Category Abortion

What Choice are They For?

Ed

Yesterday, January 22, 2013, marked the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade (Roe) Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decision which Blog for Choice 2013legalized abortion in every state during all nine months of pregnancy. And today, January 23, 2013, marks the 40th anniversary of a lesser known, but just as important, decision from SCOTUS regarding abortion: Doe v. Bolton (Doe).

Roe was important because in one stoke of the pen, SCOTUS overthrew the states’ right of making their own laws and struck down every law in this land against abortion. To be clear, 17 states had already legalized abortion of some sort prior to that decision, but most of them had restrictions on which trimester those abortions could take place. What Roe did was make it legal to abort a baby any time during the whole nine months of pregnancy if the mother’s health was at risk. But Roe didn’t define what it meant for a mother’s health to be at risk.

Doe took care of that. The day after Roe was handed down, SCOTUS handed down the Doe v. Bolton decision which basically defined the health of the mother as any reason whatsoever. We’re not just talking about mortal danger to the mother, which is what most people that I speak with think it means, Doe defined it to mean any type of physical health issue. So, for example, if a woman doesn’t want to deal with morning sickness, that’s a proper reason (according to Doe) to get an abortion. Additionally, Doe broadened the definition of “health of the mother” to include other types of “health” both of legitimate concern (e.g. mental) and the outrageous (e.g. economic). Whatever the reason, or type of “health” issue, cited there really is no justification for ending the life of an innocent human being.

Ask Them What They Mean When They Say ChoiceWhy this little history lesson? As they have in previous years, NARAL Pro-Choice America encouraged their supporters to “Blog for Choice” on January 22. And pro-life groups and individuals, as they have in previous years, responded by asking what it means when you are for “choice”?

You’ll find that there are a lot of answers to that question. A lot of pro-choice people think it’s about better health care for women (how about better health care for all…seems a little sexist to only advocate better health care for women); or they want you to think it’s about getting free contraceptives; or it’s about empowering women to make decisions about their own bodies.

But the reality is that the folks who are pushing the “choice” agenda–and I don’t mean your friends, relatives, or co-workers who, when asked “Are you pro-life or pro-choice” say they are pro-choice but don’t really know what that means–the ones who take in billions of dollars under the banner of “choice” and pay out millions through their political action committees, know what choice they’re talking about: abortion.

My wife reminded today that Virginia has a specialty license plate called “Trust Women, Respect Choice.” Here in northern Virginia, I often see a car with that plate with a vanity registration: “I HAD 1.” This license plate tells us the truth. I doubt if this person would say “I HAD 1” if she were talking about mammograms at Planned Parenthood (which they don’t do), or free ultrasounds at Planned Parenthood (which they won’t show the results of to the woman considering abortion), or free birth control pills, or free condoms.

So what do they mean when they say choice? The answer is clear: the ending of innocent human life in a barbaric fashion. On this 40th anniversary of two legal decisions which made every American citizen complicit in the sin of murder, I ask that you find the truth behind the rhetoric and then make an informed decision. You can start where I started 16 years ago: by looking at the results of abortions. Be forewarned that the images are graphic and disturbing, but they are real and it happens 3,300 times every day in the US…1.2 million times every year.

If you have been involved in an abortion decision in your past, please know that the purpose of the video is not to condemn you or shame you. The purpose of the video is to help you understand that no matter what the sin, God loves you and has forgiven you through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Here are three resources for help if you have had an abortion in the past: Word of Hope, Rachel’s Vineyard, and Abortion Recovery International.

Watch the video of aborted babies and strengthen your resolve to end this 40 year atrocity we call “choice.” Click here to see the video.

Updated 24 January 2013.

Abortion Should Not be a Partisan Issue

Ed

My pastor shared this message via email this morning and I’d like to share it with you. Too many Christians (including Lutherans) see the abortion issue as a political issue, but they’re wrong. Abortion ends an innocent human life. That’s it, period. No one in this nation, be he Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Republican, Democrat, Conservative, etc., should support state sanctioned murder due to a person’s size, stage of development, location, or degree of dependency. I’ve written about this before (click here), but it never hurts to read what someone else is saying.

