Self-Evident Rights Denied
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”1
The week of January 18th was extremely eventful for our campus, the nation, and the world. On Monday, we celebrated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. On Tuesday, we witnessed the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States of America. Indeed, in these events, we remembered the brighter side of America and our devotion to social justice.
But our work is far from over. For on that Thursday, the 22nd, a bus full of Bethlehem citizens and students from Lehigh, Moravian, and DeSales went down to Washington, D.C. to combat the greatest social injustice of our time, and remember the 49+ million victims2 of our current and ever-present culture of death on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
“If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, do you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion, and why?” First of all, I can’t understand how anyone could not have seen the blatant liberal bias in this question when it was asked to Sarah Palin in an interview by Katie Couric3. But for sake of discussion, here’s my personal answer: Of the three people in this situation, who deserves to be punished: the girl, the father, or the unborn child? Anyone with a decent moral sphere would agree that the father should be punished for his sexual misconduct. But no, instead the punishment lands on the victims of this outrage: the girl who must undergo the medical procedure and whatever physical or psychological long-term effects may arise from it, and the child, who will never know the light of day or know happiness or love in this life. The abortion is like cutting a flower off a weed – it does not address the root of the problem, which is the sexual misconduct of the father, who, in the destruction of the evidence, goes on living, a free man. My other issue with this situation is simple statistics. The age distribution shows that teenagers only account for 20% of abortions4. Even if we made an exception for adolescents, can we not at least pass some form of legislature to reduce the other 80%?
This next statistic saddens me deeply. Approximately 92% of pregnancies of prenatally diagnosed Down Syndrome children are aborted5. I will tell you what this statistic reflects. It reflects nothing of incest, rape, or life-threatening complication in childbirth. This statistic reflects one of the sickest beliefs of our culture of death: that handicapped persons are unable to live happy, fulfilling lives, and they are not worth the special time, finances, and effort required. If you hold this belief, you are gravely wrong. My little brother has Down Syndrome, and I would not exchange his brotherly companionship and love for all the riches of the world. I would never have him be any different from the way he is. Yet children like him are discriminated against and murdered because of their disabilities. But no, by all means, let’s maintain a “woman’s right” to play god and decide whether a person with disabilities is worthy or unworthy of life.
The labeling of abortion as “women’s rights” bothers me. It is one thing if the pregnancy is the result of nonconsensual sex, but in any other instance, this is not about a woman’s decision to carry through with a pregnancy; it is about a woman’s decision to have sex without consequence. Here’s a news flash: abstinence is the only contraceptive 100% capable of preventing pregnancy. If you don’t want to be pregnant, don’t have sex. It’s that simple.
Now, last I checked, when a doctor invasively penetrates into a human body with specialized tools to remove tissue, it is usually called SURGERY, and it is a medical procedure, which requires proper consent. Why should abortion be an exception? If my child were going into surgery, I would want to know about it. But the recently controversial Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) holds that abortion is above the rules – that abortion should be available to anyone without restriction. Can one be so blind as to not see the painful consequences? How can we possibly expect our children to be responsible enough to make such a drastic, potentially life-changing decision by themselves and, without our knowledge, endure any long-term consequences? By undermining parents in this fashion, the family that finds itself in this situation will surely be destroyed.
Of course, there is then the debate regarding victims of nonconsensual sex. Who can blame them for not wanting to bear the child of their rapists, whose ways are truly wicked and immoral? The circumstances are truly unfair, and the cost of the crime truly unjust. I implore you, however – does this child deserve to be punished for the crimes of his or her father? I urge anyone who finds themselves in this situation to understand that this child is no more the child of a rapist than he or she is a child of God; that the child is his or her OWN person, sharing only some of the genetic traits of his or her father, but, more importantly, is capable of bringing great goodness into the world. I do hope that those who find themselves in this situation will see God and/or see the great goodness and love that this child will be capable of, either as part of their family or as a part of someone else’s.
Surely, I fear that I may not live to see the time when we, as a first world country, learn to fully respect the sanctity of life and the self-evident rights of every human being. I hope that those in our Congress who find themselves at odds with their counterparts on this issue will at very least seek compromise, and that our legislature will not subscribe itself to such extreme measures as FOCA, but rather legislature based on reason, not rhetoric and propaganda.
