see in the title above. 48 million. To give you some perspective, there have been about 150 million babies born alive in this country since 1973. So we've killed a QUARTER of all our children.

While pro-lifers were mourning this week in solemn remembrance, pro-abortionists were partying. One such party was held at the University of Texas, where some pro-life advocates listened in as the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America spoke. Here are some of their thoughts regarding the speech.

[Nancy Keenan] spent much of the talk arguing that allowing women to choose abortion was the moral thing for society. There was, in fact, a lot of moral posturing, including such statements as “It is the essence of our morality” to be pro-choice, that being pro-choice is the “fullest expression” of that morality. She noted that many people are “pro-choice but struggling.” In other words, they are politically pro-choice even while being morally pro-life. Her claim was that the pro-choice side had “ceded a lot of moral ground…which the pro-lifers never had.”

Interspersed within her speech were various attacks upon those whom are often referred to her in abortion-friendly circles as “the enemies of choice.” At the top of this list was, of course, the Church, for her constant teaching against abortion... She did, in fact, spend some time talking about how more dialogue was needed—with the understood caveat being that the “dialogue” should be one-sidedly pro-choice.

The Church was not the only entity which she blasted during her talk. She had the usual antipathy towards crisis pregnancy centers for not referring people to abortion centers; of course, there is no such problem with the abortion mills never referring people to a crisis pregnancy center, or (for that matter) not providing information about or encouraging alternatives to abortion.
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She closed with two interesting statements which are at odds with the previous pro-choice position. The first is that the “decision” should be up to “the woman, her family, her doctor, and her God,” as opposed to just the woman, or the woman and her doctor. This, in spite of her opposition to the Church’s involvement in anything other than a pro-abortion capacity, and her opposition to parental notification; one wonders how her family can be involved if they never find out about the pregnancy (let alone the abortion) to begin with. For that matter, she was opposed to crisis pregnancy centers which refused to refer women for abortions, so I was left to wonder if she really would leave it up to the doctor if he was pro-life; perhaps when she said “doctor,” she meant “abortionist.” Secondly, and perhaps even more surprising, was that she mentioned that men need to be more involved. After years of being told that I had no place in this issue, because, after all, I am a man, it was quite refreshing to hear Keenan actually state that “This is not a woman’s issue…it affects all of us [including men].” Though her call was for men to get behind abortion, the fact that she actually admitted that abortion does affect men was refreshing to hear—and a reversal of the last 40 years of pro-abortion rhetoric.

On the positive side, abortions have been steadily decreasing since 1990, and are at the lowest levels since the mid-70's. This data combined with the graph below (and others just like it) indicates that the pro-life message has triumphed in the realm of ideas, but the war isn't over yet. President Bush has helped the pro-life movement make great strides in the last 8 years (partial birth abortion ban, parental notification laws, etc.), and for that we all owe him an immense debt of gratitude. He has stuck with us when it was not politically expedient (stem cells, cloning, etc.) and deserves much praise for that. But he could have done more (stopping the flow of federal funds for abortion would have been a good start). But merely winning over people to our point of view isn't enough... the laws must change. And while pro-life advocates must continue to show Christian love and support for women caught in very difficult circumstances, they must also push for the criminalization of abortion. As Susan B. Anthony once said,

Guilty? Yes, no matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh! thrice guilty is he who, for selfish gratification, heedless of her prayers, indifferent to her fate, drove her to the desperation which impels her to the crime.

May God be merciful as we continue the battle...