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Published: Sunday, 12th September 2010
Pro-Abortion Baby Bullies
Words have power. They have been used by great men and women in every age to instil courage, to inspire change, to build up humanity. But words have also been used throughout the ages to incite riots, racism and genocide. Words can save lives, or destroy them.
Any child in the United States who has ever been bullied has also had some well-meaning adult teach them the little ditty: ‘Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.’ The same child quickly learns that words can and, in fact, do hurt as bullies continue preying upon those weaker and more vulnerable than themselves.
Yes! Words have power, and the time has come once again for pro-lifers to stand up against pro-abortion baby bullies who want to use words not to only to hurt but to murder the weak and vulnerable in the earliest days of their lives, namely, human embryos.
Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney, TD is believed to be poised to propose legislation claiming to protect embryos. Although to my knowledge no draft legislation has yet been made public, Ms Harney’s record on life issues is far from stellar. In fact, she has a long history even in her previous ministerial post of supporting policies favourable to Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) methods such as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Ms Harney also supports use of the abortifacient morning-after pill which chemically kills pre-born babies by preventing them from implanting themselves in their mother’s uterus.
Take note that IVF and other similar AHR procedures are in every case opposed to Catholic teaching. This is so even if IVF is done in a manner that does not intentionally involve the deliberate destruction or freezing of embryos, or the use of sperm or ovum from parties outside the marriage.
Moreover, last December the Irish judiciary ruled in the frozen embryo case that pre-implanted embryos living outside their mother’s bodies are not ‘unborn’ for the purposes of the Irish Constitution. That means that tiny, innocent human beings are no longer afforded protection under the Irish Constitution not because of what they are but because of where they are!
So are we really to believe that Mary Harney and her likeminded friends in the courts and government wants to protect embryos?
No way! They say ‘the devil is in the details,’ so if and when such legislation hits the streets pro-lifers on all fronts will have to read through it with discerning eyes and sound legal advice. Remember: words have power.
A Baby or a Blob?
There is an old saying amongst debaters: He who defines the words wins debate. This has certainly been true globally in the pro-life v. pro-abortion debate. For that reason, an insidious and deliberate tactic of pro-abortionists is to convolute or even change the meaning of words. It is therefore imperative that pro-lifers understand the terms clearly, use words accurately, and above all avoid errors of equivocation (i.e. understanding words from the pro-life perspective when an alternative meaning is being used by pro-abortionists to confuse the issues).
To illustrate how easily this is done, ask yourself two seemingly simple questions:
The first question is examined immediately below. The second question is taken up a bit later in this article.
Is abortion, for example, the direct and intentional killing of a human being in the earliest stage of his or her life (i.e. murder in the womb), or is it merely the destruction of human tissue (e.g. hair, finger nails, or other cells of human origin)?
If the first proposition is accepted, then abortion is clearly criminal. If, however, one adopts the latter position, then abortion is no more criminal than spoiling one’s self at the beauty shop. In reality, one’s answer is literally a matter of life and death for the pre-born.
Abortion obviously means something entirely different to pro-lifers and pro-abortionists. Of course, those who are intellectually honest must concede that truth is a function of objective facts and not merely the subjective fabrications of pro-abortion apologists much less feelings. Yet the physical evidence does not lie to those bothering to take off their agenda blinders.
But setting politics aside for just a moment, what about the toughest debate of all, the inner argument every woman considering an abortion has within her. Deep down she knows the truth, but the false logic, the deadly rhetoric of the abortion debate can quickly ensnare her. It is often too late before she realizes that even the personal hardships she faced when confronted by a difficult pregnancy could not alter reality—the fact that abortion is murder in the womb.
Any woman who has suffered through an abortion knows that abortion is ugly and that one limps away from the abortion clinic feeling anything but beautiful. For these women (and men), Rachel’s Vineyard offers hope, healing and consolation (For post-abortion help contact: Marian…0289079967 or Bernadette…0878592877).
