Flashpoint! A Woman’s Right To Choose
by Gary GrahamI’m not a person filled with hate. I don’t brew strong stomach acids when I hear/see things I think horrendously idiotic or unjust in the news or on the street. Initially, my reaction is to laugh. The irony is simply too much, and I crack up. Generally, it’s either laugh…or cry. And who wants to spend the day in tears? For I would, were I to give in to that option of dealing with the utter, naked insanity in our midst on a daily basis. I’m not just talking about something that ‘isn’t quite right’ or… ‘is just a tad out of whack’…I’m talking about the United States of America in this year of 2009 being completely off its moorings and slipping into the abyss.
“What the hell is Graham on about now?? What momentous, screeching rant is he conjuring up now; can somebody put him on a stupid TV show so he’d shut up already??” – Your name here.
No. I’m going to say it. I’m going to say what millions know in the front of their brains, and many, many more millions know in the depths of their hearts…but won’t allow themselves to think it, much less feel it. And believe me, I know I’ll be hated for saying it, I’ll be hated by people who don’t know me, have never worked with me, have never golfed with me, had a drink with me, shot the shit with me. They’ve never met me, don’t want to meet me…but they will hate me. I’m going to say it anyway: Abortion is murder.
Screams, bomb blasts, machine-gun rounds rip through plaster, I duck, but the copper-tip spears tear into meat, I run, the fire sears flesh, more screams, are they coming from me, or are they my head being torn from…my…
In the sixties and seventies I was a proud part of the peace generation. Long-haired hippies, rocker-lovers, lover-rockers, music festivals, drug explorations, peace not war, and there’s this cute piece right next to me, I’ve got a sleeping bag, would you like to get warm, and there’s a little hash left, you’re so pretty… Hey don’t laugh, we thought we were changing the world. Free love, baby, do it if it feels good, don’t look back, power to the peeps, and do your own thing. Wow, really? You mean you can be cool, have a lot of sex…and save the world all at the same time? Damn this is so f*cking bitchen! Ooh, my hair’s getting really good in the back… (Brown shoes… don’t make it! — F.Zappa)
But wait – I’m in college. I’m on a fast track to jump into the business world. I’m going to be some stick-up-the-butt loser in some establishment straight-ass job, when I really just want to party. Oops, I mean… I want to help save the world! Through drugs, sex and rock and roll. All right, we don’t really have a solid business plan made up yet…but we’re working on it. Of course I’m a Democrat! Duh!
End of flashback.
I have been on all sides of this issue for most of my life, and I can simply not escape the logic. That fetus a pregnant woman is carrying inside of her, regardless of the gestation stage, is a living, breathing human being. Yes, breathing – the amniotic sac forms 12 days after conception, and in the second trimester the baby is actually breathing the amniotic fluid. It’s not an ‘unviable tissue mass.’ Not a wart, a mole, a skin outcropping, a boil, or a bundle of uncoordinated cells. It’s not just a ‘fetus’.
It’s a baby. Not fully developed, true. Like an infant is not a fully developed and mature adult. But it’s a baby.
And the first time I got a girl pregnant, I would have wrestled you to the ground for saying that. How f*cking dare you? You don’t know what you’re talking about! You piece of crap, you don’t know!
Well I do know. And I stand condemned. I’ve paid for three of them and was responsible for probably several more, I’m not really sure. But it breaks my heart. Because I’ve been convicted in my soul. It took years after the fact, but I was shown the Truth. And not to get mumbo-jumbo, oogly-boogly on you, but it was a spiritual awakening that did it. It happened unexpectedly, and it threw me to my knees in sudden tearful epiphany of what it meant for a man to be with a woman, what sex was really designed for by our Creator and… what abortion is.
And up until that point, I was completely ‘Pro-Choice’. I had bought the whole ‘women’s rights’ thing, completely agreed with ‘the constitutional right of a woman’s freedom to choose’…and I was just fine with that. Sure took the pressure off of me, a guy, interested in sex who had been raised in the era of, “Hey, you get a girl pregnant, you marry her!” But times had changed. Now abortions could be had legally if a doctor determined the life of the mother was in danger. Girls in college told me what a joke that was. They’d go in to see a doctor, tell him they’re pregnant, and the conversation went like this:
Doctor: “You’re feeling suicidal?” (hint hint, wink nudge.)
Girl: “Oh. Yeah… suicidal. I’m feeling suicidal.”
Doctor: “All right, then.”
Abortion as a method of birth control became the norm. I knew a few girls who had had as many as five of them by the time they were twenty-five. And they seemed fine on it…mostly because everyone around them was telling them that they should feel fine about it.
So this abortion thing was pretty damn convenient for a guy. And for a time, I was quite the Lothario. I kept a roster of seven girlfriends. Why seven? I don’t know…maybe Lucky Number 7 (yeah maybe)…or seven days in a week (more likely). But I would meet someone new, and I would simply go through my list…and kick one girl off. I would simply stop calling her. And to my great shame…this was my chosen method to ‘decathect.’ In retrospect, I wish I’d had the balls of utter honesty in my early relationships; but I was a drug-addled, post college idiot and that was the best I could muster. This was my m.o. and I knew I wasn’t alone…not by a long shot. We were proud products of the Love Generation.
Jump forward thirty years and Nancy Pelosi tells us yesterday that ‘family planning’ is now a fiscal responsibility to ‘reduce costs.’ Her defenders will say that NO, she’s talking about condoms and sex education. But anyone with a mind who’s been around for a while knows that ‘family planning’ is code for abortion. She is asking for 200 million dollars for Family Planning Services to ‘expand the economy.’ These are taxpayer dollars, dontcha know. Your money. She says states are in terrible fiscal crisis and it’s ‘part of what we do for childrens’ health and education’…” I’m trying to figure out how ripping an unborn child from it’s womb is aiding in it’s health or education, but maybe I’m missing something here.
I’ve heard it argued that a fetus is not a baby because it could not survive outside the womb on its own. But what about three-day old baby? Or even a two week old baby? If you set it down on the floor and leave it alone…will it survive on its own? Or will it die? So what’s the cut-off for determining whether it’s a baby or not?
It really comes down to this: when does life begin? When is it a baby? At the point of conception? First trimester? Third? At the point of actual delivery? When the umbilical cord is cut? Two weeks afterward? When?
I’m telling you, once you draw that line and say this is the moment it’s a human being…you’ve lost the argument. Because it’s arbitrary. On this date it’s a baby, but yesterday it was just a bunch of cells…this blob of a nothing and you can do anything you want with it, it’s okay. Babies have been born premature in the second trimester and lived. Happens all the time. So please, somebody tell me how is taking a baby and delivering all but the head, then plunging a tube into its skull and sucking the brains out…how is that not murder? This is what happens in partial-birth abortions, and unfortunately, this happens all the time, too.
And we as a nation…as a people…are all right with this?
I understand the hate that is leveled at someone like me who reminds people of this. To contemplate the reality is daunting. The act is horrendous and made more tragic when you consider the numbers of babies that are being disposed of every day.
Our willingness to tolerate such a holocaust says volumes of how our entire culture has been coarsened. How life itself has been cheapened. We are told to have sex any time we feel the urge. Condoms are handed out in grade schools. Promiscuity is not only condoned, it’s tacitly encouraged. Illegitimacy has enslaved an entire underclass of our citizens, relegating them to government assistance for a lifetime, bankrupting cities, and holding an entire subculture down in dependent despair. But if you should get pregnant and it’s just not a ‘convenient’ time for you, don’t worry, there are Family Planning Services, funded, thanks to the likes of Nancy Pelosi, by your tax dollars. That inconvenient fetus can be surgically ripped from its uterine moorings, ground up and tossed into the trash like so much garbage. Problem solved, and the mother can resume her egocentric lifestyle. But the scars on that woman’s soul will never quite heal. I’m a man, but I’ve got them on mine.
