The Fight
Anyone who knows me well has seen me resist excitableness. Is that a word? Well, I don't have it -- the ability to become excited. If I'm in a group who is becoming more and more excited, either the angry kind or the fun kind, I pull back. My restraint comes in inverse proportion to the excitement around me. Some would call this a problem -- I know this -- but I only see it as a problem sometimes.
Like now.
I want to shout. Demonstrate. Protest. Start a war, maybe. My restraint is pulling me back when I should be as energized as the bunny with the drum. If this isn't worth getting excited about, I don't know what is.
Children are dying. And more will be.
New York has passed a law to allow late-term abortion. The unborn can be terminated until the moment of birth.
My restraint automatically wants to check facts. In case you've only had access to the Right side of the issue, let me share what I've found.
It's called the Reproductive Health Act. For the most part, it simply upholds Roe vs. Wade, in case, at some unknown point in the future, the Supreme Court overturns its 1973 decision, giving control of the issue back to the states. New York wants to have its own law in place.
It does, however, change a few very important things. Before this week, women in New York could have an abortion for any reason up to 24 weeks. Ostensibly that is still the case. In previous law, it was a crime for a doctor to abort a baby after 24 weeks except when the mother's life was in danger, and this crime could result in jail time. RHA has taken away that penalty and says abortions can be preformed after 24 weeks if the mother's health is in danger or the baby is not viable, if there is a serious defect, for example. It's significant that the new law says the mother's health, not the mother's life. Under the new statute, her health can fall under almost any category: her age, her financial status, or social and emotional factors. A woman with a sympathetic doctor could get an abortion for almost any reason up to the moment of birth.
That's another thing that has changed under RHA: an abortion doesn't need to be done by a physician. Licensed nurse practitioners, physician's assistants, and licensed midwives could also perform abortions.
The Pro-Choice crowd will tell you that the RHA is about helping women. Saving women's lives and improving their health. They value the life of the mother over the life of the child.
The problem with that is it opens the door for someone else to value x's life over a woman's life.
Life is life.
I think the problem Pro-Life advocates face is trying to come at the issue with reason or even morality. Our society no longer sees life as given by God, created by God. Really, the issue isn't the unborn, its the Unworshipped. They don't see Him, so their view of everything else is skewed.
Let's first convince them -- the Pro-Choice crowd, the liberals, those who don't know Christ -- that their lives are valuable. They are loved so much that God sent His Son to die for them. In fighting for the unborn, let's not forget to fight for the living. Change their view of life, and it will change their view of the unborn.
