I teach an Anatomy & Physiology lab on Wednesday mornings. This past Wednesday just happened to be the same day that the picture of this precious baby was published in our local newspaper. The students were studying for the lab practical that I am giving them next week, so the class was somewhat informal. I was looking at the newspaper and came upon the picture.
Our administration disapproves of our touching on political or religious questions in class, but I could not resist showing the students the picture and saying that some people would call her an "unviable tissue mass". That led to a discussion and gave me the opportunity to show them some beautiful pictures in another textbook which show babies in the womb at various stages of gestation.
I did not know until then that one of my students had an abortion at six weeks gestation when she was 18. She was "counseled" to do so by her mother and our resident abortionist who has made literally millions of dollars practicing this culture of death. She said that she would never even consider having an abortion again because of the terrible emotional toll it took on her.
I did not know until then that one of my students had an abortion at six weeks gestation when she was 18. One thing I've posted before and will post again: in addition to working on an incremental strategy to roll back abortion, pro-lifers should also put forth another message which isn't purely about abortion, but could pay them enormous dividends:
- A person who has done a bad thing, recognizes that it was a bad thing, and seeks to atone for it, their bad deed will no longer make them a bad person and will no longer trouble their conscience.
- A person who has done a bad thing, but seeks to deny that the deed in question was bad, will be damaged by the deed as long as they continue their denial. No amount of pretending the deed was really "okay" will ever clear their concience.
- Acknowledging one's mistakes is often difficult, but it's the only way to ever be free of them.
While the above message can work well in a religious context, there are many people for whom religious messages are worse than meaningless. The secular message should still be effective for religious people, but unlike the religious one should also be effective for atheists.