Guide to Informed Choices
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—Jimi Hendrix, guitarist o one likes war. It‘s nasty. It‘s brutal. And frequently it‘s fought over something no one can even remember once it‘s over. It‘s a power struggle fought on a large scale. It‘s about the love of power more than the power of love.
It‘s kind of hypocritical if we say we are against war and killing and violence and brutality against humanity and then take the life of the littlest member of society. War is stupid. Force is never a good solution to a problem. Let‘s remember that A N
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we are all in this together. Abortion has been compared to war. It‘s violent and fatal and for each human it kills, another is left wounded. Mothers are wounded by the memory of what they allowed to happen to their developing baby. The unborn children are defenseless victims to the abortionists‘ tools of death. If this is war it is certainly an unjust war. Why abortion has been compared to a justifiable war I will never know. The war against the unborn has killed more members of the human race than all other wars combined — approaching 50 million to date. The number of abortions in one year alone exceeds the number of human deaths through the Revolutionary, Civil, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War put together! And what is their crime? They are simply ―the unwanted‖ race. Innocent lives. Innocent deaths. The toll is tremendous. Here are the figures:
Revolutionary War: 25,324
Civil War: 498,332
World War I: 116,708
World War II: 407,316
Korean War: 54,246
Vietnam War: 58,655 714
Human deaths from all major wars = 1,160,581 versus unborn human deaths from abortions in 2003 alone = 1,287,000. 715
th , that day we all remember? In 2001, abortions killed 853,485 people 716 compared to 2,973 deaths on September 11. 717
It‘s hard to grasp, but one feminist reasons that for as bad as death is, it‘s time women had the right to kill too: ―War is much more irrational and excessive than exercising the right to abort, and the power of death has been exclusively in the hands of men for far too long.‖ 718
Another pro-choicer supports abortion as being ―far more ethical than the war, extinction and starvation that result from too many people.‖ 719
This person could really do with some enlightenment. See Reason #79: The population explosion is an urban myth . If we don‘t like war, what can we do? There is a wise Chinese saying, "If you want peace in your world, establish peace in your home; if you want peace in your home, bring peace into your heart." Let‘s make peace with everyone, beginning with those closest to us. What better place to start than with your unborn child?
End poverty We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We
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must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty. 720
—Mother Teresa, humanitarian
this planet. From poverty in third- world regions, from bloodshed in the Middle East, from AIDS in Africa. And here in America, children die not only from car accidents and cancer, but they die from the saddest of all human disease — rejection. Every child should have a chance at life, no matter what their circumstances. Today we pour money into overseas aid agencies without even noticing that some of life‘s greatest tragedies occur right on our own home soil. Young mothers often choose abortion for their child, seeing no other choice. Yet lack of finances, support, society approval and education should not be the reason a child dies! The solution is not to abort the child in hope of giving him a better life — or saving him from a bad one. The solution is to improve the standards, living conditions and knowledge of all women, so that they can bring up their children as they choose — in safety, peace and health. The good news is, today there are organizations that will help young mothers who lack the basic resources to raise a child. At last we can say goodbye to poverty and hello to life!
Quotable Quote ―Many people are very, very concerned with the children in India, with the children in Africa, where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother.‖ 721
—Mother Teresa, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy. 722
—John C. Sawbill, past president of The Nature Conservancy
Are you concerned with the world‘s ecosystem? The destruction of precious rainforests and the wasting of precious resources? Or pollution? Perhaps you do your bit, putting your recyclables out each fortnight or bringing your own shopping bag to the store. Maybe you favor locally grown, organic foods and buy earth- friendly products. If you as are concerned about the health of the planet as I am, then I applaud you, but I also ask you to think further. Think of what we are doing to the spiritual ecosystem when we abort. Is the human race so expendable a resource that C
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we can throw away all the ―extra‖ people — without any repercussions? You might have heard of the butterfly effect, the concept that infinitesimally small changes, such as flapping of a butterfly‘s wing, can trigger a major event, such as a storm, half a world away. 723 Taking this concept, can we not see how seemingly small actions by us — the abortion of a life — could change the ecosystem or create a reaction in another part of life? Many spiritual beliefs affirm that we are all connected, and if so, how is abortion altering the balance in our spiritual and physical environment? Even thinking along the lines of extinction, each individual person carries his or her uniqueness and beauty, just as a rare plant or butterfly.
