ABORTION, ITS HEAVIEST IMPLICATIONS
By
David Conn
In this treatise I intend to put before you some considerations that rarely if ever have been brought to the forefront in the many discussions and arguments that have raged through the last four decades of America's struggle with the incendiary subject of abortion. If my friends and relatives know anything about me, they are aware that I am driven to find deeper implications within movements and political postures that a biased liberal media treats so casually. And abortion tops the list of those that have been ignored.
Therefore I will put before you something that, as far as I can tell, has been completely brushed aside. And the reason is that it is simply too frightening for pro-choice people to contemplate. Underlying the specious message (that it is a woman’s right to control what is done with her body) is the real message they believe – that “all human beings are intrinsically worthless!” Allow me to explain. There is no doubt that pro-choice people have a range of how much they value that little baby in the womb. But in all cases it has to do with how little or how much circumstantial worth they will personally attribute to the child. In every case they completely wipe away intrinsic worth, leaving only the worth of their particular circumstance. For example, some parents of a child in the womb may fervently want to have the child. Thus they attribute tremendous circumstantial worth to the baby. Though, at the same time they have to admit that the baby has no intrinsic value whatsoever. Nevertheless, if their having the child had been inconvenient and they had chosen to abort, then they should be honest with themselves and admit they feel the child has no intrinsic worth. The dilemma becomes even more severe were they ever forced to reveal such a viewpoint to their eight or even ten year-old child. This explains why those parents would probably never relate the full implications of their anti-value philosophy to that child.
I dealt above with parents who wanted very much to have their child. Now let’s consider a mother who has no desire to have the child and so decides to abort. Here is a case where she assigns little or no circumstantial worth, let alone intrinsic worth, to any baby in the womb. And it must be said that, like the mother above who chose to have her baby, she must admit she sees the entirety of humankind as intrinsically worthless. Although each of these mothers would likely see some humans as having a lesser or greater degree of circumstantial worth, two things are inarguable here. There is just no other way to assess the matter. Once they admit that any child in the womb is intrinsically worthless, they are forced by pure logic to say that all of humanity is intrinsically worthless. Secondly, neither of the parents would like to explain to their own or anyone else’s child why they see that child as having no intrinsic worth.
But much more demands attention. First, I would ask any pro-choice persons why they would be reluctant to explain the full implications to their children, including their view that those children not only have no intrinsic worth but that all of humanity is without any intrinsic worth. The answer, of course, is obvious. Secondly, I would ask the pro-choice people whether or not they realize that their support of Roe vs. Wade means that they helped institutionalize the idea that society is intrinsically worthless. It could be said this is an unfair and extreme assessment. But I defy you to find a single inaccuracy in what I just described. I would add that this true and accurate assessment is not likely to be fully expressed by the media, either because of its obvious bias or because none of the media is persuaded to look honestly into the heavier implications of abortion.
Lastly, I would like pro-choice supporters to consider a final point dealing with the fact of why they fear saying to their eight year-old children, “You have no intrinsic worth.” It is because almost all eight year-olds are innocent expositors of truth regarding matters of life and death and actual human worth. When the Bible says, “a little child shall lead them,” it is meant in a special way, and includes such that the little child might express the truth by way of what we know he or she would probably say, even though no one has enough courage to ask the question. It would be an interesting study, to ascertain the approximate age when children have the truth ripped out of them by a society that cannot face the ramifications of, or the impact on, a system that has institutionalized the concept that humanity has utterly no intrinsic worth. I leave it for all honest psychologists to deal with the probable effects whenever society encases such a horror within its legal system. But it is no wonder, at all, why the pro-choice parents dare not tell innocent youngsters that they are seen simply to have a circumstantial worth, and no intrinsic worth whatsoever.
In conclusion, I would now put forth what I believe is the only answer for a society that is loaded with both conscious and subconscious guilt (“subconscious” because of not seeing the deeper actualities that I dealt with earlier). You see, the only way around the dilemma is to realize that the intrinsic worth I have been discussing, that which is instinctively felt by most of humanity, is real. Yet it is fully recognized only by those who truly believe in the Truth, the God of our Holy Tradition. So it is critically important that those who linger in guilt come to realize a key part of the Holy Tradition. It says that “all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” In essence, anyone who has participated in an abortion or anyone who has supported abortion rights, upon realizing the error of such action and asking forgiveness of our Lord – that “anyone” – is truly forgiven. For an example of how it might “work together for good,” let me suggest a scenario. Consider a person who participated in an abortion, but who saw the error of it and accepted the Lord and His forgiveness. That person might easily get involved in a cause thereafter that would save many babies from being killed in the womb. Amazing things, after all, begin to happen once a person realizes that all human beings are created in the image of God, and that they therefore have intrinsic worth.
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David Conn
March 9, 2011