Saturday, April 13, 2013

Unthinkable Evil

I first read about the Gosnell case on Thursday evening.

It completely broke my heart.

I wanted to weep, to grieve the loss of those precious children and their mothers. But no tears came. I was just dumbfounded that anything like this could happen. It was surreal. So evil, so heinous, so unthinkably terrible. I thought, “Surely, I’m dreaming this and it’s just a horrible nightmare. When I wake up, all will be right again with the world.”

And then I realized that this heartache I was experiencing for these precious babies was familiar to me. I had felt it many times before when reading about abortion. I realized that horrors like this are happening by the thousands every day in our country.

And it’s completely legal.

And it’s supported by our government.

A pit forms in my stomach when I think about the fact that my hard-earned dollars are used to pay for these murders, these so-called “medical operations.”

And we, as a country, claim that it is a woman’s right to her own body.

It’s her right to let a doctor kill her child.

So long as the baby is inside her. As soon as the baby has moved the 6 inches to outside the womb, it becomes murder.

Do you know what? I do not place the majority of the blame on these mothers. I understand that their lives, their situations, are more complex than I can realize. I understand that a baby is a huge responsibility, that being pregnant for 9 months is certainly very inconvenient, that she didn't want to get pregnant in the first place. It is a heartbreaking situation; but it only becomes more heartbreaking when she chooses the option that our culture shoves in her face,  telling her it’s the best and only option.

The solution our culture offers these troubled and worried and confused and lonely women is to terminate the pregnancy. To remove the fetus. All of the medical jargon sounds so much better than “murdering an infant.”
I’m not going to go into a discussion of why abortion is wrong. I will let any article about the Gosnell case speak for me on that point. I just want to share with you a prayer that I've been praying non-stop since Thursday night.

I am begging the Lord to use the horrendous story of Gosnell’s crimes to open the eyes of Americans.
I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of people who read about the case will be horrified, will agree that Gosnell should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, will be outraged that such an atrocity has been going on so long and yet has only begun to cause a ripple in the news.

And I hope it causes all those who claim to be pro-choice to rethink their position. To realize that there is no difference between what Gosnell has done and what abortionists do every day to younger babies.

There are two logical conclusions that pro-choice Americans can reach after rethinking their position based on the Gosnell case.

First, it is possible that, in order to remain consistent and maintain their positions, some may claim that post-birth abortion (infanticide) should be made legal. In fact, some already have come to this conclusion. 

I hope and pray that very few people join that camp of thinking. It will only lead to acceptance of killing many other groups of people, including those with disabilities.

The second conclusion that people may reach is that abortion is wrong, no matter the gestational age of the baby.

Oh, Lord, may this thinking overwhelm the minds of America’s people!

Here are a couple of my favorite pro-life links, if you’d like to consider this further.
Can I Live—a song by Nick Cannon. Makes me cry. Beautiful, powerful, and true. http://vimeo.com/25303505
180 Movie—a 33 minute documentary that explores the similarities between abortion today and the Holocaust. Very, very difficult to watch, but also very powerful. http://www.180movie.com/