Judie Brown
Forty-one years later the cruelty rages
By Judie Brown
Forty-one years have passed since the Supreme Court took away the rights of an innocent class of people and allowed them to be killed at will. Forty-one years of suffering have ensued. In addition to the millions of babies murdered, countless families – mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, and other family members – must live daily with the tragic loss of a child killed before he was born. But it is not too late to change minds and hearts – to open them to a love for each and every human being. It is never too late to teach human beings how to love one another.
On the eve of the tragic anniversary of Supreme Court decriminalized slaughter – Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton – the opportunity arises to examine what is involved if we are turn the tide.
To do that honestly means that the facts should be examined objectively.
The first of these facts and certainly the most important is that, though abortion is an act that robs a human being of his life, the public does not perceive it in that light. To do so would require thoughtful reflection on the difference between good and evil.
America prefers to ignore the obvious and relegate the crime to a "choice."
The second fact is that abortion occurs in a multitude of ways including the chemical actions of a birth control pill or other contraceptive device; the surgical action of an abortion doctor, physician assistant, or nurse-midwife; or in the reproductive technology laboratory.
Each act is a horror that should never have been protected by law. Having said that, once the damage was done, politics took over.
The third fact is that, from the political perspective, abortion became an "issue" that defined two distinctly different political groups – conservative versus liberal. Consequently, one political group chose to oppose surgical abortion in most cases while never attempting to expose the early abortions caused by birth control. From May 1973, with the introduction of the flawed Buckley Amendment, language of compromise crept into pro-life political rhetoric.
The fourth fact is that reproductive technology came into the picture in 1978 with the birth of the first in vitro fertilization baby, Louise Brown. Pro-life leaders, political and for the most part educational, were silent on the matter. Even the Catholic Church was slow to respond, waiting until 1987 to definitively expose the evils of IVF and related practices in the teaching document Donum Vitae.
The early days exposed a weakness among us, an inability to deal honestly and frankly with the many evils in our midst that contribute to what was crystallized in 1995 by Pope John Paul II as the "culture of death."
Over the years, polarization within society has made it nearly impossible to bring the reality of who dies in abortion back front and center to the struggle. This is exactly where we are today, on the eve of the 41st tragic remembrance of those deadly Supreme Court decisions. But it does not have to continue. We need not continue to repeat our mistakes or exacerbate the situation by pushing for politics as usual.
Rather, we can and must reacquaint ourselves with the facts and correct the movement's modus operandi moving forward.
The total defense and protection of intrinsic human rights is not an impossible goal to achieve within society or within the law. This can be accomplished if we first realize that teaching minds and changing hearts is where we must begin. And clearly we should be doing this with unity of purpose in our language, our actions, and our capacity to interact with cultural opinion makers.
The pro-life movement can begin instructing lawmakers on what we expect of them rather than them telling us what they are willing to do. Those elected to serve the people should realize that "the people" include every human being from creation to death.
A Human Life Amendment has always been our goal. The total protection of our brothers and sisters from creation to death is the gold standard among us.
There is no pro-life American who does not want to see an end to all the methods of killing people before they are born. Whether the death occurs because of contraception, IVF and its progeny, or surgical abortion methods, each of them are individually and collectively assaults on the integrity of the human being. Each in practice renders a human being dead.
This is the truth of it. This cruelty must end.
© Judie Brown
January 23, 2014
Forty-one years have passed since the Supreme Court took away the rights of an innocent class of people and allowed them to be killed at will. Forty-one years of suffering have ensued. In addition to the millions of babies murdered, countless families – mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, and other family members – must live daily with the tragic loss of a child killed before he was born. But it is not too late to change minds and hearts – to open them to a love for each and every human being. It is never too late to teach human beings how to love one another.
On the eve of the tragic anniversary of Supreme Court decriminalized slaughter – Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton – the opportunity arises to examine what is involved if we are turn the tide.
To do that honestly means that the facts should be examined objectively.
The first of these facts and certainly the most important is that, though abortion is an act that robs a human being of his life, the public does not perceive it in that light. To do so would require thoughtful reflection on the difference between good and evil.
America prefers to ignore the obvious and relegate the crime to a "choice."
The second fact is that abortion occurs in a multitude of ways including the chemical actions of a birth control pill or other contraceptive device; the surgical action of an abortion doctor, physician assistant, or nurse-midwife; or in the reproductive technology laboratory.
Each act is a horror that should never have been protected by law. Having said that, once the damage was done, politics took over.
The third fact is that, from the political perspective, abortion became an "issue" that defined two distinctly different political groups – conservative versus liberal. Consequently, one political group chose to oppose surgical abortion in most cases while never attempting to expose the early abortions caused by birth control. From May 1973, with the introduction of the flawed Buckley Amendment, language of compromise crept into pro-life political rhetoric.
The fourth fact is that reproductive technology came into the picture in 1978 with the birth of the first in vitro fertilization baby, Louise Brown. Pro-life leaders, political and for the most part educational, were silent on the matter. Even the Catholic Church was slow to respond, waiting until 1987 to definitively expose the evils of IVF and related practices in the teaching document Donum Vitae.
The early days exposed a weakness among us, an inability to deal honestly and frankly with the many evils in our midst that contribute to what was crystallized in 1995 by Pope John Paul II as the "culture of death."
Over the years, polarization within society has made it nearly impossible to bring the reality of who dies in abortion back front and center to the struggle. This is exactly where we are today, on the eve of the 41st tragic remembrance of those deadly Supreme Court decisions. But it does not have to continue. We need not continue to repeat our mistakes or exacerbate the situation by pushing for politics as usual.
Rather, we can and must reacquaint ourselves with the facts and correct the movement's modus operandi moving forward.
The total defense and protection of intrinsic human rights is not an impossible goal to achieve within society or within the law. This can be accomplished if we first realize that teaching minds and changing hearts is where we must begin. And clearly we should be doing this with unity of purpose in our language, our actions, and our capacity to interact with cultural opinion makers.
The pro-life movement can begin instructing lawmakers on what we expect of them rather than them telling us what they are willing to do. Those elected to serve the people should realize that "the people" include every human being from creation to death.
A Human Life Amendment has always been our goal. The total protection of our brothers and sisters from creation to death is the gold standard among us.
There is no pro-life American who does not want to see an end to all the methods of killing people before they are born. Whether the death occurs because of contraception, IVF and its progeny, or surgical abortion methods, each of them are individually and collectively assaults on the integrity of the human being. Each in practice renders a human being dead.
This is the truth of it. This cruelty must end.
© Judie Brown
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