Abortion should not be a partisan issue.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ JESUS,

When pastors talk about politics, they tend to lose sight of their calling: to preach JESUS Christ and Him crucified for the redemption of the world. But in the matter of abortion, we are not dealing with the usual political matters such as health insurance costs, taxation rates, gun control, or foreign policy.

Abortion is, quite simply, the taking of a human life. To oppose abortion is not to side with a political party: it is to take your stand with the right of every human being to live. Thus among my favorite signs at the annual March for Life are the ones from Secularists for Life, Atheists for Life, Feminists for Life, and Democrats for Life. These groups demonstrate that whatever disagreements we have about other issues pertaining to religion or the governance of our country, we all stand together under the declaration that every human being has a fundamental right to life.

While a poll of Immanuel would likely reveal more members of one major party than another, I know that we have people of all political stripes in our congregation. And I am not interested, as your pastor, in addressing your politics. My calling is to watch out for your souls – and to speak out for the helpless and defenseless, which the unborn certainly are.

I like to think that if I weren’t a Christian, I would still be pro-life. For while the Word of God informs me that God loves and values every human being, it is a simple matter of science that from the moment of conception a human life has come into being, and human beings have what the 1776 Declaration of Independence affirms as “unalienable Rights.” Among the Founders who agreed to that statement were Christians to be sure, but also Deists. The pro-life position is not a Christian issue or a Republican issue but a civil rights issue – I believe the civil rights issue of our time.

As Christians, however, we have one more thing to offer: the God who gives life also grants forgiveness. Forgiveness to those complicit in abortion, forgiveness for our failure to care for those in need, forgiveness for all the times we have done what was convenient instead of what was right.

And flowing from that forgiveness to us, we Christians will live lives of forgiveness and mercy toward others, people in desperate and hopeless situations. Stand with us for life. Join us for the March for Life. Help us, by your offerings, to help pregnant women in need. Help us, by your offerings, to help abused women find shelter. These are today’s “widows and orphans in affliction” which “religion that is pure and undefiled” (James 1:27) desires to help.

Finally, pray. Pray for an end to abortion. Pray for an end to evil and violence in the world. Pray for those wounded and hurting after abortion. Kyrie, eleison!

Your unworthy undershepherd,
Pastor Esget

Well said, Pastor.

Banning Assault Rifles

Ed 1 Comment

(Note: Before I go any further, please understand that I am not trying to minimize what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. That was a tragic event that will take years, if ever, for the children, teachers, school staff, first responders, and families to recover from. This blog is about the over-reaction to the event.)

Every time there is a mass shooting incident, many people cry out for the ban on assault rifles and/or high-capacity magazines for these rifles. The most horrific event in recent memory occurred three weeks ago at an elementary school in Connecticut (see Clackamas Town Center and Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings).

But I believe people are missing the point. First of all, please stop calling for a ban on assault weapons…by definition, a weapon is something that is used to assault someone else. Please be more precise and talk about banning assault rifles; which if we are truthful, is what a deer would call the hunter’s rifle (if deer could talk).

This is still not the issue as anything can be used as a weapon if the person so desires, a hammer, a baseball bat, or a kitchen knife. In fact, the FBI reports that more people are killed by hammers and clubs each year than with rifles (see article on Breitbart.com). In fact, earlier in the week that the Sandy Hook shootings took place, a man attacked 22 school children with a knife in China (see article here), with the main difference being that the children were not killed, but anyone skilled with a knife could have killed those children rather than scarring and maiming them.

No, the ultimate problem is that we live in a society where human life is not valued. Since abortion was legalized across the nation in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision of the US Supreme Court, over 51 million innocent babies have been killed in the US and the current estimate is 1.2 million per year. That callousness has seeped into every part of our thinking as a society.

Does the baby test positive for a genetic disease? End the pregnancy. Too many “left-over” embryos from an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure? Destroy them or use them for experiments. Too many embryos implanted during IVF continued to develop? “Selectively reduce” the number of babies growing in the womb. A baby is conceived during rape? Abort him because the woman shouldn’t have to suffer with being pregnant from a criminal’s act. A baby survives an abortion procedure? Leave her on the table to die. A baby is born with a physical or mental disability? Kill him (some advocates state as late as three years of age).

