03/17/2005: "Memo to Abortion Advocates: Breakpoint commentary"
Let's Get Along
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. The following also contains a graphic description of abortion.
In the aftermath of the November election, at least some pro-abortion crusaders are beginning to toy with the idea of softening their abortion-on-demand policies. Even Hillary Clinton has suggested as much.
In a recent article, syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman concedes that abortions should be "rare." That concession tacitly admits that abortion is not a good to be celebrated but, at best, a regrettable option. She calls on pro-life citizens to meet pro-abortion proponents on "common ground."
I welcome that overture and the opportunity. Here are some proposals for meeting on common ground.
1) Let's agree on the separation of abortion and state. Our taxes should not fund any abortions—period. Eliminate all government funding for Planned Parenthood, which performs a third of all U.S. abortions.
2) Support parental notification and consent requirements for minors. A minor can't get an aspirin without parental approval. It's abominable that teens can be spirited away by strangers and subjected to major invasive surgery.
3) End the savage practice of partial-birth abortion—pulling a child from the womb, stabbing its skull, and sucking out its brains to collapse the skull. I recognize this is nauseating language, but it accurately describes this barbaric procedure. By evasive and euphemistic deception, the media have tried to withhold the raw truth from the public. Let's tell the unpalatable truth in plain words so that the actual horror of the practice will forever be banned without court challenge.
4) Equip women and men to be sexually responsible. Every pregnancy is "chosen" if a couple has chosen to have sex. And that decision entails responsibility. Having chosen sex, adults have a moral duty to protect and nurture those they conceive.
5) Cherish children in the womb. Many of us started life as "unintended." Yet we always had value and the right to life. Let's guard each unborn child as if it were our own life.
6) Communicate honestly about abortion. For too long, pro-abortion warriors have misrepresented and distorted the issue. For example, many of them liken an unborn child to a parasite, a tick or a worm infestation. Such images picture the unborn child as a predator, attacking one's body.
No responsible communications medium should abet and enable that kind of debased rhetoric. A newly conceived child belongs in the womb and nowhere else. Pregnancy by rape or incest is thankfully very rare. The vast majority of children come into being as a result of the union of two consenting partners. Their willing act causes a child to spring to life and take up residence in a natural organic home. The attempt to project blame on the innocent child as some sort of predator deserves the editorial delete key—and contempt by all civilized persons.
By promptly adopting these policies, pro-abortion forces will begin to journey back toward some moral sanity and decency. And as Supreme Court vacancies loom, pro-abortion senators and groups can demonstrate their good faith by stopping the savaging of judicial appointments.
Sounds good, doesn't it? But, of course, it assumes the pro-abortion politicians mean what they say. I'm not holding my breath, but I am praying.
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