OPINION:
As election day rapidly approaches, abortion is on the ballot in 10 states. In some states, like Colorado, we are being asked to enshrine the right to abortion into our state constitution.
This is a critical moment for voters to speak into the most enduring moral debate of our time. So, it is important to think clearly about what we are being asked to do and why this is the wrong path for our country.
Subscribe to have The Washington Times’ Higher Ground delivered to your inbox every Sunday.
Let me remind you why we should oppose the abortion extremism of our time, uphold the sanctity of life, and vote NO on these abortion amendments.
Pre-born babies have dignity. Despite the dehumanizing language used by the Progressive Left there is a real person, a real baby in the womb, and we need to recognize the value of that life.
This is something that we know intuitively. When a young mom first senses she is pregnant, she refers to the preborn child not as “my embryo” but as “my baby.” When she looks at an ultrasound, she knows she is looking at an ultrasonic picture of her baby. If a mother gives birth prematurely, even two months ahead of time, when she hears that first cry, she knows it’s a baby. It’s amazing how often pro-choice abortion advocates slip in their own speech and refer to the preborn as a “baby.”
SEE ALSO: Abortion-rights ballot measures seek to mow down limits in red and blue states alike
However, the minute we start to say that it is only a potential life or person, or it only has value or worth under certain conditions, we move onto dangerous ground. If we say the baby only has value outside the womb and not inside the womb, or it only has value in the third trimester but not the first or second trimester or it only has value if it is born into this economic condition and not that economic condition, or at this stage of life but not at that stage of life, we start to put our own arbitrary conditions on the value of life.
This kind of thinking first affects the unborn, then it is applied to other “undesirables” in society. This kind of thinking soon erodes the value of the sick and the elderly.
Every time in history where we have denied the personhood of a certain class of human beings, we’ve always looked back with regret, whether it was the slave trade, the eugenics movement or the Holocaust. It will be no different with abortion.
Scientific developments are also having quite an impact on young parents.
Not long ago, we just didn’t know much about what was going on in the womb while the baby developed. Now we do because technologies now give us an unprecedented view into the womb.
We have the ultrasound, where parents can see an image of the baby in the womb. Doctors can point out the head, the arm, a leg, the fingers, etc. We can now hear the fetal heartbeat even as early as the fifth and sixth weeks of gestation. Along with all this, medical science keeps pushing back the date of viability, the time when a baby can survive outside the womb. Now it goes back all the way to about 21 weeks.
Science continues revealing the wondrous details of human birth. And it’s compelling. This is also what makes taking the life of a baby so horrific.
There is also an argument for the pro-life cause stemming from the right to justice. Basic human rights are due to both the mom and to the baby.
Supporters of these pro-abortion ballot initiatives often speak of “reproductive rights and freedoms” or a woman’s right to choose. But this is such a one-sided coded phrase that insufficiently frames the issue. What about the rights of the baby? The language in some of these ballot initiatives obscures the issue.
Our culture coolly celebrates the convenience and choice of the mother but is silent about the rights of the child. This oversight prompted Pope Benedict XVI to declare that “abortion is today’s greatest injustice.”
We have a justice blind spot. A lot of people say they care about “justice,” but then define it as, “just us.” I believe this is one of the great blind spots of our extremist age. We have laws with no limits on abortion. Our Congress couldn’t even pass the Born Alive Protection Acts to protect a baby that survives an attempted abortion.
About 75% of all countries do not allow abortion after 12 weeks of gestation, except to save or preserve the life of the mother. The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that allows abortion on demand after the 20th week. In other words, we are not just out of step with other Western nations, we have the most extreme abortion laws in the world.
We cover this up using comforting euphemisms like “abortion care” or “reproductive health care.” Abortion is not simply a healthcare issue, it is a life issue! If killing babies is not extreme, what is? Abortion is today’s greatest injustice.
Years from now, people will look back at our extremist age and wonder how we could be so blind in the same way many in today’s generation look back at slavery and Jim Crow laws and wonder how could society be so blind. What will we do with our justice blind spot?
It’s time to think clearly about the greatest human rights issue of our day. This election day, we have an opportunity to pull back from the moral darkness of the moment. Justice, human dignity and even science demand it. Abortion should not become a state constitutional right.
–
Dr. Donald Sweeting serves as chancellor of Colorado Christian University.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.