What's That I Hear?

This last week has had some pleasant news amidst the normal gloom and doom.

The governors of two states have had placed before them a bill to ban abortion, except in the case of a woman’s life being endangered.

Governor Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) signed his state’s anti-abortion bill Monday, and Governor Haley Barbour (R-Mississippi) has said he fully intends to sign his state’s bill as well.

This hideous practice of abortion-on-demand has been a blight on the landscape of America for too long. Many who are opposed to this practice have been intimidated into silence by a very vocal minority, supported by the agreeable complicity of the main stream media (MSM).

Will there be an attempted backlash from those who have profited most – namely the abortion industry and the feminist agenda? Yup! And it will be shrill. Count on it. But, thankfully there are those like Governors Rounds and Barbour who have taken a stand for what is right, knowing they will be lambasted, impugned and otherwise have their character assassinated in the press.

Some will argue a woman’s rights. There are several problems with this argument. First, the rights of the unborn child are ignored. Anybody ever stop to ask the baby in the womb whether they’d appreciate having a chance at life? I suspect the answer would be a resounding “Yes!” In the Bible, the Psalmist David says to God: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”

Second, the baby in the woman’s womb is a human being. Always has been – always will be. Unless of course, we sanction the tampering of DNA between animals and humans. Be very careful when you hear justifications such as, “All in the name of science.” As I recall from reading history, Hitler authorized human experimentation with a virtual carte blanche to his scientists/doctors. The victims in this case were Gypsies, mongoloids, the mentally and physically retarded, Jews, and anyone else who did not fit neatly into the demented Fuhrer’s world view. The unborn baby is not merely a “growth,” or a hunk of protoplasm, or a dog, or some other such nonsense.

Third, a woman has always had the option of aborting a baby if it was a threat to her own life. This was true before Roe v. Wade in 1973. I find it interesting that the dissenting opinion on Roe v. Wade on the Supreme Court was given by Justice William Rehnquist who died last fall while serving as the Chief Justice. In his dissent, he states that though most of the 50 states had restrictions on abortion prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion in special circumstances was always permitted. This, he said, was a precedent going back at least 100 years in our country.

Fourth, abortion conveniently became a means of birth control. With the rise of the 60s “free love,” relationships, unhampered by the constraints of traditional stodgy old values of morality, faced a basic problem: What to do with unwanted pregnancies? Try acting responsibly and commit yourself to the relationship by legalizing it. It’s called marriage. For decades now, we have reaped a terrible price for allowing unrestrained sexual activity.

Fifth, having an unwanted child is worse than abortion. This is nonsense! If the person or couple having the child does not want the child, then don’t punish the child by ending its life. Carry it full term and then put it up for adoption. That would be the mature thing to do. My wife works for a foster child agency and sees plenty of children who are not wanted, abused, and otherwise rejected. The world is not always a pretty place. But killing the unborn child is merely compounding the problem. And I can’t begin to tell you how many people would love to adopt children, but face nearly insurmountable bureaucratic obstacles, often giving up in frustration.

Lastly, there is the argument as to what to do with a child that is not “normal.” This is nothing more than a values concern. The child only has value if it is healthy, or normal. Not according to God. Every single person is of immense value. Our physical or mental frame does not give us worth. God determines the worth of an individual. We would do well to see things as God sees them.

So, what’s that I hear? It’s the sound of people stepping forward to do the right thing. It may not be real loud right now, but as it grows it will become a thunderous roar of approval all across this beloved land. It is also the sound of babies who will be allowed to have life because someone had the courage to say: Enough!