We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life...
The remainder of humanity's rights are rather moot without the first: Life.
There are many impassioned pro-lifers; I have never been one of them. However, I do know right from wrong, and I understand the evil of destroying life. This is neither a religious nor a biblical viewpoint, although I could make those arguments, probably with greater ease. My concept of abortion as a wrongdoing comes from what the philosophers, and our founding fathers, termed "natural law."
In its simplest form, natural law defines that which any human being instinctively knows to be wrong. No religious rules, no Holy Scripture, just a person's gut knowledge that an action is wrong.
Stealing? Wrong. Murdering? Wrong. Killing a baby? Also wrong.
Think about it. Today's technology supports the life argument, not death. Those sonograms of early stage embryos that we see gracing office computer screens and home refrigerator doors, why, that's little Megan or Michael! But if the pregnancy happens to be ill-timed, why is little Megan or Michael suddenly nothing more than a splotch of medical waste?
This is not to say there is absolutely no place for ending a pregnancy. Of course, there are such circumstances. But they should be dictated by serious health reasons, not personal convenience. We, as a society, should be working to protect the life that modern science proves exists within the womb; human rights should apply. Yet with the stroke of a pen last Friday, President Obama signed the death warrants of uncounted multitudes of innocent babies around the world.
Wrong. Not something that makes me in any way "really proud of my country," to quote Michelle Obama on the campaign trail.
The president signed the executive order late Friday afternoon, as though hoping no one would notice. But Pope Benedict XVI happened to be watching, and the ensuing publicity is not quite the cover of darkness Obama had hoped for.
I'm going to watch the follow up on this issue, because I think it will be interesting. American bishops may soon be receiving direction that it's time to stop winking and nodding as such paper Catholics as Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, among others, step up to the communion rail.
While I've never been on fire about the abortion issue, I know it's wrong. I find it very telling that President Obama chose an obscure hour at the start of a weekend to try to slide this change through. He evidently was nervous about media coverage.
If Obama is hoping that Pope Benedict will be too worried about being unpopular to pursue the issue--well, that may not be a matter of natural law, but he's wrong.
