For whom the bell tolls

By Ken Connor

"When the government has the power to deny legal rights and due process to one vulnerable group, everyone's rights are at risk."

So says the American Civil Liberties Union on the section of their website dedicated to the issue of immigrants' rights. "No Human Being Is Illegal" reads the banner at the top of the page, a tacit indictment of any who don't tow the liberal line when it comes to immigration policy.

Scroll over to a different section of the website, and you'll find this:

"The 'War on Women' describes the legislative and rhetorical attacks on women and women's rights taking place across the nation. In includes a wide-range of policy efforts designed to place restrictions on women's health care . . . . Examples at the state and federal level have included . . . medically unnecessary ultrasounds; abortion taxes; abortion waiting periods . . . and prohibiting insurance companies from including abortion coverage in their policies."

So says the same American Civil Liberties Union when addressing the "right" of a woman to kill her unborn child.

This is the morally schizophrenic paradigm dominating the discussion of human rights in America today. According to the ACLU if you support tighter regulation of immigration and the prosecution of those who've come here illegally, you are an enemy of humanity. Likewise, if you believe that unborn children are human beings vested with inherent dignity and value and that the law should protect them, you are an enemy of humanity... or at least 51% of it.

That's right, folks. This bastion of liberty that calls itself the ACLU sees no contradiction in lobbying for the human rights of illegal immigrants – a vulnerable group, to be sure – while denying completely the human rights of mankind's most vulnerable members – unborn children. In their own words, a woman's right to abortion should be absolute. There should be virtually no restrictions; the only valid consideration is the woman's will on the matter. The unborn don't get a vote.

Ask these people about the Kermit Gosnell trial, and you won't hear one word of condemnation for the gruesome murder of infants who survived the abortion process and were born alive. The only tragedy acknowledged is the harm to the women who were unfortunate enough to choose a less-than-reputable doctor to perform their abortion. The villain is the State of Pennsylvania for not making abortion "safer" and more readily available.

In case this isn't enough to turn your stomach, there's this charming story from American Spectator reporting on LiveAction's latest expose. Undercover investigators captured footage of a New Mexico abortion counselor and doctor telling a woman to deliver her dead baby in the toilet in the event the procedure works faster than intended. From the story:

"Words don't begin to describe the absurdity and incompetence of suggesting to a patient that they might have to birth a stillborn baby in a toilet and alone because the doctors can't ensure a smooth procedure. Even more disturbing is the fact that the counselor admitted that such toilet abortions have happened in the past.

While the pro-abortion side brands the GOP and conservatives as unscientific, ignorant women-haters, the late-term abortion industry's own henchwomen/men have been caught red-handed (no pun intended) again. This time, thankfully, it's not a brutal report of twisting heads or snipping spines. Just a little safe, modern, and scientific advice on toilet abortions."

A doctor advising her patient to birth her dead baby in a toilet. No muss, no fuss. She "doesn't have to look at anything," just wait for the cleanup crew and go on with her life. This really sums up the mentality and reality of the disposable life ethic. An unwanted baby isn't worth the effort or inconvenience of gestation and live delivery. It is disposable, mere human waste. And where does human waste go? Down the toilet.

This is the depravity of the pro-abortion mentality, a mentality that too many accept under the guise of a woman's euphemistic "right to choose." Our children are being raised in a culture that tells them they are Neanderthals if they question this right. People like Wendy Davis are lionized as heroes – champions of human rights.

This is worse than a lie. It is insanity and it is evil, and the danger of this point of view is not limited to the unborn. All vulnerable people groups – the elderly, the handicapped, the despised, the disabled, and the demented – all are threatened by the disposable man mentality that undergirds the abortion culture. Sadly, in our self-absorbed, radically individualistic, atomized culture, we have lost our sense of community, our sense of connectedness. But we are all members of the human family, and whether we acknowledge it or not when the dignity of any one of us is diminished, we are all diminished. When we "dispose" of even the least of our brethren, we are all the poorer for it. Five hundred years ago, the British poet, John Donne, articulated this truth well:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 


It tolls for thee.

Our culture would do well to reflect on the truth of Donne's observations.

The ACLU is correct when they say that undermining the rights of one vulnerable group undermines the rights of us all. Would that they actually believed it.

© Ken Connor