Innocence of the Unborn

This week, a friend posted the latest in the Planned Parenthood scandal. This article has a video (I didn’t watch the video, but there is a graphic warning). However, the still image is clearly not a “lump of cells.” The Facebook preview of the article showed the still image, and Madilynn, who is a few months from turning three years old, said, “Look, mama, Baby!” The image of a child taken too soon, taken to be slaughtered, dissected, and sold to the highest bidder, is the size of one of Madilynn’s baby dolls. I remembered another
moment, about five years ago, when Dietrich saw a sonogram picture on my newsfeed and said, “Baby!” What is wrong with the world that our children, not much older than babies themselves, recognize and see more value in life than those making the decisions for our country? When those powerless to vote can see more clearly than the ones supporting these decisions?

I found activist groups, a real-time counter, and several articles and posts comparing the Nazi Holocaust to abortion. Dictionary.com lists four definitions of holocaust, the final one is “any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.” The Nazis set out to eradicate the Jewish race, viewing them as a parasitic and sub-human group. Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, shared similar race purifying goals. You can find arguments on every side of the issue. Sanger said in an interview “we are all divine.” When Wallace asks her about sin, she declares that the greatest sin is bringing children into the world knowing they will be diseased, or otherwise imperfect. Regardless of whether you believe that Sanger’s motives were purely to limit family size or to eradicate certain populations, Planned Parenthood misrepresents their mission today when they state they support women’s health. Their history led them to the scandal of the present.

The unborn truly have no voice, no choice. The people deciding whether to allow a child already growing and alive to have a life outside the womb really should make better choices earlier. The people advising women should present them with every option. Would it make a difference if they employed a person struggling with infertility, a person who suffered the loss of a child, a person who regrets their decision to abort a child years before? Would it make a difference if each woman had to look at the sonogram, hear the heartbeat, and defend her choice to a woman who so desperately wants a child and is unable to conceive? For each baby being murdered, a woman is defeated in her inability to become a mother. The injustice of it screams, “It’s not fair!”

When I miscarried our second child, I remember the emergency room doctor talking about “passing the product.” A few days later, though I could not bear to examine closely, a complete sac with a tiny human left my body. The physical pain of the miscarriage outranks any other experience in my life to date. The emotional toll of child loss is not one I’d wish on anyone. Yet so many women have this experience over and over. Many others experience month after month of negative pregnancy tests. Others go to places like Planned Parenthood for multiple abortions. “It’s not the right time,” “I already have five of this gender,” “I never wanted to be a mom,” or any other excuse. If the abortion counter above is correct, only about 1% of abortions occur because of rape. What that statistic doesn’t reflect is the number of women that choose life regardless of how it happened.

When I did my graduate field placement, I did the intake assessment for a 14-year-old girl who had been involved in a sexual relationship with her father. As a result of that relationship, she became pregnant and had a son. The mother in this case was protective, stood by her daughter, kicked the husband out, and taught her child how to be a mother. I’m sure their lives haven’t been easy, but they chose life.

People need to Plan for Parenthood before conception, not as an afterthought. Having children is not about convenience, because there will never be a perfect time or circumstance. Your life is not going to ever be perfect enough. If you are pro-choice, your choice is not about YOU or YOUR body. Your choice is killing an Innocent Child. Your choice is hurting Innocent People around you, people that would gladly raise your child as their own. Your choice has long-term consequences, whether you realize it now or not. You will be held accountable. Will you stand Innocent as a pure, unborn child?

With all sin, there is forgiveness. It is never too late for redemption. You can be innocent again, but the choice is yours.