Choose Life Pt 2

This is for the many who define their politics from forwarded emails. And I know you’re out there, because you send these emails to me!

One hot topic recently in the presidential race has been Barack Obama’s opposition to “Born Alive” legislation while in the Illinois legislature. I remember this issue coming up in the primaries but didn’t pay it much attention. Support or opposition of abortion legislation is a tricky thing to weigh considering all the fine print that usually is needed for such legislation to pass. This case is no different.

If you want to look at it in black and white, supporters of Sen McCain (not officially the McCain Campaign) put out this ad. As usual, there’s more to the story, so I checked out politifact.com and the had a very comprehensive article on this. The truth of course, is grey, with both sides misrepresenting the issue. This shouldn’t come as any surprise.

But what is interesting in this article is the bureaucratic red tape that’s necessary in abortion legislation. You usually hear about “health of the mother” clauses which are tricky because what is “health”? It is usually left undefined, opening up mental anguish or physical pain (the promise of painful labor from Genesis) as legal reasons to allow for abortions.

But this article introduced me to the “neutrality clause” where the legislation essentially promises that passage won’t change the legal status of a fetus. It’s like a disclaimer that preserves Roe v Wade. The reason these clauses are necessary is because the Pro Choice side insists that any restriction on abortion will lead to an outright ban. Not an unreasonable position, in fact this is the position the Gun Ownership side of the Right to Bear Arms debate take. Any restriction to gun ownership opens up the possibility to outright prohibit any ownership at all.

But these word games are silly. Do you think anyone really believes a baby born from a failed abortion would be refused medical care because they’re not supposed to be alive? Or that there’s really a “health” reason (to the mother) to abort a child 8 months into a pregnancy that wasn’t there in the first three months?

Regardless of how you feel about either of these issues, the truth is Roe v Wade won’t be overturned via legislation. There will never be the votes to make it happen, no matter who is president. Even hoping to load the Supreme Court in the hopes to overturn the ruling is a stretch with Justices serving life terms. So to me as a Christian, the only way to stop the disgusting act of abortion is to face the issues that lead to abortion in the first place: a casual view of sex, rampant single parenthood tied to poverty, and the cycle of teenage pregnancy that runs generation to generation. And these can only be addressed through supporting, not condemning, those in these plights, living our convictions, and applying the word of God.