This article is reprinted in-full with permission from Dr. Grace Vuoto. Dr. Grace is a regular correspondent to FREEDOM FRIDAY WITH CARL GALLUPS.
Special to WorldTribune.com
This
year the annual March for Life in the nation’s capital, the largest
anti-abortion rally in the world with about 600,000 attendees, marks a
milestone: public opinion in America is changing as the pro-life
movement gains more adherents.
Since Roe v.
Wade legalized abortion in America in 1973, approximately 55 million
abortions have been performed. These figures are staggering.
“Think
about it – in 2008, more children died from abortion than Americans
died in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II,
Korean, Vietnam and Gulf War combined,” said Missouri Rep. Vicky
Hartzler in an impassioned speech on the National Mall during the rally
held on Jan. 22. “This must stop!”
Who needs
enemies? In 2008, 825, 564 babies were aborted, according to the Centers
for Disease Control; this easily trumps the 621, 515 total casualties
of the seven wars listed above. With these statistics, it is clear the
depletion of human capital enacted through abortion is an even greater
long-term national security threat than any other mortal enemy we face.
No foreign or domestic foe has ever been as deadly to our population as
what we are dong systematically to ourselves.
However,
at last, a growing number of states are placing limits on abortion.
Conservatives made headway in state legislatures across America in the
2010 mid-term elections and were subsequently able to use their power to
enact pro-life legislation. Between 2011 and 2013, more state-level
restrictions were placed on abortion than in the previous decade,
according to a Jan. 22 report on the March for Life rally in The
Washington Post.
Public opinion is gradually
changing too. A recent Fox News Poll indicates 48 percent of Americans
say they are pro-life and 45 percent state they are pro-choice; a Gallup
poll in May 2013 also had the exact same findings. This marks a
dramatic shift from Gallup polling in 1996 in which 37 percent of
respondents said they are pro-life and 56 percent said they are
pro-choice. Also, 62 percent of respondents state abortion is “morally
wrong,” according to a recent Maris poll.
The
polls consistently show a growing regard for the baby in the womb, even
among those who identify themselves as pro-choice. A December 2012
Gallup poll reveals 61 percent of respondents said abortion should be
legal in the first trimester but only 27 percent said abortion should be
legal in the second trimester and even less, 14 percent, said it should
be legal in the third trimester. Hence even abortion adherents agree
the baby should not be killed after three months of pregnancy. There is
an increasing perception that the entity growing in the womb deserves
legal protection.
The Republican Party is
currently encouraging candidates to stand firm on the issue. For the
first time in its history, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince
Preibus delayed the start of the party’s annual winter meeting so he
and his members could officially join the rally; the RNC even chartered a
bus to the event for its members. Also, instead of cowering to the
Democrats’ strategy of depicting the GOP as waging a “war on women,”
Republican candidates are being advised by RNC committeewoman from
Delaware Ellen Barosse to be combative on the issue, as successful
pro-life governors have been.
“It sounds so
radical, but look at the Republican governors in the Midwest. They’re
all pro-life, and they don’t get any of this ‘war on women’ guff because
their opponents know that they’ll take it in the teeth if they try it,”
said Ms. Barosse in an interview. She sponsored an RNC resolution
urging candidates not to remain silent on the issue.
What accounts for this burgeoning, confident pro-life movement?
There
are several kinds of arguments that are winning hearts and minds. The
first is the growing ability of the pro-life movement to humanize the
child in the womb. This consists of referencing the scientific data that
tells us what the child looks like early in its development and what
features are developed in the first weeks of pregnancy. Science is
vividly confirming what pro-lifers have long maintained: It is not a
blob in the womb; it is a tiny, beautiful baby right from the beginning.
As
Fox News analyst Brit Hume brilliantly put it in a recent broadcast of
Special Report with Bret Baier: “…science has given us an ever clearer
picture of just how much of a baby a fetus is. At 20 weeks, we now know,
these tiny creatures can hear, even recognize a mother’s voice. Their
toenails are growing and their hearts beat loud enough to be heard by a
stethoscope.”
Humanizing the baby also means
using the correct terminology: baby not “fetus,” murder not “choice,”
destruction of human life not “reproductive health;” crushing the most
vulnerable not “planned parenthood.”
Humanizing
the baby includes showcasing the children who were brought to life
after a crisis pregnancy and who were then adopted. They are a living,
breathing embodiment of the right choice to make. Adoption was in fact
the theme of this year’s March for Life rally, in attempt to broaden the
appeal of the movement.
In addition to
humanizing the baby tin the womb, pro-life advocates are making progress
in teaching women that having an abortion may result in life-long
physical, emotional or psychological consequences—or all of these at
once. In other words, it is not even in a woman’s self-interest to kill
the baby in the womb; it does not solve “the problem” during a crisis
pregnancy. Instead, after an abortion, there is usually tremendous guilt
and remorse that plagues the perpetrator of the violent act for decades
to come. Many females who cavalierly commit the deed are later shocked
at how traumatic the event is—and how lasting are its implications.
Websites
that provide anonymous post-abortion testimonies are emerging. The
Abortion Survivor’s Network, Priests for Life and Hope after Abortion
allow those who have killed their babies to come forward and explain
their emotions. Their testimony is far more powerful than the vacuous
pro-choice mantra we have heard ad nauseam that tells women they can do
whatever they want with their body. Many of these testimonies reveal
that when a woman chooses abortion, she often incurs life-long anguish,
painful and relentless remorse, even to the point of depression and
suicidal thoughts.
Another key feature of the pro-life movement is the growing grasp of the phenomenon of gendercide.
Abortion
is increasingly being recognized as the most anti-feminist weapon ever
invented. Around the world, especially in China, India, Taiwan,
Singapore, the western Balkans and the Caucasus, more girls are aborted
than boys precisely because the parents prefer to parent boys and they
devalue females. This even affects the Asian-American community. It is
estimated by experts on the topic such as Mara Hvistendahl, author of
Unnatural Selection (2011), that approximately 163 million baby girls
have been victims of gendercide in the past three decades. Hence,
abortion permits the systemic destruction of the female population.
Abortion is therefore more misogynistic than any other previous kind of
female oppression.
Finally, what about the
fathers of these aborted babies? The pro-life movement has yet to fully
embrace their needs and rights in the slaughter of their unborn
children—an act over which they have no control. This presents another
venue for adding restrictions on killing babies. Fathers ought to have
equal rights in the decision as women; they do so when babies are born
so why not before that? It should be made illegal to abort the baby if
the father opposes this, as it his progeny too. Fathers have by and
large been ignored in this discussion. The more we include them, the
greater the chances of further delaying and impeding the killing of
babies as we attempt to reduce and ultimately eliminate the number of
abortions.
All of these arguments are giving us
the high moral ground — a position which will eventually lead to
success. Slavery was abolished once the slaves were fully humanized in
the public arena. The more we do this for babies, the more the
abominable practice of abortion will be recognized for what it is — the
heinous destruction of the most beautiful amongst us and an act that is
far beneath our social standards.
Women indeed
have many choices — until the moment of conception. After that, it
should be illegal to infringe upon the rights of another person, no
matter how tiny he or she is.
Let us proclaim loudly until we win the day: The power of life and death belongs to God and God alone.
Grace
Vuoto is the Editor of Politics and Culture at World Tribune, host of
American Heartland with Dr. Grace on WTSB Radio and is the founder of
the Edmund Burke Institute for American Renewal.
Dr. Grace Vuoto
Editor of Politics and Culture
Tel.: 202-607-1335
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