Abortion

I was in high school when abortion was made legal. I was horrified that people could seriously set out to kill their unborn child. My reaction then and my reaction now is only different in that I have much more information about the whole subject now than at that time. Over forty years have passed, and American policy has allowed tens of millions of children to be aborted. It is still horrible! Here I would like to state my objections to the whole evil of abortion.

I want to state first, the terminology I will be using. I will say ‘child’ or ‘baby’ but not ‘fetus.’ Fetus is Latin for ‘baby,’ but since I never learned Latin, I will speak English. I will say ‘pro-abortion’ because ‘pro-choice’ is a misnomer. The pro-abortion people are not fond of choice; they are all for death. The baby gets no choice in the matter. Years ago, when I was in college, I was talking to a classmate who was for abortion. However, I also knew she was a vehement animal rights person who was horrified at the thought of Persian lamb coats. Why? Because they used the wool of aborted baby lambs. When asked why aborting a lamb was so awful, but it wasn’t awful to abort a human child, her reply was that the ewe’s wishes were not consulted. She also said that with a straight face.

The first thing pro-abortion people say is that they are for choice; the choice of a woman to do as she pleases with her body. That sounds so American, freedom to be whom you want to be; don’t let anybody else (especially the father of the child, for he is next to nothing in this equation), tell you what to do with your body. That sounds very free-like. One problem. The baby is not part of your body. This is so obvious that it amazes me that people don’t get it. The DNA is different. From the time of conception, the child is a completely different individual. The genetic code is set.

Now granted a woman is hosting the baby until the time of the birth, but that does not mean the baby is the same as, say, a big toe, or a mole. The baby is completely dependent on her for life; but then again so is a newborn. A newborn is no more viable without help than an unborn child. Can you imagine a woman going to a surgeon and requesting the removal of her leg for no reason, other than it is her body and she can do with it as she wants? Any doctor who is worthy of the title will decline her request, and her leg really is a part of her body. A baby is not.

Back to the inconvenience of carrying a child for nine months. There are a few women out there who waltz through pregnancy with absolutely no problem. Most of us don’t. We often face nausea from three to nine months; there is the beached whale syndrome in the third trimester, with labor to look forward to. (It is my belief that God has us pregnant for nine months because by that time, we won’t care what we must go through to be delivered of the baby.) However, that said, it is no reason. in any shape or form. to up and kill the one who is causing you that inconvenience.

One of main lines of pro-abortion people has been to abort to save the ‘health’ of the mother. ‘Health” has been defined as mental and economic health, not just life and death health. That is where the woman can tell the doctor that she is really disturbed about being pregnant, then before you know it that baby is out of there. They had to change the definition of ‘health’ because there are very few births now, with advances in medicine, that actually threaten the life of the mother. People seem to think it is still like the pioneer days where women routinely died in childbirth. I’m sure someone has some statistics of the deaths of mothers, but it can’t be anything like to numbers of abortions that use that as an excuse.

When talking to abortion supporters, they will often pull out the rape/incest card. This is one exception that usually makes pro-lifers’ waiver. The problem here is that the child didn’t commit the crime. You want somebody to pay for what happened to you? Fine! Then the man who committed the crime should pay. Since when do we execute the child for the father’s crime? (The answer to that question is: since Roe v. Wade in 1973.)

People will also point to the numbers of teenage pregnancies as a reason to keep abortion legal. Because we all know that having a child when still a child is the worst thing on earth. Right? Wrong. What is the worst thing you can do is to take away any of the results of wrong behavior, therefore encouraging more of the same? This also goes for handing out birth control to Jr. High and High School kids. You are giving them a carte blanch. “Go do all the wrong things, and we will take care of any of the negative consequences.” The child is not the negative in this scenario. The behavior that brought it about, and the parents and school officials that think they are helping the situation by making the children exemplars of irresponsibility, they are the negative in this picture. “Let’s murder to cover up our immorality.”

How many people have you heard say that they are personally against abortion (they wouldn’t do it themselves), but didn’t want to infringe on another person’s right to do as they wish? There were plenty of people in Germany that maybe didn’t personally kill any Jews, but they stood by and let it happen. Even if they couldn’t have stopped it, they should have tried. What can one voice do to stop the tide of abortion in this country? Not much maybe, but my voice will be heard.

Years ago, when I was wondering if I should put my life’s effort into battling this great evil, I concluded that the real problem is in the heart of people. The whole situation would improve if people were more moral, if they were obedient to God, if they were responsible for their actions. But I knew that this could only happen when people came to know Christ. When they learned that Jesus died for all their sins, including women who have aborted their babies, and the doctors who performed them, the fathers who went along with them, Jesus paid it all. And then He rose from the dead. He is victorious.

There needs to be a change of heart. God can perform that change. When you acknowledge your sin, and ask forgiveness, then the change happens.

Heather Jean Torosyan