Empty Cribs - Forty Years of Abortion Complacency - Part I

I remember the first real conversation I ever had with anyone outside my family on the topic of abortion.  In a high school study-hall discussion, a teacher stated, “I know what I would do if my teenage daughter came home pregnant.  I would not let her ruin her life.”  I respected this teacher, and it really made me think about this topic on a different level.  Was abortion sometimes the best decision?  Even as an impressionable sixteen-year-old, something really nagged at me about that teacher's statement.

Fast forward nine years to 1989.  By then my views were fully formed.  As I was preparing to teach a church group of college students for a “Sanctity of Life Sunday”,  I learned a staggering fact:  twenty million babies had been aborted (at that time) since the decision in Roe V. Wade.  Since 1989, another thirty-five million babies have gone to their deaths through abortion.  Though I have always been straightforward with my views on abortion, it does not feel as if I have done very much these last twenty-four years to change this national tragedy.

Why haven’t I done more?   For lots of reasons I suppose.  Abortion is the law of the land and a topic on which America has been deeply divided.  I suppose I know these little ones are going to the arms of God and won’t have to live unwanted or be in potentially abusive environments.  Maybe it’s that I understand that I can’t expect those who don’t share what I believe about God’s view of life to hold my views on abortion.  I suppose my attitude has been at times something akin to that of Jesus when he was crucified – “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do.”

I am not saying I did nothing.  I never shied away from sharing my views personally.  I called some talk radio shows to speak out.  I wrote letters to the editor of the Courier Journal.  I supported crisis pregnancy centers.  I voted for pro-life candidates.  I advocated for pro-life Supreme Court justices.  But is this enough?  How can I – how can we – remain silent about the ugly truths of abortion?  What about the damage it does to the woman who pursues this path?  What about how this cognitive moral dissonance sears other areas of our national conscience?

Before we deal with abortion, we have to recognize it for what it is.  Acceptance of abortion is predicated on the nervous hope that at early stages of pregnancy, the growing “tissue” is not a baby.  My question is, at what point, if not conception, does this tissue become a baby?  Many try to argue that a fetus becomes a baby at the point of viability outside the womb; however, viability has steadily moved earlier and earlier as medical technology has advanced.  Does the point at which a fetus becomes a human change with advancing technology?  Of course not – that would be ludicrous.  So at what point does a child become human?

I have heard the argument, “As long as the unborn fetus is part of the mother’s body, it is not a human.”  Does this statement stand scrutiny?  If true, why not deliver the baby and keep the umbilical cord attached for a moment.  The mother could take a good look at the “fetus” and see if there are any defects or problems; then, she could decide whether to discard it.  If it’s just part of her body, there’s no wrong in that – correct?  Does this sound ridiculous?   This was almost the situation we had with partial birth abortion before it was mercifully struck down.

It is beyond my comprehension that anyone today can argue that an unborn child is just a blob of tissue.  As we have gained the ability to peer into the womb, we see a growing human from the outset.  Ernst Haeckel and his recapitulation theory misled us.  We now know that embryos never go through a “fish stage” with gills – they are humans, start to finish.  To argue otherwise is to fly in the face of current science.  There really is no other definable start for human life than conception.  Abortion, then, equals the forced ending of a human life.  If taking a human life is a wrong, then abortion is wrong.  That is the starting point of the discussion for me.  (I’m going to leave situations where the life of the mother is at risk outside the scope of this post.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJIKe9eJLh4

In Part II, I’ll follow up on why I think we continue to foster a culture of abortion as well as some things I think we can do to reverse it.