Stand on moral truth
Mr. Brown (Abortion at a crossroads, Oct. 10), I remember being a sassy teenager in the 1970s insisting to my father that abortion was acceptable. Then I read a letter to the editor by a local pastor and it changed my mind.
Thankfully, there are millions of Americans today who recognize the child within the womb as a human being, not just a choice to be disposed of when deemed necessary. We have seen the ultrasounds, the tiny baby on the screen, heart beating, finger nails and even eye lashes and we are convinced. And yet, we have always known this to be a baby, very much alive. We did not need an ultrasound to tell us.
It seems that you believe abortions should be safe, legal and rare. But where has that taken us? Since 1973 it has taken us to the dismemberment of the baby at any stage of pregnancy. We have arrived at partial birth abortion along with the celebration of New York State and others signing in to law infanticide. The baby can be killed at the moment of birth. Do we not see the progression here?
When we abandon moral truth, yes, absolute moral truth for our own conclusions and reasonings, this is what we get. It’s called The Culture of Death. Those who are more powerful and seemingly more knowledgeable and in control get to decide who lives and who dies. When we ignore the truths of Scripture and time-honored truths and simple common-sense we succumb to our own arrogance believing that we know better, that we can determine when life begins by such notions as brain function and viability.
The greatest lie we have perpetrated and allowed to live on is that this child is not a living, human being. A mother knows intuitively that this is a child. Why do we add to her greater harm by elevating her choice when we should elevate her life and her child’s life? Why do we offer her a “safe” abortion and take the baby completely out of the equation? Either way, there are solutions and it isn’t death.
I wish I could be more diplomatic, but your letter danced around everything but the truth about abortion. That is where the discussion should begin. What is abortion? The very mention of the word caused the red-hot reaction you described for the very reason that the legislators in the 1970s knew that abortion meant the killing of a child in the womb.
No matter how we have dressed it up, (reproductive rights) abortion is still that, the killing of the child in the womb. We know that. We cannot NOT know that. How can it ever be condoned? But we humans are notorious for justifying anything we want and to make a wrong seem right.
But this is where I must be very careful. I agree with you when you say, “most women dread making the abortion decision.” Many, many hurting and confused women face the dilemma of an unplanned pregnancy. They need love and tangible support. And we must provide it. But not with a lie, a lie that says, “This fetus is not really a child yet; you have every right to do this; it’s your choice; your life will be better for it.”
Instead, if they do not have a loving family for support, local pregnancy centers exist all around the country for this purpose. And for women who have had abortions they offer love and support and “hope”, the very name of our local pregnancy support center, Hope Pregnancy Ministries.
One last comment. The Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 was just that, a decision and not a constitutional right. The Supreme Court may have declared it so, but you will not find this right in our Constitution. The Supreme Court at that time took it upon themselves to make up this right. And now, over 60 million babies have “legally” lost their lives since that day. What has our society become?
There are more important things than compromise and that is to stand on moral truth, whether you’re a politician or a simple citizen. We can never compromise on this issue though it seems that you would like us to do so. How can we ever support abortion when we know it dishonors God, destroys the life of the child and harms the mother and destroys a society?
Susan Sullivan lives in Kalispell