The Greatest of Human Freedoms?
Sunday, January 20th was proclaimed National Sanctity of Life Day by President Bush. The following Tuesday, January 22nd, was the 29th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion. The president’s support of human life has angered the leaders of the major pro-abortion organizations. According to Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, and Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, President Bush is assaulting the "greatest of human freedoms."
What is this "greatest of human freedoms"? The Declaration of Independence states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…" Are these women speaking of any of these inalienable rights as the "greatest of human freedoms"? "Freedom" is a word which Americans love. But the freedom which these women wish to protect is the legal right to put unborn infants to death, pure and simple.
They view the ability to have an abortion as a "fundamental civil and human right." Michelman said that "the freedom to choose [death for unborn infants - asd] lies at the very heart of all that women are and all that they may yet become." To lose this "freedom" would, in Michelman’s opinion, "diminish [a woman's] personal dignity." What a sad commentary on their view of women! The essence of what women are depends on the right to kill unborn children.
Incredibly, these two women have decided that the terrorist acts of September 11th, attacks upon freedom in this country, serve to confirm that the freedom to have an abortion must be protected. I also see some connections between the terrorist attacks and abortion. My view of the significance of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, however, is somewhat different from that of Michelman and Feldt.
Many have rightly lamented the loss of innocent human life in the terrorist attacks. As a nation, we were shocked and dismayed at the deaths of people whose only "crime" was that they happened to be in the way of the terrorists. A country sorrowed at the helplessness of those innocents who were caught up in the planned violence of the terrorists.
Many of us also lament the loss of innocent human life in the form of millions of unborn babies whose mothers exercised "the greatest of human freedoms," the right to deliberately take innocent human life. The only "crime" that these babies committed is that they happened to be in the way of "all that their mothers might become." They were helpless innocents who were caught up in the planned violence of those who ought instead to have nurtured and eventually cradled these wonderful gifts from God.
By definition, abortion is not terrorism. The terrorists of Sept. 11 seemingly were motivated by hatred and those who kill unborn infants are often motivated by little more than personal selfishness. Small consolation to the dead.