I’ve heard from liberals the following quote: “We want abortion to be legal…but rare.” And I ask, Why rare? What’s wrong with abortion, that you think it should be a rare occurrence? I’ve had moles removed from my skin. Doctors don’t tell us that a mole removal should be rare. So what’s with this ‘rare’ business? Or is it a tacit agreement that abortion…is plain wrong?
And in the double-standard department… Will somebody tell me how it is that Scott Peterson gets convicted of a double homicide – his wife, and his unborn son – and yet it’s not murder if a doctor does basically the same thing in a clinic? Explain it to me; why is it murder in the one case, and totally acceptable in the other? You tell me, “HEY! It’s my body, I’ve got the right to do whatever I want with my body!!” Well, no you don’t. You don’t have the legal right to prostitute yourself (Nevada excepted). You don’t have a right to pick up an axe and lop off your boyfriend’s head if he gives you lip. You don’t have the right to murder. And your anger will bring you back to the its-not-a-baby, it’s-my-body mobius.
Illogic without end.
Try this exercise: Every time you hear someone use the phrase “…a woman’s right to choose…” mentally complete the phrase with the following words – “…to kill her baby.” That’s what the argument’s about. A woman’s right to kill her baby.
In the extreme cases of incest…rape…severe birth defects. Hey, I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers. That’s a tough one. But there has got to be a better way than abortion. Adoption comes to mind. With all the thousands of couples out there unable to make a baby…doesn’t it seem the right thing to do…to give birth and give the unwanted baby up for adoption into a loving family?
Just a thought.
I saw my daughter’s ultrasound when she was at four weeks. All I saw was this little pulsating cylinder about the size of my little fingernail. Each little vibration was a heartbeat. Yes, a heart barely formed; cells still differentiating into form and function…but her little heart was just wailing away. I burst into tears. And I realized… I was beholding an utter miracle. The miracle of life. And I also realized that from the very first merger of cell into cell, and the first divisions…that the whole miracle of life was from that point on struggling against all odds to become a fully-realised human being.
I don’t mean to preach. I’m just telling you what I have come to know, and that I know that I know. The unborn fetus is a baby in development…and to end that life prematurely is to murder that life.
I truly wish that I had had this conviction way back when…when I was only concerned about my selfish convenience of the day. But I didn’t want to know, I didn’t want to think about it. It was inconvenient to think about it.
How ironic that the ‘Love’ Generation should spawn such a culturally accepted abomination as abortion.
May God have mercy on us all.
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623 Comments
You have summed up my argument against abortion, and you have the experience to back up the argument. I applaud you.
If the right and left, both, use the term pro-life, should we not therefore use the term pro-death or pro-murder from now on. I do.
That was beautiful! Thank you! I hope people that are pro-abortion have a change of heart after reading your post.
Thank you for your courage to take an unpopular stand in your profession. I suspect most men haven’t really thought this subject through as much as you have, but women try to justify abortion too. The defining moment for me was the day I found out a relative had mis-carried and she was devastated by the loss. I couldn’t reconcile the difference between a baby in the womb that was mourned following a miscarriage and a baby that was aborted because it wasn’t wanted. The only difference is that one was wanted and one wasn’t? Someone wants every baby. Again, thank you for the article. (PS – I’m a big Alien Nation fan!)
Gary well put!
It is hard to see people that will go out of their way to save a murder from death row and yet have no problem in seeing a baby aborted. It is a sad case for our society when those who have no voice/no choice and who need the most protection, are just excused away (a piece of tissue, etc.)
Thank you. And by the way, if you ever want to think a little more about the answers for what to do with children who have disabilities or “defects” I recommend the book and the CD “Sometimes Miracles Hide.” As a parent of a special needs child I know what I’m talking about. God bless you and your family
What you are saying is what the Pro-Life movement has been saying for many years. Plain and simple, abortion is murder. Murder is defined in law as the deliberate killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Pretty simple, and illegal in the whole world. Cleverly though, in most places, a pre-born child is not gifted with humanity or “personhood.”Now you see, on that ultrasound, the miracle that we are, and that you have had a part in creating. What you saw aws not a kitten or a puppy or a zebra, but your little girls, who will one day throw her arms around you and say, “I love you, Daddy.”And who will one day present you with a grand child who looks a lot like you. I’m a guy with ten living children and every one is a blessing and every one was a miracle. Thanks again for seeing.
Right on, RIGHT ON!!!! Thank you for having the guts to say this.
God Bless you for saying what more people, myself included, should be saying.
Gary:
Your reasoning is not just a knee jerk response to an odd evolution of cultural morality … it is like kicking the habit of smoking and realizing that nicotine distorts the plateau where a real life is lived. You know, not mostly up on this level, here … but always on this level here.
The same can be said in the mission shift on the respect for life and the living we have as definitions we have in our culture and society.
Thank you for your post – it is not a rant but a story about shifts in reasoning.
God will have mercy for those who can change their ways … for the affirmation of human life.
Regards,
Edmund Jenks
Managing Editor of Five Weblogs:
MAXINE, Symblogogy, Oblate Spheroid, Carter’s Second Term, & … notes from The EDJE
The plain, unsophisticated truth.
A woman’s right to choose… to murder her baby.
The reproductive right… not to reproduce, even if you already are.
This is what I was thinking about when I watched that celebrity pledge video. They are pledging about changing their SUVs in for Priuses and creating a better world and meanwhile they are furthering and encouraging a decadent, inhuman practice that takes 3,000 innocent lives every day.
Hey Look Everyone,
The “Truth”…nice to see you “Truth”, you know “Truth” sometimes you make life uncomfortable for us all once in awhile, but last time I checked, I do not believe I could define my existence on this planet without embracing or pursuing you. In fact, until the plague of post-modernism, cultural and moral relativism and political correctness, everything we have accomplished as a species required our deliberate pursuit of you. Sorry for kicking you to the curb. Once again everyone should read, “The Closing of the American Mind” by Alan Bloom.
Nice to see Nancy Pelosi using language that defines Human Children primarily in terms of their Economic Value and worthiness to the state.
Ohhh And Ashley Judd, more therapy honey. More therapy…life must have been very tough in your family. Maybe you should do more adds for “Tampax” and “Midol”.
I have wondered for a long time now about philandering liberal politicians like Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton and their support of abortion rights. It’s only a guess, but I think their support probably has as much (if not more) to do with not getting “caught” in one of their “indiscretions” as it does women’s rights.
In many ways abortion seems to be the ultimate form of sexism: a man get sleep around, and if the girl gets pregnant, pay for her abortion and be done with it. No need to ever take on responsibility for anyone other than yourself.
Well said and well done. I appreciate your honesty and look forward to more of your posts. God have mercy on us all indeed.
WOW!!! I’m speechless…this was beautiful. Thank you so much for your honesty!
Such a a great article- I can relate to a lot of it-I too was pro coice in colledge( 1974-ucla)-did you know that it has now been proven that at conception a baby as all the dna it ever will- it has all the attributes of a person and very soon will have fingers too- thanks for te neat article blessings bn
Gary: I’m sure a lot of venom is headed your way, but remember, if your moving article causes just one woman to rethink her “choice” it’s worth it. Thank you so much for this piece.
