A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

Was It Really An “Unattended Death”?

A fetus recovered from a restroom at a Honolulu park has been classified as an "unattended death" after police determined the woman who gave birth didn't know she was pregnant. Detective Ted Coons says no foul play is suspected.

Such begins a recent report from the KITV news-center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

A teenage girl did not know she was pregnant, gave birth to a premature baby in the bathroom of a public park in Honolulu, and it died right there on the floor.  The mother was rescued by paramedics and is in a local Hawaiian hospital, in good condition.

This is a tragedy.  If this account is accurate, then of course our thoughts and prayers go out for the 19 year old girl who suffered this horrific event.  Miscarriages are painful enough for an expecting mother, but to lose a child you didn't even know you have, on the floor of a public restroom no less, is unspeakably awful.

But there is another tragic component in this story: the deceased baby himself/herself.  As the police report reads, this is considered an "unattended death."  And of course it is a death.  Of course it is a tragedy.  Anyone with a scintilla of human compassion and emotion instinctively recognizes that a person died on a restroom floor next to his/her mother.

So why do we, as a nation, try so hard to deceive ourselves into thinking that if the mother had chosen to end her baby's life the same exact day, in a cleaner room, with a nurse and doctor present, that a "death" had been supplanted by a "choice"?  Why do women of all religious and political persuasions suffer emotional trauma when their pregnancies end in miscarriages?  Why do we charge those who murder pregnant women with double-homicides?

I am a staunch and fervent defender (and promoter) of personal liberty.  I believe it is a gift (or right) from our Creator.  I think the ability for free people to make as many free choices about the circumstances of their own lives as is possible is an amazingly important thing.  But there are limits to choice; there are parameters for liberty.

The debate over abortion and Roe V. Wade will return to the front-burner of American politics and discourse in the coming weeks as the president's Supreme Court Justice nominee, Elena Kagan, jumps through the procedural hoops necessary to be confirmed to a seat on the bench of the highest court in the land.  That debate will be positioned as a disagreement between compassionate people who love women and their "right" to choose to terminate a pregnancy and those "haters" and "zealots" in the pro-life camp that seek to control the lives and choices of strangers (for hypocritical, nefarious, and selfish personal reasons).

Lost in the shuffle will be stories like the one from Honolulu I referenced above.  Stories like the Laci Peterson double-murder trial are forgotten by pro-life advocates and ignored by a decidedly pro-abortion media.

Either the life inside a mother is a person, or it is not.  That is all that matters.  A baby has the same DNA it will have when it dies an old man or woman within the first week of conception.  Personally, I wouldn't have needed to read the bible or go to church or love conservative politics to be pro-life.  Those things give me intellectual and moral grounding for the position I hold intuitively.

It is my belief that everyone starts out pro-life.  You have to talk yourself out of it.

The Pro-”Roe v. Wade” Crowd Ages

Dr. Albert Mohler of Southern Theological Seminary is a prolific writer, a nationally-syndicated radio talk show host, and a clear voice of reason for the religious conservative in America.  If you are unfamiliar with Dr. Mohler, or his work, I implore you to check out his website and blog.

His post on Friday was in lieu of a Newsweek column by Sarah Kliff on the shifting numbers and demographics in the abortion debate.

In the magazine’s April 26, 2010 edition Kliff outlines the challenges facing the abortion rights movement. In the aftermath of the health care reform signed into law by President Obama, abortion rights groups are licking their political wounds. As Kliff explains, the movement woke up to the fact that a significant number of Democrats in both the House and the Senate are pro-life. Even as the executive order signed by President Obama offered some limited and tenuous protections for the unborn, the pro-abortion movement was far more alarmed by the fact that the House of Representatives had earlier passed the so-called “Stupak amendment” that would have represented the most significant modification of abortion law since Roe v. Wade.

Kliff argues that the final form of the health care reform legislation was “more than a psychological setback” for the pro-abortion movement. Since the law requires a separate check for any abortion coverage in qualified insurance plans, the structure “could well prove so onerous that insurers drop abortion coverage altogether.”

But the politics and politicians involved are not the most worrisome factors for the pro-choice movement, and groups like NARAL (National Association for Repeals of Abortion Laws) and their leaders (currently, Nancy Keenan is the head of NARAL).  No, what troubles Mrs. Keenan is the fact that American women under the age of 30 are starting to become more and more pro-life.

NARAL has sobering research data to consider. Their own research suggests a significant “intensity gap” between older and younger women in America. Even as surveys indicate that Americans remain deeply divided over the question of abortion, the numbers are only part of the story. The other part of the political equation is passion and intensity, and on these factors the pro-life movement scores well above the abortion rights movement, especially among younger voters.

NARAL’s own research indicates that the younger generation of women — the millennials — do not “view abortion as an imperiled right in need of defenders.”

Dr. Mohler continues:

Then there is the ultrasound. Kate Michelman, former NARAL president, acknowledges that the ultrasound technology has helped shift the focus of the abortion controversy to the moral status of the unborn baby, rather than merely the rights of the pregnant woman. “The technology has clearly helped to define how people think about a fetus as a full, breathing human being,” she admits. “The other side has been able to use the technology to its own end.”

Yes, the pro-life movement has indeed been able to use the technology to focus attention on the unborn baby — and without apology. The sights of the life within the womb change everything. It is nothing less than breathtaking to read Kate Michelman speak of the unborn child as “a full, breathing human being.”

I won't quote any more excerpts for now because I want you to read the original Newsweek column, Dr. Mohler's full response to it, and a supplementary column on this very subject from James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal.  Take a few minutes and engaged you head (and your heart) on such a vitally important issue.

Piper On Abortion

My favorite pastor in America to hear preach is John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist in The Twin Cities.  I may have posted audio of Pastor Piper speaking on the topic of abortion before, but I came across this video and could not resist posting it again.

If you wanted to know how I feel about abortion...you just heard and saw it.