Confessions from pro-choice literature ―To some people, pro-choice values seem to have been unaffected by the desire to save the whales and the trees, to respect animal life and to end violence at all levels. …Supporting abortion is tough to fit into this package.‖ 724
Los Angeles Times , 2008
Is it natural that we should destroy the very foundation of human life upon earth? Surely we are all interested in preserving our natural heritage, least of which are our children. The urge to use sustainable and non-polluting resources is a noble goal in making this planet worth living on for the future generations. But where will they be if we abort them?
Save the Children ow many children die every year from disease? According to the American Cancer Society, in the United States alone 1998 saw 5,189 children between the ages of 1-14 die from accidents, 1,378 from cancer, 540 from heart disease, 267 from pneumonia and influenza, 89 died from viral diseases, and another 86 from HIV. The total figure of children‘s deaths in the U.S. in 1998 from all causes was 13,042. 725
It‘s sad that this many children die so young. Contrast those deaths with the number of children aborted in the womb every year. In the same year the Centers for Disease Control reported at least 884,273 abortions. 726 Yes, 67 times the number of unborn children died from abortions as from all other causes. Abortion is the leading cause of children‘s death in America today, and preventing those deaths is entirely possible. Ending abortion — or not having one yourself — is one of the surest ways to save the children.
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Stop Animal Cruelty Save the baby humans. —Poster seen at a pro-life march
any people today are aware that some cosmetics, foods and other products involve unnecessary cruelty to animals. Maybe you are one of them. Perhaps you are opposed to the often inhumane procedures forced upon animals, such as forcing shampoo and other chemicals into rabbit‘s, eyes in order to figure out if we should keep the product out of our eyes. Maybe you love your pets. You treat them well and possibly as members of your own family. You may feel that they have a personality, some feeling and awareness, and that they deserve a bit of affection and a nice place to sleep. You are probably the kind of person that would be horrified to hear of whales slaughtered or puppies thrown into dumpsters. You recycle plastic bags so they don‘t get into the ocean and harm whales or dolphins. You buy cruelty-free. You go vegan. You spend a weekend rebuilding the habitat of native owls. You care deeply about life. Perhaps you are not also aware of the cruelty involved in the abortion industry. Any thinking individual can see how abortion procedures must
inflict tremendous suffering upon the unborn child. The procedures involve pulling apart by suction, cutting up, poisoning or suctioning out the brains of a fetus, all while he or she is fully alive! The same vivisection that animal rights campaigners protest so strongly against is also performed on baby humans. They are cut up while still alive. This is cruelty at its very worst, and we must fight for the end to human cruelty as well as animal cruelty. No anesthesia is given to a fetus during the brutal procedure which terminates his or her life. The anesthesia given to the mother is not sufficient. An unborn child can feel pain and suffers greatly (see also Reason #45 ). Whether or not the pregnancy was intended, isn‘t it the better part of compassion to not support the violent abortion industry? Even if you have no belief in God whatsoever and believe that people are no more than evolutionary animals, how could you believe that it‘s bad to hurt a puppy or a kitten but that it‘s okay to hurt the human equivalent — of our own species — the baby fetus? Let‘s end all cruelty and be kind to all living, sentient beings — human as well as non-human.
End Violence against Women s a woman you probably know that we are at greater risk in the world today. We need to be alert, prepared and keep our wits about us at all M A
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times. Violence against women includes workplace harassment, gang rape, domestic violence and forced abortion. Looking at it from the violence perspective, I once saw a T-shirt that said, ―Would it bother us more if they used guns?‖ It was talking about abortion. Now personally, I believe that we should retain the right to defend ourselves, but many people are against gun rights. I would ask them, would it make a difference if we shot our ―unwanted pregnancies‖ instead of having them surgically suctioned? The fact remains that abortion is one of the most violent activities on the planet, and at least 50% of aborted fetuses are female. I say ―at least,‖ because some fetuses are aborted for the very reason that they are female. Surely our concern, love and care for our female sisters worldwide should extend to the unborn too.
―Saving the planet and saving the life of your child maybe be closer than you thought‖
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Reason #59 You can‘t compare humans to animals
We are higher than animals Contradiction! The
eggs of a bald eagle may not be damaged and are assumed to be existing eagles. In contrast, we treat human fertilized eggs as something that it is okay to damage. What does this say about how we protect our own species?
