Making an Example of Abortion

I have found myself arguing against the nonsense of abortion as an acceptable form of birth control recently. Raised Catholic, I have always been pro-life, but recently the abortion issue has attracted by attention for several reasons. First, with the appointment of Roberts as well as the pending--perhaps ever pending--nomination of Alito has gotten the left all in a tizzy. It's a pity they couldn't raise as large a stink over the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq or the budget deficit. I've beat that drum often enough, but the inadequacy of the Democrats to do a thing on the few issues they have some credibility is disappointing, if expected. I digress.

Secondly, it occured to me not long ago just how pathetic the argument for abortion really is. The pro-choice side is wallowing in a tragic inconsistency, unable to define "life" in a way that makes sense. Science is a wonderful thing when it comes to discussing evolution, but when it comes to heartbeats and brain waves, platitudes are spouted about coat-hangers and back-alleys. To be sure, there are plenty of pro-lifers who couldn't argue their way out of wet paper bag, but at least they have the luxury of being right.

Lastly, I have confirmed what I have long believed: Republicans pay lip serivce to abortion, but do not care to do anything about it, at least at the federal level. The party loyalists may actually give a darn about the greatest moral crisis in our lifetimes, but the "representatives" insist on nappung through the calamity. Bush's failure to nominate solid pro-life justices despite his party's control of the Senate marks him as a coward and a traitor in my book. Lacking a real voice in Washington, I have turned to screaming quietly from my little soap box. Here's to re-occuring themes.

The LA Times, which leans so far to the left it has all but fallen over, had an interesting piece on abortion recently. Though they were scarecly able to keep their great fear that Roe will go tumbling spectacularily down, they did provide some intriguing bits for me to chew on, spit out, and tread all over.

Harrison warns every patient he sees that abortion may be illegal one day. He wants to stir them to activism, but most women respond mildly.

I should explain that Harrison is the abortionist. I should also explain that he has very good real reason to fear that abortion will again be illegal. Pat Buchanan would tell us to turn to the dying West as Europe's near future is coming to the United States. A declining birth rate--brought to you by birth control and abortion--spells the writing on the wall for a people. I, too, have beat this drum before. Suffice it to say that unless Harrison has an idea to reverse the birth trend, the government will have to pay women to have children and scrap abortion just to survive.

If this piece was only another chance for me to bemoan the state of the Republican party and the Union at large, my readers would have a reason to be disappointed. Fortunately, Harrison illustrates some liberal short-comings which need to be pointed out.

He calls himself an "abortionist" and says, "I am destroying life."

But he also feels he's giving life: He calls his patients "born again."

Lesson one: the ends justify the means. I do not even know where to begin with this one. Cold-blooded murder can never be deemed morally acceptable. Never. It is foolish to think that there can be any gain in voluntarily throwing out a life so that another life can be continued. The woman is usually not as any sort of risk of dying, and allowing her to terminate her pregnancy in order to not impede on the woman's life style. Mother Teresa steals the day admirably. "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish. "

"We try to make sure she doesn't ever feel guilty," he says, "for what she feels she has to do."

Another liberal fallacy is that guilt should be removed from life. Evidently no one remembers the lesson of dear Pinnochio. For when we make our conscience our guide, we do feel guilt from time to time. If one commits murder and does not feel guilt, that would be a problem. It is not unhealthy to feel shame incurred from committing an immoral action.

Oh, and for the record, many women do feel a terrible sorrow after their abortion. Norma McCorvey, the woman behind Roe has now turned to fight to overturn the law she helped enact. According to a pamplet put out my pro-lifers, up to 62% of American women that have had an abortion experience suicdal thoughts. How's that for guilt Harrison?

"There's things wrong with abortion," she says. "But I want to have a good life. And provide a good life for my child." To keep this baby now, she says, when she's single, broke and about to start college, "would be unfair."

The woman speaking is "an 18-year-old with braces on her teeth" who has just had an abortion. I do wonder how the fetus would feel about the fairness of her decision. After all, isn't a mediocre life better than no life at all?

The Declaration of Independence asserts a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Jefferson had the order right even if moderns have gotten it all wrong. Perhaps this is only a staple of Christianity, to value life above liberty and property. A life in the gulag, or a tortured existence in dire poverty beats the hell out of non-existence. It is easy for me to say this from the safety and comfort of my own home, but the point remains.

Liberals tell me that conservatives only care for a person until he is alive, and then do not care about him until he reaches draft age. There is very little truth to this, and an opposition to social programs does not mean that a conservative does not care for people. It simply means he values a person's existence over the comfortable existence--surely a pipe dream if there ever was one--that liberals would garnish upon us all.

For the few women who arrive ambivalent or beset by guilt, Harrison's nurse has posted statistics on the exam-room mirror: One out of every four pregnant women in the U.S. chooses abortion. A third of all women in this country will have at least one abortion by the time they're 45.

"You think there's room in hell for all those women?" the nurse will ask.

Parents love to ask their children if they would jump off a bridge if their friends did. The question is irksome, but pokes at an obvious truth. Just because everyone is doing something does not make it right. There is something wholesome to be said for those who enter by the narrow gate.

I hope and pray that women who have an abortion repent and save themselves from hell. Yet, Judgment is mine sayeth the Lord. It is good to remember that. Pretendint to be able to cast one's opponents into hell makes for bad debate. Arguing emphatically, using evidence, and exposing the liberal position on abortion as the selfish facade that it is, on the other hand, is a better tactic. Whether or not the pro-life sides suceeds any time soon remains to be seen. Unforuntately.