Life Doesn’t End at Birth, Part II
March 7, 2005
Not much to say this weekend, but there was a great op-ed piece in, of all places, my hometown Mobile Register today that did a fantastic job of explaining the point I try to make with anti-abortion activists: that they spend too much time worrying about what happens in utero, but far too little on ensuring a healthy childhood. The author, Pam Hartman, writes:
Coming out of an election year where religious issues often starred on the political stage, we’re quite aware that professed faith was an asset that propelled many candidates to victory. The two concerns that were weighed almost exclusively were abortion and gay marriage—one seen as a threat to the value of human life, the other a danger to the health of the American family.
One Alabama candidate was even defeated, at least in part, because she failed to complete a Christian Coalition “litmus test” card declaring her opposition to gay marriage. Her triumphant opponent, while denying responsibility for a mass mailing decrying his rival as an open lover of homosexual unions, declared that her refusal to mail the card clearly marked her as an enemy of good, Christian, family-loving folks.
It was an ends-justify-the-means argument (probably a violation of Christian principles in itself).
But over and over, as faith-based concerns are raised about the quality of the society we live in, we hear candidates, pundits, preachers and believers speak as though the only issues that matter when it comes to religion and society are stands against abortion and gay marriage. In the meantime, children already born are being abused and even killed by heterosexual parents or caregivers who themselves are struggling with living conditions that we as a society tend to ignore.