I think that future generations might just look at ours in exactly the same light as we view slaveholders today. They’ll ask “How on earth did people who believed themselves to be civilized permit such a barbaric practice?” Which is why I don’t get too cocky when I read history.
Thanks for saying this. Nancy Pelosi supports Family Planning (As you said includes late term AB) and the Bush administration is accused of waterboarding or the acceptance of this cruel practice.
If anyone is at all honest about this, they will admit stupidity of the argument that Bush is cruel and Nancy being fair. But of course their shame will make them say that this is apples and oranges.
Wonderful, wonderful article. I wish I had the money to post it on every website, onevery billboard,in every language. I do have one small disagreement. Everyone who has passed a tenth grade biology class knows that moments after an egg is fertilized by a sperm, that zygote splits for the first time into two cells. Those first two cells now have their own unique DNA code seperate and aprt from both parents. This is the first moment of a brand new life.
Gary, I’ve been waffling on this issue for many years, knowing that at some point abortion is murder, but not having a feeling for when that time was. Just plain wrong? I think you are right.
Thanks
Thank you for this column! That’s all I can say, really, because you have expressed the Right to Life argument very well.
From a speech given in February 1999 by Dallin H. Oaks at Brigham Young University (sorry about the length):
“Every woman has, within the limits of nature, the right to choose what will or will not happen to her body. Every woman has, at the same time, the responsibility for the way she uses her body. If by her choice she behaves in such a way that a human fetus is conceived, she has not only the right to but also the responsibility for that fetus. If it is an unwanted pregnancy, she is not justified in ending it with the claim that it interferes with her right to choose. She herself chose what would happen to her body by risking pregnancy. She had her choice. If she has no better reason, her conscience should tell her that abortion would be a highly irresponsible choice.
“What constitutes a good reason? Since a human fetus has intrinsic and infinite human value, the only good reason for an abortion would be the violation or deprivation of or the threat to the woman’s right to choose what will or will not happen to her body. Social, educational, financial, and personal considerations alone do not outweigh the value of the life that is in the fetus. These considerations by themselves may properly lead to the decision to place the baby for adoption after its birth, but not to end its existence in utero.
“The woman’s right to choose what will or will not happen to her body is obviously violated by rape or incest. When conception results in such a case, the woman has the moral as well as the legal right to an abortion because the condition of pregnancy is the result of someone else’s irresponsibility, not hers. She does not have to take responsibility for it. To force her by law to carry the fetus to term would be a further violation of her right. She also has the right to refuse an abortion. This would give her the right to the fetus and also the responsibility for it. She could later relinquish this right and this responsibility through the process of placing the baby for adoption after it is born. Whichever way is a responsible choice.”
He also states that, “But even these exceptions do not justify abortion automatically. Because abortion is a most serious matter, we are counseled that it should be considered only after the persons responsible have consulted with their bishops and received divine confirmation through prayer.”
It’s maddening to think that no matter how pro-life I am, my tax dollars are helping fund this atrocity in the US and abroad.
I’m just waiting for “TITOV” to tell us how archaic we are for not supporting a woman’s right to choose. Any minute now…..
Beautifully and tragically put…But all true.
Thank you Gary,
I’ve often felt that framing the discussion as a woman’s “choice” to do what she wants with her body is a joke. The fact remains even with the choice argument, it’s only a choice if the fetus is not a life. I’ve always thought that since the determination of when life begins is arbitrary that we as a nation should err on the side of caution.
Looking back in 50 years and realizing we forced woman, the vast majority of which made there “choice” to have sex, to give birth unnecessarily…
Or looking back in 50 years and realizing we’ve allowed millions of murders to occur.
That’s the real choice, and I for one am sick of slimy politicians and “women’s rights” groups trying to tell us that this isn’t the issue, but rather that it’s an issue of civil rights.
EXACTLY! Abortion is the murder of the most innocent, voiceless, choiceless – baby. Where did we all have our start in life? As a human fetus – a baby. This is the only genocide that so many fight to keep ongoing. It needs to be stopped – the voiceless are counting on us.
Amen…it all seems so clear, but so many remain in a fog about the atrocities committed every day. Except in the case of rape or incest a woman DOES have the right to choose…her method of contraception, whether to have unprotected sex.
That’s pretty heart-wrenching. I paid for one myself, and every time I look into my daughter’s eyes, I hate myself for it. I don’t believe first trimester abortions should be made illegal (especially in cases of rape, incest, or for the very young), but the alternate argument (that it’s just a bunch of cells, so anything you do is fine) is just sad.
I had an argument with a staunch abortion advocate from Sweden who claimed that until it’s little toe is out of the mother’s womb at 9 months, she can kill it if she wants because it’s nothing more than cancer cells. Then when a mutual friend had a very tragic miscarriage, I noticed she didn’t comfort our friend with those words of wisdom. Somehow it’s sad if it happens by accident, but a beautiful choice if it’s done on purpose. A difficult subject, made all the more difficult by the ridiculous name-calling and pointless platitudes thrown out by the zealots on all sides.
No woman and no human alive on this planet, has the right to choose to murder the unborn. To have it sanction by a godless government that was originally founded on the ideals of Judeo-Christian principles that all rights come from a creator. Life being the first one mention, to have taxpayers pay for this mass slaughter of the innocent to the numbers of 50 million, is against the constitution and everything decent.
Liberals scream about the sin of slavery and call the Founding Fathers slave owners as if they were evil men. I would hate to dig up Jefferson and dust him off and allow him to see what we have done to their experiment and tell him about a ‘women’s right’ to choose. I wonder what he would say about our generation. The blood of 50 million or so murdered babies are on the Democratic party and all those involved. THis is the black mark on America not slavery and jim crow… mass murder of the unborn who have no voice to asked for justice.
Gary,
Thank you for this article. Thank you for the courage to reveal your life. Thank you for saying what abortion truly is to the fetus, the mother and the father.
May God forgive our nation for being so callous, to devalue life.
We as Americans show our hypocrisy every day that we allow abortions but then go ballistic when a soldier is killed defending our nation.
May God have mercy on our souls and our nation.
Gary,
Thank you for your courageous stand. Ours is not a popular position. 40+ million lives will not grace our world (US alone)……. 40+ million……how many Einsteins, Lincolns or Ghandis were lost to us?
More of us need to have the courage to say these words out loud, as you have here today, unabashedly, unashamedly…..yes, it’s uncomfortable, yes, it is the minority position (at least here in southern CA), yes, people look at you as if you are a rube for daring to speak the ugly truths…..
English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’ It is no longer acceptable to do nothing…..
I am proud of you sir. Thanks for your excellent thoughts, I could not agree more!
(http://www.feministsforlife.org is an organization of feminists who believe that women can do better than abortion. It is rooted in a philosophy espoused by Susan B. Anthony)
BTW: I love all your posts: keep up the great work. Love BH!
Amen Mr. Graham. The more of us that call this crime for what it is, murder, the better chance we have to fighting it proliferation.
Something else I’ve always asked ‘pro-choicers’ is what about the baby’s choice? The baby has no choice, its forced to abide by its mother’s decision. But thats only a problem when you admit that its actually a baby.
Keep fighting the culture of death.
I also had an awakening. First my own daughter, who was a miracle because I was told that I would never have children, and who my grandmother prayed over me to conceive, had an abortion 2 years ago. Neither one of us can get over it. Can’t talk about it. Can’t stop thinking what he/she would look like at 2 years old. Then when Sarah Palin came on the scene and people were so vicious about Trig. As though she was evil for having him. I realized how far down the slippery slope we had come. Pro-choice, just words. When she kept saying to Charlie Gibson, “for me, I choose life everytime”, I felt a healing feeling. This group of so called leaders starting right at the top are obsessed with killing babies. Now we can kill them in other countries with our tax dollars. God help us is right.
