Happy Anniversary (not)

Forty-years ago today Roe vs. Wade became law in the United States, giving a woman the right to have an abortion at any time during her pregnancy. There were abortions in the United States (legal and illegal) before Roe vs. Wade, and if Roe vs. Wade were overturned tomorrow, the issue would revert back to the states and abortions would continue with little or no net effect.

This morning a study was released on the anniversary of Roe Vs. Wade that reported for the first time in our country the majority of people want all abortions to be legal. (Here is a link to that article.) We have passed the tipping point. There seems to be no turning back.

Depending on which study you read, somewhere between 800,000-1,200,000 abortions occur each year in our country (app. 18% of all pregnancies). In most states, abortion rates, though high, are the lowest they have been in a decade.

The vast majority of abortions (some say as much as 95%) are for convenience; a form of birth control. Only a small number of abortions are the result of rape, incest, or to protect the life/health of the mother.

So the issue is not Roe vs. Wade.

The issue is a lack of respect for all of life.

All human life is sacred.

Every human-being (born and unborn) is created in the image of God.

Right to life and respect of all life needs to move beyond the abortion debate.

Our lack of respect for life is seen in…

…the millions of aborted/murdered babies.

…the killings that take place in our homes, at our schools, and in our streets.

…the way many people turn their heads and ignore the poor and homeless who die in our cities and rural communities.

…our lack of respect for the elderly and sick and people who can no longer contribute in our capitalistic society.

…the ease and quickness in which many people want to execute criminals.

…the ease and quickness in which some people want to bomb other countries or use drones to take out neighborhoods were innocent children live because there could be a “bad guy” asleep somewhere.

…the entertainment we receive from watching hours and hours of violence on our televisions, in our video games, and at the movies.

Please understand, I am not claiming moral equivalence between abortions and violent movies, and the sometimes necessity of war and capital punishment. Abortions are far more hideous than violent movies and far more numerous then innocent lives lost to war or non-innocent lives taken as payment for a crime.

What I am hoping to shed light on is our overall devaluing of life in our culture.

What I am trying to do is explain that before I cast judgment on those who are pro-choice, I must first examine my own heart and ask myself the tough question: How much do I really value life? Do I value the life of those already living as much as a value the life of the not-yet-born?

Abortion is wrong. Abortion is murder. But abortion is only a symptom of a much bigger problem in our society, and that problem is how we view all of life from the womb to the tomb, and how we treat and take care of one another, from our family to our neighbors to our poor and elderly to the immigrant and to those in prison.

Sanctity of life refers to the sacredness of all life.