New Clarity and New Confusion
Thankfully, technological data are increasingly on the side of life. The latest advances in ultrasound imaging and prenatal surgery reinforce the longstanding, catholic pro-life position. Foetuses once thought to be blobs of tissue are now clearly recognizable for what they are: little babies (which is what the word foetus actually means).
The truth gleaned from the facts should be self-evident enough to categorically criminalize abortion as it once was. In fact, doctors like Bernard Nathanson who once fought to legalize abortion have converted long ago. Doctors willing to perform abortions are harder and harder to find according to a UK news article a few years back (Laurance, Jeremy. Abortion Crisis as Doctors Refuse to Perform Surgery. The Independent, 16 April 2007).
Unfortunately, hardcore pro-abortionists have yet to concede that abortion is what it is—murder. For them abortion remains simply a choice, a right, a termination, a simple procedure—call it whatever you like. Just don’t call it what it really is, murder.
Sadly, some of the staunchest pro-abortionists in Ireland are politicians, lawyers, healthcare providers, and so-called humanitarians who are more agenda-driven than truth-driven. They fight on still pushing the old pro-abortion rhetoric. If partial birth abortion were proposed for legality in Ireland today, no doubt this especially heinous and gruesome murder would find its defenders in the establishment, the Irish Constitution notwithstanding.
In Ireland, however, the big debate at the moment lies at the beginning of pregnancy. At this point we return to our earlier question concerning conception.
Whilst the answer might seem obvious, that is, the moment a sperm fertilizes an ovum, there is a deliberate and consistent effort to redefine conception as a process ending at implantation. In other words, human life does not begin until implantation approximately ten days after fertilization. Consequently, constitutional protection would not be afforded until implantation since that is when life begins. In actual practice in Ireland, this is already the state of affairs due to the legal use of the morning-after pill.
It is therefore critically important that Catholics and all pro-lifers clearly understand pro-abortionists are not using the word ‘conception’ in the traditional manner pro-lifers are accustomed to. The onus is upon pro-lifers to insist on the clear and uncompromising use of ‘conception’ as fertilization and that such use is clearly specified in any proposed legislation.
It is undeniable that in the earliest stages of human life, human beings actually do look more like blobs than babies. But if humanity were judged solely on appearances, then I would look more like me now than I did when I was 20 years old or 10 years old or 6 months old or at any point since I was first conceived (fertilized). If the logic of appearances is true, then one could ask the ridiculous question:
Am I more me now than I was in the past, or am I the same me?
What about you or anyone else?
Accordingly, will any given embryo today be someone else at any future point in time?
Now one might respond by saying that pro-lifers give human value to embryonic life based on supposed personhood and the presence of a human soul which cannot be proven. One might add that it is evident that the quality of such early life is less than human. Such reasoning is partly true. The presence of a human soul is beyond physical measure, for the soul is a metaphysical reality. That being the case, any scientist speaking from a scientific perspective for or against the presence of a soul has seriously gone beyond his competency because he is confined to the material realm.
The pro-life argument for embryos, however, does not rest solely upon philosophical or theological reasoning. Embryologists such as Maureen L. Condic, Senior Fellow, Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, have clearly demonstrated that a unique, individual human being exists from the first moment of conception (i.e. fertilization) using observable genetic and cellular data. The form and function of even a single-celled zygote is that of a human being. In fact, whilst the appearance, location, and maturity of an individual from conception onward will change over time, essentially he or she is the same person start to finish. Ms Condic’s excellent paper is available at: www.westchesterinstitute.net
High Time to Stop the Pro-Abortion Bullies
The only way pro-lifers can hope to curtail the eroding pro-life ethos in Ireland is for us to define the terms of the debate and to take back the ground that has already been surrendered. It seems that at least three major compromises define the battle lines in the foreseeable future:
It seems to me that pro-lifers are letting abortion be bullied in through the back door, slow but sure. The time has come to take control of the fight. It is a matter of life and death. The pro-abortion baby bullies may be able to cleverly manipulate words. Yes, words have power. But pro-lifers have something greater—we have the power of the Word who came into the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.
Let’s fight fiercely with renewed courage, for it is in the name of the Lord of hosts that we will win!
This feature is categorised under Life Matters