I believe that, ultimately, the stain and horror of abortion on our Nation will be harder and take longer to overcome that that of slavery. And when you realize that we are still dealing with slavery and it’s ramifications you know that it’s going to be a long, hard haul.
Truly, may God have mercy upon our souls.
Wow Gary. That was a great blog. Thanks for your honesty.
Question number one…how do we create that same epiphany in every living human being and stop this insanity?
Question number two…how can you say that deciding when life begins is arbitrary and then when it comes to a child unfortunately formed by a rape or incest or one not quite “perfect” that “Hey, I don’t know.” The whole rape and incest thing is just higher up on the “slippery slope.” It’s either a baby or it isn’t. And you can either kill it…or you can’t. You don’t get to “choose.”
P.S. I don’t hate you for saying that “Abortion is murder”…I love you!
Existentialism is at the core of the Leftists being. Many Germans have said America is just like Weimer Germany now. Have you ever come away from an encounter with a dyed in the wool activist Lib without the impression you were dealing with someone who wouldn’t hesitate to put you in a Concentration Camp if they thought it was feasible, for the simple act of not seeing things their way? It’s now common feeling.
wow….wow.
That moved me. Thank you!
AWESOME ARTICLE BROTHER!
“Right to Choose.”
I’ve always wondered why women who use this meme so passionately seem incapable of exercising their “Right to Choose” BEFORE they elect to chance conception.
I so appreciate this article. You can’t even know. I never had an abortion (thank God!) but like a lot of people I didn’t really take the issue seriously until I had my own kids. Hearing the heartbeat at 8 weeks really drives the point home that it really is a child and to abort really is murder.
The thing that infuriated me most about the presidential campaign was the way everyone went after Sarah Palin for being pro-life as if it were a bad thing. The left threw around buzz-words like “woman’s privacy rights” (WTF?) and tried to paint the protection of a child’s right to life as a bad thing. The effect of all that was to really out the so-called feminist movement for what it really is– the pro-abortion movement. They made it really clear that “feminism” isn’t about the promotion of women but rather the abortion agenda. As a woman I felt really betrayed by the women who so viciously attacked Sarah Palin. Clearly they’re just a bunch of frauds.
And in a society in which birth control is so easy to acquire and so effective, why the hell is it so necessary to murder babies? Are we so lazy we can’t bother to take a birth-control pill? I never understood that.
A number of commentators have noted that if you want it, it’s a baby and if you don’t, it’s just a fetus. Well, that was the thing that got me wondering. I get to decide if someone else is a human being or not, based on my feelings? Who made me God?
I work in a hospital with a renowned NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit). Every single day, the physicians and staff battle to save tiny premature babies.
And right down the street, babies exactly the same size are being put to death every day.
It’s insane and indefensible.
“The act is horrendous and made more tragic when you consider the numbers of babies that are being disposed of every day.”
I love that you’re bringing back the outrage to this, Gary. Well said.
Thank you for putting these thoughts on paper. I firmly believe the devaluation of human life is causing terrible harm to our society. I prosecute child abuse cases, and the correlation between readily available abortion on demand, exponential increases in immature parents and fatherless children and horrible cases of child abuse and child murder is simply devastating. You can also see the spread of the mindset that it’s ok to do away with someone who is “inconvenient”–assisted suicide anyone? That mindset should frighten every thinking person–we all have to admit we’re incovenient to someone, at least occasionally, and if that’s an excuse to kill, none of us is safe.
The one “conservative” position I have held my entire life is that abortion is murder. I don’t say that to prove some sort of moral superiority over the likes of Gary, or the other commentators, but to illustrate that the “freedom of choice” lie will eventually yield in intelligent people to the reality of what abortion is. I did do the leftist thing in college and half-way through law school, but eventually came to 99.9% RR conservative. My continued adherence to pro-life eventually brought me around from the silliness of liberalism. That is why I view Obama, Biden, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, et. al., as true morons.
Fair enuf, Gary, and well said (tho’ of course I am not in total agreement). But something should be said about this:
Screams, bomb blasts, machine-gun rounds rip through plaster, I duck, but the copper-tip spears tear into meat, I run, the fire sears flesh, more screams, are they coming from me, or are they my head being torn from…my…
Let’s be clear. Nobody ever got shot for being pro-life. But when it comes to doctors who perform them? I’m afraid that’s not the case. And in truth — and this is about truth, right? — that’s murder too.
Gary,
First off as a woman who has had an abortion, I have to respectfully disagree with your stance. It seems to me there are more stories than the one you have chosen to tell. I was married at the time and a mother twice over, and my husband was the father as I was never unfaithful, but he was a non-entity as a father and a husband; bad choice I made at 19 when I married him. I do not regret the abortion which I did to myself since I would never have gotten his permission as was needed 45 years ago. But, I would not have been able to raise three children plus support one husband by myself. So regardless of the rights or wrongs, I did what I had to do. Would I do it again? I don’t know; I think it would depend on how supported I felt by my current husband. But it’s not an issue now because I’m past the age of having more children.
Excellent piece! You brought me to tears. It’s a horrible and wonderful thing when the scales fall from our eyes, isn’t it? I’m thankful to have a forgiving God. All we have to do is ask.
And JD: I don’t want to pay for others to “choose” to murder their babies. And doesn’t the baby get a choice…don’t even the smallest of us have the right to life, liberty, and the pusuit of happiness? They do not have a voice, that is why we must speak for them. Open your eyes!
Excellent article. Abortion is murder. I pray for anyone that did this and regrets it. Forgive yourself. Maybe think about adopting an unwanted child. Heal your soul. Find some peace. It’s the people that don’t care about what they have done that I have a problem with.
Pelosi’s comments are despicable. Yes, we KNOW what “family planning” is. Let’s kill our children before they are born to reduce the carbon footprint.
What the hell ever happened to America being a country full of all kinds of people who could solve any problem no matter how difficult? Is this what we have come to, slaughtering of innocents?
This kind of thinking permeates the minds of our youth, making them feel unwanted and guilty for being alive. What of the woman who had an abortion and then bragged of it publicly, claiming she was helping to save the planet? (“Save the planet?” That sounds familiar.) The self-esteem of our young folks, and adults, is being wrecked by the guilt trips put on all of us by such demagogues as Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi. Is is any surprise that the suicide rate is higher than ever?
People, there is a God and you ARE loved; you are HERE for a reason, to make the world a BETTER place, and you cannot do that by killing your unborn child or by hurting yourself or feeling guilty for being alive. You have a RIGHT to your carbon footprint. No one ASKED to be born. Take heart and ignore this kind of brainwashing.
Graham, I am with you 100 percent on this one. I’m am anti-abortion, though I wasn’t always. Certain circumstances beyond her control basically forced to have an abortion several years ago thanks to her mother (who apparently did not want her unwed daughter to have a child for “appearance’s sake” (this happened quite a few years ago) and her boyfriend at the time, whom she later married and divorced. That act haunts her to this day, and to be honest, I don’t think she has ever forgiven herself for having the abortion. Two years ago, her youngest daughter, my step-daughter, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I look at that child now and I cannot help but think that if my step-daughter wanted to have an abortion, the precious little girl that is my step-granddaughter was not exist.
Abortion is wrong. And it is murder.
