The Abortion Issue

The Abortion Issue

by Harley Pinon

Recently, I came across this article which I wrote over thirty years ago. As I scanned in the type written copy, I decided to leave the typewriter look. As you read it now, just reflect on what has changed in thirty years. Think also of the millions of tiny lives that have been sacrificed because they were "in our way," "an embarrassment," or whatever other reason we might give.

As noted in my article Their parents were told they could kill them -- legally, matters have only gotten worse. Now people are advised that abortion is their right. They might not like to chance giving birth to a baby that had something wrong with it, so why not abort it? Had Carolyn and I followed that "counsel," these two would not be part of our family:

THE ABORTION ISSUE

by Harley L. Pinon

What is the abortion issue? Is it simply a matter of women's rights? Is it only a political issue? Or does it involve much more than these? Is it a very serious moral issue?

Women's Rights

In a Dallas, Times Herald article of January 23, 1973, entitled "Abortion ruling: better than vote or legalized murder?" Mrs. Tinny Whitehill, state coordinator of Texas Citizens for Abortion Education is quoted as saying:

"This truly gives women control over their own bodies for the first time in human history. This is more important for women than getting the vote."

From the United Press International, The Dallas Morning News of the same date carried an article which it captioned, "Decision Called Victory, Tragedy." This article quotes Nancy Hammond of Lansing, Mich. as saying, "I'm absolutely ecstatic. They ought to declare this a national holiday for women." Representative Bella Abzug of New York is quoted as saying, "This is an historic and giant step toward the recognition of the rights of women to control their own bodies and to have abortions by choice under the constitutional right to privacy."

Before proceeding further, these statements should be rather carefully analyzed. In the case of abortion, the question is not a matter of the women's control of their body. The question under consideration is not the question of rape. The problem that concerns these women is the use they have made of their bodies and the results of that use. Already, the morality of the women involved becomes a part of the question.

It should also be noted that abortion deals with the woman'^-s body almost indirectly. The whole object of abortion is to destroy the baby which is within the body of the woman. The baby is attached to the woman, and is within the woman,but in no way is the baby part of the body of the woman involved.

Rejection of Individual Responsibility

In its most basic form, the abortion issue is simply a rejection of individual responsibility. More basically, it is a rejection of God's laws. If modern Americans were willing to live by God's laws of morality and chastity, many of those who are presently seeking abortions would not need to do so.

Another reason women seek-abortions is because of unplanned pregnancies which would interfere with their work if they were not terminated in abortion. While there are many cases in which the unplanned birth of a child can put a severe strain on a family's finances, do these cases justify abortion?

What Is Abortion?

The Dallas Times Herald article which was cited above quotes Bishop Thomas Tschoepe of the Dallas Catholic Diocese as saying:

"It is against God's law to kill whether the state says so or no. What is coming next will be the right to kill anybody over 65 . . . euthanasia."

Which is abortion? Is it women's rights like the right to vote, or is it first degree murder?

At the moment of conception, all inherited characteristics are determined. At that moment, there is life--two living cells have been united. Sometime between the 18th and the 25th day, the baby's heart begins to beat. Brain waves can be detected at the seventh week and at the ninth or tenth week, the unborn can squint, swallow and make a fist. And someone wants to call that "tissue"? The mother has a "right" to destroy this tiny being because it will prove to be an embarrassment or inconvenience?

With a heart beat and brain waves, how can it be denied that life is present? If there is life, how can it be questioned that the life involved is a human life?

The Irreversible Step!

A pregnancy can be undone by means of abortion, but there is no reversal of abortion. This writer read the story of one woman who took her dead, aborted baby in her arms and cried. She had ordered the death of her baby daughter and went the saline injection route which caused the baby to go into convulsions and die.

This mother spoke of her life as a living hell. As she heard other babies cry, she thought of hers--now dead. As she saw other babies she would calculate the age that hers would have been if she had not had it aborted.

The Price!

What is the price of abortion? Not the dollars that go to the doctor and hospital, or to the abortion clinics, but the other prices.

First, there is the great injustice which is done to the totally innocent and totally helpless unborn baby. It is guilty of absolutely nothing, yet it is killed in a far more brutal way than the public would allow for the killing of stray dogs by the public dog pound. The lives of these babies are snuffed out while an unnumbered multitude of couples would gladly give them a home.

Secondly, there is the price which the mother must live with. Mankind in general will never know the psychological or emotional stress which these women will live with for the rest of their lives.

Finally, the general public has not yet realized the full price we will be forced to pay for the acceptance of abortion. Abortion makes it possible to eliminate an entire set of people because they are in someone's way. Will there be others such as the elderly or the unproductive who will be next on the list of those who can be eliminated.

In effect, when all human life is not held to be sacred and God-given, all human life becomes endangered. Isn't it time that God-fearing Americans demand that our federal government protect all human life? Don't we still believe in the inalienable rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"?

Their parents were told they could kill them.

Back to Home Page

Hit Counter