A Haunted Nation

There’s an article going `round my newsfeed purporting to be reasons why a Christian woman supports Planned Parenthood. Having read it, I can only wonder at the author’s definition of Christianity. Our Lord left us with but two commandments: Love the Lord Thy God above all else, and love each other.

We are not loving each other when we take a life.  We are not loving each other when we present a mother with Solomon’s verdict when it comes to her future. How can we adore our God yet callously destroy his greatest creation—an innocent, defenseless, microcosm of his love? Yes there are times when we must terminate a pregnancy in order to save the life of the mother.  Those are soul-wrenching, faith-shaking, decisions that cannot be undertaken lightly, for there are consequences whenever you take a life.

And that: there are consequences whenever you take a life—is something that we’ve forgotten in our society today.  We’ve declared that abortion is a health decision that is none of our business and in doing so we’ve tried to wash our hands of our collective sin.

My fellow citizens, no matter what your faith, or if you have no faith at all, you must understand that abortion is not recourse from consequences but a creator of so many more. There are the very real physical scars left by repeated abortions, abortions done on teenagers, and those that are done hurriedly or incorrectly. There are the emotional scars caused by the guilt, the fluctuating hormones of a suddenly-not-pregnant body, and the uncertainty surrounding the decision to abort.  There are the community scars of entire demographics being whittled down by low-cost abortions used as birth control and the very real cost in dollars of paying for these services.

We are haunted by the millions of lives snuffed out before they had a chance to begin. If these Planned Parenthood videos are too hard for you to watch—good. You should be sickened by the ghoulish scenes. However medically correct it may be, the term “products of conception” is far too dry and soulless. Whatever the final use for the dismembered babies might be, cancer research, DNA sequencing, or some other marvel of our time, we need to find a way to advance that field without collecting the lives of innocents. There also need to be low-cost, well regulated adoptions in this country.  It is a travesty that we can provide a cheaper end to life than a home for a needy child.

We need to have more heart and soul in this discussion if we are to be less haunted as a society. We need to be more Christian, love each other more, and declare that all life matters.  This Christian woman will not, can not, support Planned Parenthood.