Graham, you have said what I think many people have wanted to say for a long time.
Thank you, man.
Wow. You make some powerful arguments. I’ve never considered the thought that, like a fetus, a 3-day old baby can’t survive outside the womb either. What a strong point.
Like you, when I was young, I believed abortion was the great liberator, although I didn’t believe in it for myself. I remember the bra-burnings in the 70’s and thought, “Heck yes – why should women be oppressed?” However, I got married and had a son, that I raised until he was 19 and three weeks away from going into the military. I lost him in a motorcycle accident. After that, I felt that abortion was a slap in the face to God. I wanted my son back so bad that I couldn’t conceive of anyone wanting an abortion.
I have friends who’ve had abortions, and I wonder how they feel about it. We don’t talk about it. I think some of them are damaged, and have some of the same feelings you have.
However, I don’t see how we can stop it at this point, and I’m still not sure about imposing my ideas on others. I’ve resigned myself to accepting it up to three months. Yes, this logic is ridiculous, but I don’t think conservatives can get anything better at this point.
Thank you for a very heart-felt expose of your deep feelings and thoughts on this subject. I hadn’t thought much of the father’s point of view before reading your post. You make some very strong and valid points.
I love this website.
I’m sorry. I think you’re wrong. Not only should abortions stay legal, but since a woman can now kill a baby who is born alive–I think we should legislate post birth abortions. Any baby who comes from my womb should live in daily fear that I will “CHOOSE” to abort him or her at any time just because I feel like it.
One reason given for aborting a fetus is that it is an “inconvenience.”
I know this, because a very good friend of mine had an abortion WHILE SHE WAS MARRIED, but in college because it was an inconvenience. (It would have interfered with midterms, I guess.)
Let me tell you, there is no bigger inconvenience than a son or daughter who is an embarrassment to a mother.
(We’ll see who forgets to send a mother’s day card if THIS legislation gets passed. And my kids better phone home every Sunday afternoon, too.)
The only problem I see is that I will have to repair my own relationship with my mom.
WOW, Gary. Thank you. WOW!
To parley Paul’s comment, I’d like to suggest we each print out Gary’s post and email/fax it to Nancy Pelosi’s offices. My cover note will simply state: “Congresswoman Pelosi, please read the attached by Mr. Graham, as he speaks for me as well!”
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s email: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
(Not surprising, her website does not list her offices’ fax numbers, but they can be obtained by calling her office telphone numbers of 202-225-0100 / 202-225-4965 / 415-556-4862)
I don’t understand how so many Christian and Jewish politicians can be “pro-choice” other than the fact that they want the best of both worlds.
I also don’t understand how, if a woman’s body is truly hers, my wife couldn’t get a hysterectomy when she had an ovary removed. She wanted it done at the same time because she wasn’t going to have any more kids but her GYN wouldn’t do it.
THANK YOU.
I was gang raped at a college frat party when I was 19 and discovered myself pregnant as a result, before the advent of Roe. I kept the pregnancy secret and planned to give the baby up for adoption. But…when I felt the first quickening, everything changed. The circumstances of conception no longer mattered. This was MY baby, my flesh and blood, and I knew that even though it meant my family would cut me off, that I’d have to drop out of college, and that life as a single mother in the late ’60s would be more than hard, the bond I felt with my unborn child overcame all.
As it turned out, I was never able to have another child and the doctors, after much trying, told me that I should consider my son a miracle as my tubes were so tied in knots (a congenital defect), conception would take a miracle and so much sperm to allow for even one to get through no one man could produce that much at one time. I was told I should give up.
So, I did stop trying and now so many years later, I think back and thank God my unplanned and rather violent pregnancy due to 5 sperm donors happened before Roe because at that time in my life, I might have taken the easy way out. I don’t know if I would have, I’m just thankful I didn’t have to decide.
I married a good man when my son was 4 and he adopted him. We were married 32 years when I lost him in 2002. We added an adopted daughter to our family and I now have beautiful grandchildren. Both my children are rabid pro-life advocates because they understand that the unborn are babies and every child is a gift from God, even if the circumstances make that hard to see at the time.
Beautiful post. Very moving. I wish you would make it into a movie. I like the idea of the journey from your youth and the culture of the times to becoming an adult. I’m about the same age as you. I remember women’s choice being about being able to attend any school you wanted, to be in any profession, to be married or single, to make your own financial decisions… It breaks my heart that choice has come to mean murder.
It is a baby if you want it. It is a blob of cells if you don’t. In the old Hebrew version of the Bible, Thou shall not kill is actually, thou shall not murder. It is pretty clear. Abortion is Murder. Those who tolerate it should complete the sentence: I want the right to choose….to murder my unborn baby. It doesn’t sound like such a great choice when you complete it. I predict that in a thousand years, our decendants will view us no better than the Romans who threw Christians to the lions. They will not be able to understand how a bunch of selfish women, most of whom will never have to worry about getting pregnent. have bullied murder into our legal system. Thanks for having the courage to speak up.
That is like saying, “if you don’t like murder, don’t murder anyone”. You can call it whatever you want, but that doesn’t change what it is. Roe will be overturned. Not now, but it will. Remember, abolitionists were also called religious nuts for many years before they won. We will also prevail. Our legions are growing.
Thank you so much for not only telling the truth, but for being honest about your own experiences as well. I’m going to pass this on. Perhaps someone else will read it and face up to the truth as well.
Thank you, Mr. Graham, for your honesty and rock solid reasoning. The truth needs to be told, and avoiding PC buzzwords that make irresponsible people feel better about murdering babies is a good first step.
Why indeed don’t “pro-women have a right to kill their babies” advocates call it what it is? Could it be they feel a tinge of guilt, and that somehow, calling it something else like “family planning” or
“pro-choice” (what choice?) assauges that guilt or exonerates them?
Hey, as long as they don’t call it baby killing that’s cool. Words like that are divisive, are they not? That’s sort of the point of truth. It takes real courage to face truth, and see ourselves in Truth’s light.
I know guilt is so blase to some, but it can be effective in leading us to truth…to better ourselves and to love life.
Abortions (ie murdering babies) is far more divisive than truth, and not in a good way. The culture of death is a disease that kills the soul.
I pray that our nation, and indeed, all nations embrace Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Welcome Gary to the ‘perceived’ right wing club of small minded, bigoted and backward thinking zealots who want to block the path of progress for mankind. It is people like us, says the zeitgeist, who want to take women back to back to the Middle Ages. We have come a long way in 100 years. In 1900, contraception, divorce, promiscuity and abortion were considered moral failings and evil and had been considered as such since the fall of the Roman Empire. It is apparent that in these neo-pagan times we are reverting to vices and evils that were the signs of a decadent civilization. Thank you for your courage and your honesty and know that God loves you and forgives you. Your penance is to continue to promote the pro-Life message from this time forward.
So capital punishment is murder then too?
The conflation of birth control and abortion is the heart of “family planning” and “choice” is it not? If a person is against abortion then they get accused of wanting to force women to be brood mares or some such nonsense, they get accused of wanting to force something on women. How is that not conflating abortion with birth control? Every woman should have control over her own body, over whether she gets pregnant or not. THAT is birth control.
“Choice” is not a do-over, it is not an after the fact correction.
Family *planning* ought to suggest *planning*. Ahead. Making choices before hand.
It’s not the pro-life people who insist that “family planning” includes women making after the fact decisions without the other “family” members concerned, to abort a fetus.
Hey, Tom. When an unborn baby commits a heinous crime, I’ll support murdering it, too. Okay?
