Thirty-eight years ago today, the United States Supreme Court decided that innocent children could be put to death. That statement may be jarring to some, but that’s exactly what Roe v. Wade accomplished. More than fifty million “legal” abortions have been performed in those thirty-eight years.
Something can be legal and still be immoral.
As a society, we have become numb to the atrocity. We treat it simply as a political issue rather than an issue of life or death. A society with a seared conscience will develop a callousness that will affect its whole approach to sanctity of life.
Every once in a while something occurs that shocks even the most jaded. This past week, an abortionist in Philadelphia, Kermit Gosnell, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder and infanticide for his abhorrent practices. Gosnell regularly delivered live, viable babies and then murdered them by severing their spinal cords with scissors. He referred to this procedure as “ensuring fetal demise,” a cold-blooded euphemism for barbarism. Mothers also died in his “clinic.” Government and health agencies who knew what was going on but did nothing to stop it.
Polls now show that a majority of Americans are opposed to abortion on demand. Republicans are speaking forcefully about passing a bill that will end all federal funding of abortion. There is one person who stands in the way, though:
President Obama famously made that comment at Saddleback Church during his 2008 campaign. Not only was it a dodge, it was deceptive. I’ve noted this before, but it’s worth repeating again, that when he was a state senator in Illinois, he fought against a bill that would have allowed doctors to provide medical assistance to babies “accidentally” born alive during an abortion. To allow such a thing, he stated, would be a slippery slope leading to the overturning of a woman’s “right” to choose. One cartoonist captured his stance poignantly:
For someone who claims the issue of when life begins is above his pay grade, he didn’t hesitate to decide that a baby born alive didn’t deserve to stay alive. Obama’s actions were a prime example of the moral depravity that threatens to engulf us.
On this day when we remember all those who have lost their lives through the sin of abortion, let’s pray for a change in the government’s policy and for a revival of the concept of the sanctity of innocent life. Then let’s act in accordance with our prayers.