Call to Civility...

... on the issue of abortion.

My cousin-in-law (my husband's cousin's wife... that's a cousin-in-law, right?), wrote a lovely post about issues and causes.  In particular, she talks about abortion.  I have largely remained silent about my thoughts about abortion, but it's a big issue (with about 50 million babies aborted since Roe v. Wade in 1973).  I try not to skirt around big issues, but this is one that I have intentionally left alone.  However, since my CIL wrote such a lovely post, I feel able to go ahead and talk a bit about this issue.  So here we go.

Here's the deal.  I'm not a fan of abortion.  I think babies are very important people.  However, as I say this, I fear that I am going to be clumped in with the loud religious voices yelling at people and being very dogmatic and perhaps self-righteous.  I'm absolutely not calling you a murderer if you have had an abortion because most likely you are not one (unless you had "malice aforethought"), and I'm sorry if anybody has tried to instill guilt in you using this tactic.

I am concerned about unborn babies lives, and I am concerned about the effects of being a society that pushes down the moral questions that should naturally come with removing a baby from the womb so that it will die or killing the baby first in the womb (as in a partial birth abortion).

However, I also care about you, mothers.  I can't imagine how scary it must be to be pregnant as a teenager or to be pregnant after rape.  I can't imagine the feelings that you have as your doctor discusses the disability of Down Syndrome instead of the blessing that your baby can still be.  I can't imagine the panic rising in your chest as you fear the life that your child will have as you feel unready or incapable of raising this new little human.  I would love to talk to you, and I would love to pour love and support into you.

There is so much to discuss if we can just cool down and discuss it.  We also really need to talk about what will happen to the babies that would otherwise have been aborted.  Will they really all be snatched up by loving homes?  If the mothers choose to keep their children, will we agree as a society to support them financially and emotionally?  What about doing more as a society to help people value sexual relationships and family?  What will be the rates of illegal, and probably very unsafe, abortions if we make abortion illegal?  Is there something we can/should do to help prevent the large number of unwanted pregnancies in the first place?

We live in such a hurtful and complicated world.  The fact that there are so many unwanted pregnancies in the first place is evidence of this.  I just don't want it to be made more hurtful by ignoring the needs of the unborn.

So, I'm really here just asking us to get back to considering this issue civilly and without political tricks and maneuvers that has escalated this serious issue to an undignified level.  I love you all, even if you disagree with me.  God loves you, regardless of any opinion or action that you take.  Let's communicate.  Let's work to make this world better for everyone.