An email I have to share:
I’ve just returned from Washington, DC where I attended the March for Life and various other pro-life events and meetings. And I want to brief you on the latest information regarding the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).
Our efforts to fight FOCA are beginning to bear fruit. Collectively, pro-lifers are making enough noise that we’ve given the President and pro-abortion leaders in Congress second thoughts about moving forward with FOCA in its entirety. Notice I said entirety. Their alternate plan is even more dangerous for the babies by being more difficult to counter.
First, we can’t let up on continuing to make noise about FOCA. If you haven’t yet done so, please sign the online petition against FOCA (CLICK MY NAME). Please also get as many people as you can to sign the petition. We can use these numbers to fight their new strategy coming down the legislative pipeline. Let me explain.
FOCA would literally kick to the curb any protective legislation for the babies which has passed on federal, state and local levels. As a result, it’s being seen as too radical for too many Americans. So the President and pro-abortion leaders of Congress are looking at plans to pass FOCA, piece-by-piece, attached to other bills. This could be devastating for the babies because it would make it easier for their abortion agenda to get lost in a larger bill. It would have the same effect of gradually warming the pot of water with the frog inside. FOCA in its entirety would be too hot to handle and the frog would immediately jump out. But if the legislation was passed little by little, the temperature in the pot would gradually warm up until it was too late for the frog to realize his dilemma and he would die.
Our job is to alert federal lawmakers, Americans and the media that FOCA is present every time that they propose legislation with parts of it embedded. This makes the entire bill unacceptable. Here are examples of what we can expect by pro-abortion leaders of Congress in their piecemeal efforts to pass FOCA:
* Use the momentum behind universal health care to include funding for abortion-on-demand.
* Bring back partial-birth abortion—once again killing babies during delivery.
* Take away any rights of parents to be involved before their minor daughter undergoes a surgical or chemical abortion.
* Deny women the right to be fully informed to the dangers of abortion before having one.
* Force health care providers and professionals to participate in the killing of innocent human life.
* Brutally kill babies who survive late-term abortion by reversing the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.
* Put women’s health and lives at risk by blocking protective regulations of abortion mills—many that operate like dangerous back-alley abortion facilities.
These and other ghastly realities await unborn babies and their mothers if we’re not vigilant in our efforts to stop the incremental advancement of FOCA.
Here’s how they plan to do it. Pro-abortion leaders in Congress will attach their deadly piecemeal legislation as riders to appropriation bills. These will be drafted in April. However, there are things we must do in the meantime.
We must continue making noise by letting our pro-life voices be heard. One of the easiest ways to do this is sign the online petition against FOCA (CLICK MY NAME). This will help us keep the pressure on.
Alert everyone you can about this new and deadly agenda by the most pro-abortion President and Congress in history. Share this email with others! Bring everyone up to speed by using your email address books, circles of friends, coworkers and church members. Link to our FOCA petition using Facebook or other Internet websites. Send the link (www.lifeissues.org/FOCA) by blogging, text messages and Twitter—use whatever technology and avenue available to you. Now is the time to alert the troops!
All true, bravo!
Unfortunately, the political caravan has moved on.
The Roe v. Wade abomination may be overturned in our lifetimes (I hope).
In the meantime, we must continue to carefully argue for a uniform, albeit arbitrary, and achievable political/legal deadline sometime during the first trimester, in order to protect innocent unborn babies: our nation’s Posterity.
Abortion is, objectively, baby-killing/murder.
So, how can we as a People get our elected representatives to legislate and enforce that is the question.
Gary, one need not spend the rest of one’s life with the burden of unforgiven guilt. The Bible says abortion is wrong, but it also offers a source of true forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. God will forgive if we will come to Him according to His conditions: Rom. 1:16; 6:3,4; 10:9,10; Mark 16:16; Acts 17:30; 2:38; 22:16.
Kudos! Excellent article!
In the 1800s, brave people in the US had the guts to speak for the slaves who were dehumanized and couldn’t speak for themselves. They eventually won and abolished slavery. Thanks for adding your voice to speak for the unborn. We shall overcome if we persist and finally abolish abortion.
Gary -
Whatever you do, get right with God.
Pray that the abortionists-murderers see the error of their ways and change for the better.
We as a people must get back to our own constitution and re-read the fifth and fourteenth ammendments.
God bless you, Gary! That was a beautiful piece. Before you wrote this, I was honestly a little worried about Big Hollywood. I was afraid you were going to be those conservatives that worshipped the free market and tax cuts, and if a few babies have to be murdered in order to get them then… oh well. But this completely completely changed my mind. For what little it’s worth, I’m behind you guys one hundred percent. Keep speaking truth to power, with charity, of course.
Dearest Gary,
As a woman, I know EXACTLY what you mean…..I was that drugged flower child in the 70's and thought nothing was wrong with abortions. After all, that was my right!!!
Then I met Christ (at age 38) and came to understand how much God loves the little children and how He knows us even in the womb. I thank Him daily that I didn't snuff out a baby. That drug lifestyle changed my life in many other ways. I never got married and never had a child. I was too selfish for that and now all I have is Christ. He is enough.
Thanx Gary, I'm sure you sleep better now.
Here’s a book that every pro-life person (heck, every modern citizen) should read:
“The Politics of Virtue: Is Abortion Debatable?” by Elizabeth Mensch and Alan Freeman
It was written by two self-proclaimed “stereotypical east coast, liberal, Ivy League-educated professors” of environmental ethics and law. After years of having students come up and ask them about the ethics of abortion, they decided to properly study the issue. They delve into the history of abortion, the history of religion and law in America, and how we got to “Roe v. Wade.” In the end they find, ethically, no moral or legal justification for abortion. It is murder.
However, they also attempt to criticize and cut through the rhetoric and loaded language so prominent in both the pro-life and pro-choice camps, to encourage a path to civil discourse. Their analysis of how the two camps relate also has great application to issues of the environment, animal rights, and gay marriage. This book was published in 1993, and it is eerie the degree to which many of their predictions about the escalation of “culture wars,” polemics, and the death of civil discourse have come to pass.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822313499/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
I participated in the Dallas pro-life march January 17, 2009.
Great article.
I don’t understand why a woman and man who *choose* to have sex … cannot then take responsibility for the natural consequences thereof … Whether they’re married or not, they know that a baby may be conceived.
By the way, contraceptives are not always 100% effective. . . . Some of the posts here seem to indicate that people don’t understand this! Saying “well, she could have taken her birth control pills” – The fact is, the pills & condoms etc. don’t always work as well as they are supposed to.
God deliberately designed sex to result in certain things. This design was meant for honor and beauty. . . . And to say that “they should not be ‘punished’ with a baby” – !
If a baby is that bad for you, then why did you have sex in the first place?
Take thought carefully, and consider your actions. Don’t rashly throw away your virginity, if you still have it. Ponder the paths of your feet.
I, too, am a murderer, something I did not mention in my first comment. Three times, the same as you, I participated in the destruction of my own unborn children. Why? Because I bought into the garbage my POS father fed me about “do your own thing”, “no rules”, “free love” and all that effing sixties crap. My dad was not just a product of the sixties; he helped PRODUCE that crap decade. He is now a miserable product of his own disdain for anything of real value.
I know I am forgiven by God for this but it is a painful thing and I don’t spend much time thinking about it.
“Free love” is NOT free, there is a price to be paid for such things.
Maria:
Harley, you are an absolute idiot.
Yes. Seems you’ve shut him up for now; good job!
But he’ll be back.