As I pointed out in my previous post about this incident (read it here), one of the main problems has to do with the change in thinking from what is good for “us” to what is good for “me.” When someone only thinks about me, then it makes sense that he thinks it’s okay to kill 26 innocent people because he wants to do what brings him pleasure regardless of how it affects other people. But the deep, deep issue has to do with the lack of value for human life; and that starts with the lack of value a baby in the womb has in our society.

All the mass shootings that have occurred recently (whether it be school, movie theater, mall, or temple) are just symptoms of a disease. Banning assault rifles or limiting the size of the magazines for these weapons will not affect the underlying disease. We need to return to a culture that values human life of all shapes and sizes, beginning with the littlest of these in the womb.

Overturn Roe v. Wade, instill a healthy respect of and love for life in the womb, and see if these public acts of violence decrease in number. What do we have to lose?

Va. is one step closer to regulating abortion clinics

Ed

Va. is one step closer to regulating abortion clinics to protect women’s health. http://ow.ly/gvBbv

Pro-abortion Writer Says, “I Wish My Mother Had Aborted Me”

Ed

On August 6, 2012 a pro-abortion writer using the pseudonym Lynn Beisner wrote an online article entitled “I Wish My Mother Had Aborted Me.” The writer comes to this conclusion because of her personal experience of abuse as a child and the struggles she has had to overcome.

Beisner recoils at stories such as the one belonging to Rebecca Kiessling, a woman who was conceived in rape–a situation where many people, including pro-lifers, would say it is okay to abort the baby–and is now a wife, mother, attorney, writer, and pro-life speaker. Beisner believes that “if we want to keep our reproductive rights, we must be willing to tell our stories, to be willing and able to say, ‘I love my life, but I wish my mother had aborted me.'”

In recounting her own story, Beisner states, because of her mother’s own experiences of traumatic brain injury, rape, parental suicide, and an unplanned pregnancy due to coercive sex:

With that constellation of factors, there was a very high statistical probability that my mother would be an abusive parent, that we would spend the rest of our lives in crushing poverty, and that we would both be highly vulnerable to predatory organizations and men. And that is exactly what happened. She abused me, beating me viciously and often. We lived in bone-crushing poverty, and our little family became a magnet for predatory men and organizations. …

If this were an anti-choice story, this is the part where I would tell you how I overcame great odds and my life now has special meaning. I would ask you to affirm that, of course, you are happy I was born, and that the world would be a darker, poorer place without me.

It is true that in the past 12 years, I have been able to rise above the circumstances of my birth and build a life that I truly love. But no one should have to make such a Herculean struggle for simple normalcy. Even given the happiness and success I now enjoy, if I could go back in time and make the choice for my mother, it would be abortion.

The world would not be a darker or poorer place without me. Actually, in terms of contributions to the world, I am a net loss. Everything that I have done—including parenting, teaching, researching, and being a loving partner—could have been done as well if not better by other people. Any positive contributions that I have made are completely offset by what it has cost society to help me overcome the disadvantages and injuries of my childhood to become a functional and contributing member of society.

As I read these words, my emotions didn’t turn to hate or anger or (even) disgust. Instead, I could only pity her and those who hold her views.

I felt pity because the writer lives in a totally utilitarian world in which the only value a person has is measured by what she contributes to society. And if she doesn’t contribute as much as she takes out, then her life is totally useless and she considers herself so valueless that she believes it would have been better if her mother had aborted her years ago.

I felt pity for the writer because she can see no other reason for her life than to make a difference in this world, and even then, the differences she makes as a mother and as an academic (as stated in her bio) don’t really seem to matter because she thinks that her mother’s choice to not abort her ruined the fractured life of her mother even more.

I felt pity because Beisner’s thoughts portray a life that doesn’t seem to understand that all life is precious, no matter the circumstances of the beginning of that life, the past or current state of that life, or the way that life will end. She misses the point that all human life is precious and valuable because of God’s creative work and Jesus Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Because there is something beyond what we can see before us, our lives have value and meaning beyond measure.

And though Beisner and I don’t agree on this topic, I would have to say that, yes, the world would be a darker and poorer place without her because it would be missing one more of God’s children due to our sinful human nature.

That’s why we must never give up this fight. We do it not only for the temporal lives of the babies saved, women and men healed, handicapped cared for, and elderly honored. We do it because these are opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. We do it because God “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).

Lynn Beisner–whoever you may be–you are in my prayers.