When considering abortion, some people compare humans to animals, and say that, according to a fetus‘ mental abilities, he or she rates lower than an animal! For example, this is an actual quote: ―Killing a snail or a day-old infant does not thwart any of these desires of this kind, because snails and newborn infants are incapable of having such desires.‖ 727 Unfortunately, some people actually think like this, even this so-called professor! Back in Reason #11
we looked at some qualities some people claim are necessary for being a person, but now I want to focus on how they would compare us to animals. Philosopher Peter Singer says that animals possess many mental abilities that babies do not. While our pets have different personalities and memory, that does not make them equal to a human! As for a baby‘s intelligence, we cannot fully know we are incapable of holding a conversation with them! However, for more on this interesting topic of fetal intelligence turn to Reason #87 . This ‗philosopher,‘ though, has some truly nutty philosophies. For example, in comparing the life of a mouse and a person he says, ―We cannot say that one is more or less valuable than another.‖ 728
mouse. He also wrote, ―a newborn baby is not an autonomous being, capable of making choices, and so to kill a newborn baby cannot violate the principle of respect for autonomy. In all this the newborn baby is on the same footing as the fetus…‖ 729
should human life have special value?‖ 730
Perhaps it was people like him that Ronald Reagan was thinking of when he wrote, ―The real question today is not when human life begins, but, what is the value of human life?‖ 731
animals – humanly I think (and yes, I am vegetarian) but certainly not as equals to people. I refuse to be equated with a spotted frog or a baboon. Perhaps that is your side of the family, but it‘s certainly not
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mine! Readers of the Bible will recall how God created both male and female in his divine image and that we are therefore above the
animal kingdom, which presumably was not created in his image. (Gen. 1:26-28)
Taking it a little too far? ―Because I chose to end my accidental pregnancies, there are two fewer human beings on the earth impacting the habitat of butterflies and other creatures.‖ 732
-Earth Island Angels
Animal cruelty no, human cruelty yes? Pro-choicers were up in arms recently over measures to inform
women undergoing abortions of the possibility of the fetus feeling pain and having the option of anesthesia for the fetus. They ranted on about ―the use of inflammatory language that equates the fetus with a born child or that implies that abortion is the same as killing a born person.‖ 733
equating puppies with dogs and then being charged with using inflammatory words! Some pro-choicers also worried that the bill was ―constituting the fetus as someone experiencing something. ‖ 734
The way they wish you to see it is that abortions are not performed on the fetus, your unborn offspring, but rather on a piece of your body, which, curiously, does not play any role in keeping you alive and healthy. One way Ecofeminists claim opposition to animal cruelty but not fetal cruelty is by adjusting the words. It‘s all about the words. For example, they like to say they value ‗sentience‘ but not ‗respect for life‘. 735
Respect for life is too broad and could include – shock horror – a woman‘s unborn child. However, the definition of the word ‗sentient‘ doesn‘t support them either: ―responsive to or conscious of sense impressions.‖ 736
The fetus is responsive very early on. Perhaps realizing this and to bolster their distinction, they throw in the extra stipulation of self-determination. 737
will or independence, yet it‘s arguable that a fetus has just as much free will as an animal, probably more. A fetus in the womb has been shown to drink more amniotic fluid if sugar is added. How one could argue that a cow grazing on the greenest pasture has any more free will than a baby is beyond me. As far as independence, the fetus is not finished growing so naturally he is dependent - but I think they slipped this criteria in here on purpose! In a tricky move they also claim one can oppose animal cruelty without endangering abortion rights, as they claim the fetus‘ pain
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awareness (one aspect of sentience) requires social conditioning – a physical response doesn‘t count. 738 Presumably, they believe a cow‘s social life somehow conditions it experience pain. For any of you who support animal rights but not fetus rights, I challenge you to reconsider your thinking.
Is it because you think there are too many people on the earth?
Turn to
Reason #79: The population explosion is an urban myth
Is it because you think the fetus isn‘t sentient?
Reason #55: Your unborn child can feel, taste, smell, hear and see
pain but a fetus can‘t?
Turn to Reason #53: The fetus can feel pain
Is it because you think factory farming and vivisection are cruel but abortion is not?
Turn to
Reason
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