While it’s too easy to identify the simpleton dunderhead trolls (we all know who they are), harley has managed to convince a few that his “counter” arguments add to the discussions. Distilling GG’s post to an analogy between aborting innocent babies and murdering abortion doctors so as to draw an ostensible moral equivalency does not add to the discussion IMAO.
One of the best “bestings” of harley I’ve read (and there have been many) is by none other than our leader Dirty Harry here.
And the woman thing? Watch out what you say to him because he has no sense of humor, to quote:
Here:
harley – January 23rd, 2009 at 8:12 am
Oh, Carolyn, the old ‘mother’s basement’ joke, this time super improved by the beanie propeller line. (What’re you, 65? Oh. And menopausal?).
You’d be a more effective bully if you were smarter. Pity, that.
And here:
harley – January 23rd, 2009 at 11:58 am
Sharon! I find it interesting that the posters on this site with the biggest swinging dicks are all women. Angry, smirky, condescending women.
Not sure why. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. Me? I blame Ann Coulter.
So, whaddya think? Misogynist or Progressive? Or just a hack troll?
By the way, contraceptives are not always 100% effective. . . . Some of the posts here seem to indicate that people don’t understand this! Saying “well, she could have taken her birth control pills” – The fact is, the pills & condoms etc. don’t always work as well as they are supposed to.
The reason I bring this up is because contraception is very effective much of the time– if used correctly. I’m not pro-life for religious reasons, I simply believe that the moment of conception is the moment life begins. I don’t have any issues with birth control and have found it to be very effective. I used the pill for over 10 years and never had an unwanted pregnancy.
That said, I know that, propaganda aside, teaching abstinence works. I remember reading about how effective abstinence education had been in Africa and how it had helped, considerably, in preventing more unwanted pregnancies and babies born with AIDS. I’m all for teaching abstinence, but if a teenager (or adult) chooses to have sex, birth control is an option. The only to way to absolutely prevent a pregnancy is to not have sex, but responsible sex is better than unprotected sex every time.
Bottom line though. If a child is conceived, no matter how, it still should not be murdered. If we were really proactive with adoption programs to place these babies I doubt it’d ever be an issue. Adopted newborns are in huge demand in this country since so many women wait until they’re past their 30’s to try to conceive. I would think it’d be a no-brainer to find good adoptive homes for the accidentally conceived children. But apparently, murder has been easier.
Gary,
I was already a fan of your earlier pieces here on Big Hollywood, but now I am a fan with the utmost of respect. Very brave of you to open your heart and let us see the mistaks you have made. Having been raised in a politically apathetic home, albeit the stance on pro-choice was always quite obvious, I think I will always be torn on this subject. I think this is mainly due to the issues you mentioned, i.e., rape, serious birth defects, etc. Also, the sad truth is that if a woman wants to have an abortion, she will have an abortion…legal or not.
Since you are well-versed and very well thought out on this subject, I was wondering if you might address the recent trend in so many actresses chosing to have a baby, with or without the benefit of marriage. What I’m most curious about is if this is a backlash to the previous decades where actresses were encouraged to have abortion after abortion in order not to hinder their career? Or is it a generation of women coming who realize with all the money they make in the entertainment business they can really have it all, children, career, marriage even, and aren’t as compelled to submit to the old Hollywood traditions?
I’m not saying that single motherhood is the best route, but that versus a dead baby would be my choice if I had to make it.
Again, kudos to your being so open about your past. I believe redemption can be found in helping to enlighten others by our mistakes. Thank you for your enlightened thoughts on this subject.
BTW…I didn’t even realize that I also have been a fan of yours from years back. Alien Nation was one of the best TV shows on at that time (which of course guaranteed it would be yanked from the airways as quickly as possible).
Anyone that has any doubts of a fetus not being intelligent life yet should watch “Silent Scream” on youtube.
I’ve always been pro-life. I’m a Catholic and I majored in biology in college, so I know how incredibly swift the transition from sperm+egg to beating heart really is. When my daughter showed me her 3-D ultrasound and I could see the baby’s face I was almost floored with awe. This wasn’t a clump to be vacuumed out, it was a baby and an individual in her own right no matter what Ashley Judd, Nancy Pelosi or Peter Singer say.
We keep using the wrong language, the wrong words. We default to religious beliefs when arguing against those who, at best, do not want anyone to “impose” those beliefs on another (like themselves), when “of course” all religious beliefs are equivalent in worth. We say “human life” when we mean soul, against those who may doubt such exists while awaiting for science to declare we are just programmed biological machines, and who cares about disposing of unwanted (unborn) machines?
Use their words, their language, see if they listen to their own arguments. If not, their hypocrisy will be exposed.
Abortion, as it stands, is a bastion of inequality that dis-enfranchises half the population, as it is soundly against sexual equality.
Once the decision to copulate is made, the male has One Shot at preventing fertilization, which must be prepared for and done correctly, despite being “in the moment” and possibly somewhat intoxicated. Anything goes wrong, like believing she’s on “completely effective” birth control, he can be burdened for 18+ years for that moment and have no say whatsoever. The female is allowed up to nine months of sober contemplation to decide if she so wishes to be burdened, and thus if he is also (at least financially). She is also granted complete control over that which is half his and may dispose of his material interest at will with no compensation. This is a blatant injustice and in complete disregard of the basic human right to equality.
Clearly the simplest legal remedy is doing away with non-emergency abortion, the responsibility and consequences shared by both parties. However, this is not considered prudent for political reasons. Therefore, a fair and equitable system should be established. If both agree to termination (with the male party firmly identified by testing), then it can happen, likewise both may decline. However, either may ask for termination. If the male insists but the female declines, he shall then be allowed to sign away all interest in the matter and unburden himself, this decision being allowed until childbirth, as the female is allowed to do, at which point refusal of termination shall be assumed. For the reverse, she can sign away as well and leave him the child upon birth, with just compensation provided for her services as a de-facto surrogate mother. While some may complain a male can thus insist on a female undergoing a possibly risky medical procedure, the proponents of abortion will undoubtedly, when asked, agree the medical consequences of abortion are less to equivalent of those from full-term childbirth thus nothing greater is requested. After all if abortion was worse than childbirth then it should be properly flagged as such. The theoretical extra risk for childbirth is accounted for in the “just compensation,” if you were wondering.
Small stuff: If the father is not identified from in utero genetic testing, to preserve his rights there can be no termination until located, if the child is born meanwhile he can still unburden himself, or pay compensation including incurred childrearing expenses or “normal arrangement” shared burden. She may unburden meanwhile, with the child placed in foster care. If both agree to unburden, the child goes up for adoption (compensation payed by adopters or state). That amniocentesis (safest method) can’t be done until at least the 14th week doesn’t matter, this is a legal issue with around nine months involved for the decisions, and the preservation of rights for all individuals (such as the male) is paramount. And abortion at nine months is no greater an issue than at one month, right?
This fair and just system embodies equality. It also emphasizes personal responsibility, allowing the male to assume all of it as desired which the current system rebukes, while also removing the potential “profit motive” where females could have several children merely to collect child support. Indeed, how can any true advocate of “personal choice” refute this notion that BOTH genetic donors should be allowed such free and unfettered equal rights of choice? Truly, it is an AMERICAN system!
And if one insists that somehow this system is absurd, with details like allowing the male to decide on termination right before birth (which is still no worse than childbirth as it is abortion), well we as Americans must(!) stand by our principles and side with equality, which the current system absolutely, undeniably does not. The simpler, presumably less absurd remedy was mentioned earlier. Pick one.
