Posted on 08/06/2004 6:22:14 AM PDT by dukeman
Hearts of stone
Millions of Americans accept that life begins at conception and still support legalized abortion
John Kerry says that life begins at conception. He says that while he would not dream of imposing his beliefs on anyone else, he remains at heart a good Roman Catholic and agrees with his church’s teachings about when life begins. But he still supports all abortions, even partial-birth abortions.
If he believed that a fetus is just a clump of cells, then support for abortion makes sense. That belief is wrong, based on a perhaps willful ignorance of medical science and common sense, but at least it has a certain logic. If the fetus is not a human being, then abortion is no different than—as I heard someone describe it—removing a wart.
Pro-lifers cast much of their argument against abortion on showing that the fetus is, indeed, a human being, just as much a baby as an infant in arms.
When people realize the humanity of the child in the womb—such as when a pregnant woman feels her baby move, or when a couple sees an ultrasound image of their baby—they often change from being pro-abortion to pro-life. In Britain, a BBC documentary showing ultrasound images of babies in the womb sucking their thumbs, moving around, making faces, and otherwise acting like babies, has created something of a sensation. Parliament will soon consider revising the country’s abortion laws—not prohibiting abortions, but allowing them only in the first few weeks after conception, before such uncomfortably human pictures would be possible.
But in a major paradox of the abortion controversy, pro-lifers may be winning the debate on when life begins, but for an increasing number of people it doesn’t matter. Polls show that nearly half of all Americans agree that life begins at conception. And yet, as many as two-thirds of Americans believe abortion should be legal through the first three months. A large percentage of the public, like Sen. Kerry, believes that a fetus is a living human being, and yet can be aborted anyway. Forty-eight percent go so far as to say they believe that abortion is murder. And yet, many of the same people believe that such murder should be legal!
It is bad enough to believe in abortion under the assumption that a fetus is not a human life. But to believe that a fetus is a human being and still to believe in abortion is monstrous.
Sin hardens the heart. The author of the book of Hebrews urges “that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). The deceit of sin, persisted in and rationalized, makes a person less sensitive, less feeling, less compassionate. Their “consciences are seared” (1 Timothy 4:2).
Amy Richards writes in The New York Times about learning that she was pregnant with triplets. With no outward remorse, she blithely tells how she made the decision to abort two of them. She realized that with three babies, she would have to give up her New York City lifestyle: “I’ll never leave my house because I’ll have to care for these children. I’ll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise.”
She had wanted to have one baby, but having three would just be too lower class. Never considering adoption, she finds a doctor who can do a procedure called “selective reduction.”
They do a sonogram—so she sees her three children as on British TV—and she chooses which one to keep and which ones, in her words, to “get rid of.” She sees the three beating hearts. She knows exactly what is going to happen to two of them: “The procedure involves a shot of potassium chloride to the heart of the fetus.”
She does it. She feels a lot better. She worries that this might come back and haunt her—might it cause her to miscarry?—but everything is fine. She has the one baby. She says she would do it again, though if she ever has twins she might keep both of them (giving her three babies again). But she doesn’t know.
Perhaps Ms. Richards is not as callous as she seems. Maybe her non-repenting confession was an attempt to come to terms with what she did, under the façade of the currently hip coolness and cynicism, and with the support system of her city’s liberal self-righteousness.
But her only hope—and that of Sen. Kerry and the millions of people whose hearts have become so hard—is in the action of God: “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).
It is really quite simple: choosing to allow your infant to live, or murdering it.
Why do you place so much emphasis on not killing people?
There a more than enough of them.
So9
This is not a problem to reconcile in John Kerry's dream world where it's possible to believe 100 or more apposing view points simultaneously, and the Media gives you a free pass.
That's easy....you don't.
Show the pictures, damn it!
maybe he believes in murder
Are you a person? Are you one too many?
I've been hammering away on this since he made his "life begins at conception" statement. There's no escape hatch from this.
< /sarcasm >
Just as someone who carries a gun for self defense can be against the death penalty.
There are situations where, as tragic as it may be, one life must be weighed against another and a terrible choice must be made.
"Supporting abortion" is not necessarily the same thing as supporting abortion on demand, and limiting abortion does not have to mean taking it to Ceaucescu-like extremes of forced monthly pregnancy tests for all fertile women.
sophistry
Bottom line: kerry supports abortion, so he can't believe that life starts at conception. Its one of his deceptions in order to have it both ways. Anyone who can't see through this is dense.
Abortion and gay marriage are both punishments for an even bigger sin. Idolatry.
Exactly. The correct Orwellian word is "doublethink."
The Democrat Party's entire belief system is founded on doublethink, that is why rational debate and logic have no effect on them.
Are you a person? Are you one too many?
Sometimes I'm a person, sometimes I'm the person.
I am one too many if you are more ruthless or have a superior immune system.
So9
I am one too many if you are more ruthless or have a superior immune system.
LOL!
On the other hand, I am always The Man.
It's called morality, and is the foundation of a civilized society. I believe it was codified by Rabbi Hillel about 2000 years ago: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to another."
Both concepts -- morality and civilized society -- appear to be alien as far as you are concerned.
Kerry aside, under human law since the beginning of time, there has never been a situation where the taking of a human life has been completely proscribed regardless of the circumstances. The commandment is "thou shalt not murder," not "thou shalt not kill."
It is not morally inconsistent to both recognize that a foetus is an individual human life and that in some cases, such as an ectopic pregnancy, that this individual human life must be ended.
This is what puzzles me about the abortion proponents - they don't seem to recognize that every state had a "saving the life of the mother" exemption in their abortion ban.
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