TODAY is a day of mourning. Today we must stop for a moment in our busy lives and remember the nearly 45 million people who have been killed. It truly is revolting that our society has become so overly desensitized to violence that we allow, even condone the murder that is abortion. Thirty-one years ago today the Supreme Court legalized abortion. To waste the life of an innocent child is a horrible thing, yet still everyday women in our nation are counseled to (and do) kill their unborn children.
Setting aside for a second the Supreme Court's legislating from the bench, it is clear to see that this gross moral abscess should have never come to pass in the first place. Children are inherently innocent when young, and perhaps this can be the clearest proof of the immorality central to abortion. Try explaining to a child -- old enough to understand, but not old enough to already know -- exactly what abortion is. No doubt they will be absolutely horrified. No truthful description of abortion could possibly hold up to a child's "is this right?" test. Only when the issue is presented in half truths and false rationalizations can adults claim abortion to be acceptable in our society.
Few have the conviction to face the facts about abortion. The truth of the matter is that each time this "medical procedure" is performed, an innocent soul looses their life. Just 20 days after conception an unborn child has a clearly visible heart, brain and spinal cord. By the 22nd day, the child's separate beating heart can be detected. In the 6th week, advanced medical instruments can locate brain waves. Ensuring that the child could receive a social security card, it has developed unique fingerprints by the 8th week. In the following two weeks, this young human being is sensitive to touch; they can smile, frown, wink and suck their thumb. Later, in the fourth month, rapid eye movement can be detected, indicating that the yet unborn baby is dreaming. If born prematurely in the fifth or sixth month, the child would have about a 50 percent chance of survival with the help of modern medical technology.
Of course, all of the modern medical technology in the world cannot save a child who is murdered at this point in development. Sadly this is a fairly common occurrence. Abortion not only stops a beating heart, but kills a child who can touch, feel and even dream. We prosecute and convict mothers who abandon their babies after birth, but sanction and regulate the killing of these same children before they are born.
To those who look at the evil that is abortion and acknowledge it, but refuse to condemn it on a societal scale because they do not believe they have the right to "inflict" their views on someone else, I offer this: Do not fall into the trap of moral relativity. There is still such a thing as absolute right and wrong in this world, and we are only kidding ourselves if we refuse to recognize it. There are people in this world who believe it is perfectly acceptable to cheat, maim or kill Americans because of our country's policies. There are people in this world who believe that minorities are second-class citizens. We know this is wrong and refuse to allow such activities. We must extend these same rights to unborn, thinking, feeling human beings.
Over five million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. To date nearly 45 million innocent children have been slaughtered in this modern holocaust. Have we inadvertently killed the person who will come up with a cure for cancer? Have we inadvertently killed the inventor of faster than light travel? How much art, music and writing will never be created because their creators were murdered before birth? Forty-five millions members of our generation have been slaughtered. How many people among us have lost a potential best friend, a potential husband or wife to the crime that is abortion?
As responsible citizens of this allegedly moral society we must act. We must realize that there is no such thing as a "right to privacy" that guarantees a right to murder your own child. We must encourage our lawmakers and leaders to create laws and policies that protect human life at all stages. Above all we must pray for the 45 million children who have been killed, and the many women who make such decisions of life or death each day.
(Daniel Bagley is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at dbagley@cavalierdaily.com.)
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