Building on fire, you can only save one: Newborn baby or dixie cup full of 100 fertilized eggs. I mean if you take the baby and not the cup that’s practically genocide.
I never gave abortion a second thought until I had a religious conversion- and then it was suddenly blindingly obvious. I have heard the same from many others- to the point where I now think that being pro-choice automatically discredits anyone’s claim to be a christian- although i would never lay that trip on someone personally because I don’t think that’s right either…
But Obama cleared up his commitment to Christ early in the campaign, to which I say ” You keep saying that word, i don’t think it means what you think it means.”
God Bless
Anti-abortion legislation is never going anywhere….ever. Conservatives (social or otherwise) absolutely waste their time trying to force the issue and, even worse, alienate people that might otherwise get on board with the majority of the platform.
It is scam to say ok to take a life because it is unwanted. The Lies by government schools trying to convince not human until born. Another government agency stated that certain people were not human either . This man was the greatest student of Darwinism , and wanted to get rid the weak, affirm and the retarded , started the super race. He ended taking his own life and the others were only following orders. They lost on earth after trail. What excuse will you use before Christ ,He already knows your heart.
Write again when you’re a woman.
Telling someone that they cannot abort a pregnancy is an affront to personal liberty. And about trying being a woman ,true, does anyone believe for one second that if we were the ones carrying that abortion would not be a 5 second procedure and legal everywhere and probably free? Of course it would be. There would be mobile abortion trucks, 15 minutes or less, $29.99.
Bottom line is that in my opinion, if it is in your body…sort of your call.
“JD – January 28th, 2009 at 3:58 am
Anti-abortion legislation is never going anywhere….ever.”
Abortion was mentioned in short order on both “Private Practice” and “Boston Legal” recently. “Alan Shore,” the resident liberal on BL, mentioned during the “closing thoughts” part how difficult it is to argue these days that life doesn’t begin at conception. The PP consensus was “it’s legal so we as doctors have to provide it,” with clear indications that several wouldn’t if possible. The debate is changing, and it is no longer just a “clump of cells.” Where things will end up over time…
Why is it the party that is against the death penalty is for legal abortion, and having the government pay for it? A murderer, a wasted potential, means more than an unknown potential? Why did so many feminist groups, proud of the accomplishments of women, support Obama yet rejected Sarah Palin? Is this ONE issue so important that they should ostracize “one of their own” over it, and side with the one that picked “an old white guy” over a woman as a better-qualified running mate? With so many mixed messages, I doubt the non-conservatives will ever agree with the conservatives on much, abortion or otherwise, as they can’t even coherently classify exactly what they claim to hold so dear.
JD – January 28th, 2009 at 4:23 am
Bottom line is that in my opinion, if it is in your body…sort of your call.
Problem is, JD, that a woman is not born with two nervous systems and two brains therefore, it is not her body. Those are the first things that develop in a fetus and they begin developing long before a woman is even aware that she is pregnant.
If it is her body, then she should be more careful to not get pregnant in the first place.
I’m truly, truly dazzled by your piece and this site’s willingness to take on the sacred cows of our culture of death. I came of age a few years before you, I believe, in the anything goes 60s and 70s. Though raised in a conservative, Christian small town in the South, I threw it all over-board for the myths of the sexual revolution. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t until decades later that I too came to my senses. Ultimately I had a profound Salvation Experience and saw more Light than I was almost able to bare. I couldn’t agree with you more. And would only add several points that I think are worth noting from a woman’s perspective:
First, abortion is taking life. When a man acquiesces to a woman’s right to abortion, especially if the woman is his wife, he loses his moral authority as head of the family. And a funny thing happens, sometimes almost impercptibly at first: deep down a woman loses respect for him. No matter how much she loves and is attracted to him, she loses respect for her co-conspirator. Then often she loses her sexual attraction for him. And then most likely they lose the marriage.
It is only in hindsight, sadly, that I have come to understand this.
And second, when people begin to come to their senses regarding to taking life through abortion, it is there they can often can no longer hide from the fact they are true sinners in need of a Savior.
I am deeply impressed by what you, Andrew and others are doing here at Big Hollywood. And the most important compliment I can give you is that I deeply respect you. And that’s no small thing.
Thanks Gary, your article is the best one I have ever read on the topic of abortion. Keep up the good work!
If President Obama is really concerned with the rights of all people, he should take up the cause of a new civil rights movement, the rights of the unborn!
He is pushing policy that protects the rights of violent psychopathic murdering unrepentant terrorists and then lobbies to take away the state’s right to restrict abortion and implement federal law allowing late term abortions and minor girls to get abortions without parental notification, while banning alternatives to abortion counseling.
If that wasn’t bad enough he wants the US taxpayers to fund abortions here and around the world and force Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Jewish, Methodist etc. hospitals to perform abortions or lose Fed money for other medical programs. Nancy Pelosi says that funding the bloody abortion industry is good for creating jobs and boosting the economy…is that how the Nazis justified the Holocaust?
36 years after Roe v Wade, over 50 million innocent unborn babies or as President Obama called them in a previous speech “a mistake” have been killed. How can the US have a better future when we are killing future generations.
I am fearful that GOD will punish us for allowing this to happen and that President Obama is the 1st installment of that punishment.
[...] On that “right to choose” thing. [...]
42 million babies a year ! And 45 million since Roe v Wade ?
If there’s a heaven, the ones occupying it will probably never face the ones who put them there.
As Ramesh Ponururu wrote, The Party of Death.
These democrats are turning into professional babykillers, now there’s a job title to avoid.
Last time anyone got paid for that,well, fascism has many faces.
We live in a great society. The CIA can’t waterboard killers to save innocent lives, but women can kill their children-to-be and go to dinner later that day.
Figure that one out!
Hey, why can’t waterboarding be a CHOICE?
There has been a fair bit of comment already, so I won’t repeat it.
I pray for those who feel that killing an unborn child is (or was) necessary even though they know it is wrong, and I pray for those who lack the moral sense to know that it is wrong.
And I say those prayers confident that God is indeed full of mercy and grace, as you have also learned.
Mr Blifil:
I had a child that was born at 24 weeks. She died shortly after a hour of birth. Now granted, she was born alive (as are some babies of abortion) but had she been born dead I would still have had a funeral for her. I can’t imagine someone who would willingly go and have their child riped limb from limb from the mothers body. I remember holding my daughter and wanting her to live so badly. I think about her everyday, 17 years later. I simply can not imagine what a mother who murdered her own child must think or feel, knowing she allowed it to happen.
RE: E.C. Frank – Thanks for your story. I am a child of rape too. My mother decided to keep me although I know she thought of abortion. I also can speak of this because I got pregnant at 14 for the first time. My daughter is now 18 years old. My second pregnancy at 16 was where my baby died shortly after birth. I have gone on to have 5 more living children. I can not imagine life without them. I say it the same way you do. If my mother would have aborted me then 6 wonderful souls would not be here as well as any future generations to come. God is a wonderful and merciful God. I am so thankful for all that He has entrusted me with.
Gary,
Your honesty and courage in this piece illustrates why we who embrace the Culture of Life will prevail. Because of your willingness to come forward with your confession of past guilt, others will find the courage to stand up and say,”I regret having my abortion.”
When have you ever heard a mother or father say, “I regret that I didn’t abort my child?”
I have nothing to add, because you’ve said it all. Well done, and thanks for being so transparent. I’m reposting this everywhere.
This may be the single most compelling anti-abortion piece I’ve ever read.
Thank so much for sharing this. I’m forwarding it to a number of friends as I type this.
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