Hands Up for Life!

Hands up!
Originally uploaded by Photochiel.

Today the governor of South Dakota banned abortion. I commend him for his courage and boldness in taking a stand for the civil rights of smaller human beings. Of course, he will face intense persecution, just as other civil rights leaders have faced. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. were both hated for defending those whom the “enlightened” of this country would seek to classify as “nonpersons”. Yet all medical definitions of human life (heartbeat, brain waves, etc) preclude us from making this arbitrary, but oh so convenient, classification. The unborn baby is just as human as you and me, differing only in size. Pro-choice activists sound very self-righteous in their defense of women’s rights. However, since when did selfishness gain the moral high ground? Only 2% of all abortions are carried out to save the life of the mother. The other millions of babies are murdered purely for the sake of personal convenience. That’s selfishness, plain and simple. “Every child a wanted child” the pro-choice movement proclaims. Yet is this truly the morality Americans want to defend? That a human being is only valuable if he or she is wanted? Let’s make it personal. Am I only valuable as long as someone wants me? Will there ever be a time in my life when no one wants me? Is it then morally justifiable to kill me? As our own Declaration of Independence states, human life is valuable because God Himself gives it value. “All men...are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” So who cares if no one in this world wants me. I am still valuable because my Creator gave me life, and no one except God has the right to take that life away. In this modern age we marvel at the ancient "barbaric" practice of child-sacrifice. Yet is sacrificing our babies on the altar of Self-Fulfillment really so different? If pro-choice activists want to defend selfishness as a basic human right, they join the ranks of the slave holders and white supremacists who would be incovenienced by granting civil liberties to their fellow human beings. I, for one, join Governor Rounds in acknowleging the intrinsic worth of the unborn child, not because he or she is a potential human being, but because he or she IS a human being...a human being whose value is not defined by wanted-ness nor size. To murder a fellow human being because he or she is different--whether because of religion or race or stature--is genocide. Thank God that today, legalized genocide is not a choice in South Dakota