Ashen faced, Mike and Chip stared at the smoking gun. They were fooling in the back yard with the .45 belonging to Chip's dad. The shot passed through the belly of their pregnant neighbor. She was gardening. In the case after the doctors removed the dead baby the lawyer for Chip's family told the court to "keep perspective". He argued that no permanent damage had been done. "It's not as though she lost a limb," he intoned. Even her ability to bear more children was still intact.
Mary's lawyer cautioned her in the trial of the mugger who pushed her down the stairs at Grand Central Station causing her miscarriage. Mary wanted him to be accused of murder. "We'd have a case if someone knocked your baby out of your arms in front of an oncoming train". Instead they focused on her bruises and twisted ankle.
Unless Susan was willing to press charges there could be no consequences. She lost the child she was carrying after her drunken husband savagely beat her. She reasoned that nothing could bring the baby back and the matter ended there.
Stories like these made me think that the right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness were not intended for the unborn child. I asked a clergy newspaper columnist at what age these rights were given to American kids. At first he declined to answer. He does not believe that a fetus is a child.
The House of Representatives changed some of that last month. They voted 257 to 172 on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. A child will now be considered a victim if killed during a federal crime. "Common sense," you say? Many rejoice today because our kids irrespective of age, will enjoy basic human rights. Not everyone is celebrating. Not the 172 who voted no. Not the howlers around the country bemoaning the leverage this gives to those wanting the end of abortion on demand.
Let us embrace the moral absolutes within the Book on which the country was founded. Right and wrong must not be decided by how the majority "feels". The unborn baby now has rights before the mugger's knife but still none when contending with the aborting doctor's needle. Do people only have value when those in authority over them allow that worth? Stalin and Chairman Mao used this concept to justify the murder of their citizens. The good news: Americans are a long way from such dire results, but where is our chosen road going? Refusing to submit to the Creator's ultimate authority we struggle with moral boundaries. Allowing ourselves selection of absolutes will breed safety for none.
At the April 22 National Organization for Women meeting in Washington, Mary Prankster sang a song declaring "Gonna hook me up to that great suction pump, and bust that little piece of dust that's growing deep inside of me" (World Mag. May 5.) The most dangerous place for an American child is in the feminist womb.
Recently I was delighted to meet young people who are truly "Pro-Choice"! They see value in choosing God's laws. They choose to be responsible in relationships, choose against misuse of intoxicants during dating and elect to wait for the security of sex within marriage. Despite the barrage from the entertainment industry these kids embrace a scriptural lifestyle. It can be done. There are good and evil choices. Choosing to give the most innocent of humans a right to life and liberty is good. An evil choice attempts to fix the consequence of unbridled passion with death to the unborn.