SPECIAL NOTE: TODAY marks 10 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. I am in the midst of a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the over 55 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the tens of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust.
CHALLENGE: This Sunday, ask your pastor that as a pro-life church (which I trust yours describes itself), how will they recognize Sanctity of Human Life Sunday on Jan. 20th as will thousands of other pro-life churches in America. If he says he has no plans to do so, ask him why not. I'd love to hear the response you get.
PLEASE PRAY: 1.) For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies. 2) For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed. 3.)The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars. 4.) That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia. 5) For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions.
"Restoring the Value of Life" - watch a great 5-min. video and sign a petition.
http://www.restoringthevalueoflife.org/?utm_source=Impact+e-Newsletter&utm_campaign=96d3f2a4b3-Impact_Newsletter_1_11_2012&utm_medium=email
http://www.restoringthevalueoflife.org/?utm_source=Impact+e-Newsletter&utm_campaign=96d3f2a4b3-Impact_Newsletter_1_11_2012&utm_medium=email
"F.A.Q." - We know that you are confused and looking for answers. Here are some of the questions that are asked most frequently about Abortion and Pregnancy. http://www.restoringthevalueoflife.org/index.php/f-a-q/
"A Person’s a Person, No Matter How Small"- January 7, 2013 http://www.restoringthevalueoflife.org/index.php/2013/01/a-persons-a-person-no-matter-how-small/#
“A person’s a person, no matter how small,” says Horton the elephant in the beloved children’s book, Horton Hears a Who. But this simple truth is one that pro-aborts just don’t get.Just two years before Roe dramatically changed the relationship of a mother to her baby, the late Senator Ted Kennedy wrote:"[I]t is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough…to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception. [Emphasis added.]"
Today, it’s hard to find many in the Democratic Party who agree with this. Yet Kennedy’s statement is still true.[Sadly, Sen. Kennedy, turned out to be one of the most pro-abortion Senators once abortion was legalized. As a life-long Catholic, it was heart-breaking to hear of his asking his church leadership for absolution of his pro-abortion stand just before he died.] One cannot say “I value human life,” and at the same time argue for abortion-on-demand. These are, as logicians say, two “mutually exclusive” propositions.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court justices enshrined this logical inconsistency in their 1973 decision to legalize abortion. By allowing mothers to abort their babies, the Court implicitly operated on the assumption that in the case of abortion it is acceptable for one person to end the life of another, giving no regard to the innocence of that person or its God-given right to life.
The only way the Court could make its argument was by denying the personhood of the fetus. When the state of Texas argued for the position that “the fetus is a ‘person’ within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Justice Harry Blackmun responded, “If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment.” In spite of this realization, Justice Blackmun nevertheless concluded in writing the Court’s decision that “the word ‘person’ as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn.”
As recently as January 21, 2010, the high Court again showed its confusion over the nature of personhood when it ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, that corporations are considered persons under the Constitution. Although technically corporations are identified as “legal fictions,” by extending to corporations “personhood,” the Court affirmed their right under the First Amendment to engage in political campaign speech. So here is a supreme irony—corporations are now considered persons, but unborn babies in the womb are not.
Biblically speaking, there is no distinction between the child that is in the womb and the baby that has just emerged from the womb. They are both fully recognized as persons. We cannot deny that a baby is a person because of its location, its size, its level of development, or its degree of dependency.
The concept of the “inalienable rights” of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is foundational to American jurisprudence. However, in America today, no baby inside its mother’s womb has an inalienable right to life.
By law, anything that is “inalienable” cannot be transferred or sold. Yet the life of every unborn baby stands in legal jeopardy because its right to life has been transferred to its mother. The Supreme Court, in giving mothers the right to decide whether or not their pre-born babies should live or die, has violated the inalienable right to life of every child still in its mother’s womb.
America throughout most of its history has had a pro-life culture. There were social pressures that supported life, motherhood and marriage. This can be achieved again. Today we have the technology to show women images of their preborn babies. These images show the beating heart at 18 days. They show arms and legs at four weeks and ears and mouth and nose at five. Our knowledge of gestational development shows that life indeed begins at conception—and that life is indeed a person with its own unique DNA.
The key to ending abortion in America is to win the hearts and minds of people so that all understand what is so clear to every child who reads Horton Hears a Who, “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” And, we should add, whether that person is in its mother’s womb or not.
[places in bold AND italics or which are underline are MY emphasis]
No comments:
Post a Comment