Author: Thomas Lee Abshier
By: Margo Diann Abshier, ND
11/19/2002
Hypocrites or Hypocrisy: America, the CHOICE is Yours
As a licensed physician, the political, moral and ethical issue of abortion has been a vexation to me for many years. In recent political campaigns, some candidates and their supporters have appeared to believe that protecting abortion was the most important issue in politics. I admit to being stunned that anyone would consider that the destruction of innocent life was something to be proud of, let alone the central reason why people would consider an individual worthy to hold a position of public trust. Additionally, I have heard liberals claim that conservative candidates are “dangerous” because they are Pro-Life.
The absurdity of such accusations falls into the category of Orwellian “doublespeak;” subverting the meaningfulness of language in order to control people by creating confusion and fear. The dictionary says “dangerous” means “able or likely to inflict injury, pain or loss.” When did the American culture decide that someone who believes that is it right and good to protect the lives of innocent human beings, qualifies one to be called a “dangerous” person? Or did the media make that decision or assumption for us without our permission? I thought “dangerous” people are those who inflict injury, pain, and loss of life, like occurs during an abortion. Not only is the body and the life of the child destroyed, but some women also die from the procedure, some are permanently scarred, both physically and emotionally, and some can no longer conceive or bear children. And, this from a supposedly medically safe and therefore legal procedure, which is approached with the nonchalance of toenail clipping. Additionally, there is an estimated 50% increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had abortions. That risk increases with the number of abortions a woman has had. Yes, there is a definite “danger” associated with abortion. Not to mention the damage to the collective “soul” of America and the requisite judgment and dispensing of justice that must follow as the natural consequence of such actions and policies.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the
Spirit reap everlasting life.
My question is: Has America bought the Hitlerian “big lie?” Have we so totally deluded ourselves, that our society now actually believes that babies are not human beings? Have we turned a blind eye to the reality that babies have nervous systems, feel pain just like newborns, and are unique individuals with personalities all their own? Have we become so “sophisticated” that we now cloak ourselves with the nonchalance of the neighbors of Nazi concentrations camps during WWII? How can it be that the unspeakable horror of the dismemberment of little human lives, has become a fervent source of pride and brazen rage against anyone who would dare to call it what it is. Murder! This is not the America I was born into; I find myself a stranger in the land of my birth. The America I was born into despised the perversion and death cult society of Hitler’s Germany, and vowed with the Jews, “Never again.” What has happened to you, my beloved country? Awake, America, from your deadly sleep!
As a nation, we were aroused from this slumber, for a short time after 9/11. We decried the destruction of innocent life by the terrorists. But, America, do you really want to advocate for the destruction of innocent life in the womb, labeling it a “right,” and embracing this evil practice as the most important reason to vote for or against a candidate? What has happened to your “soul” America? Has America lost its compassionate and merciful essence, which has served as the fountain of our blessings and prosperity? Alexis de Tocqueville said of our country; “America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.” How can we in America rationalize the premeditated slaughter of innocent lives, as being “good?”
As a physician, I embrace the Hippocratic oath which includes a vow not to induce abortion, and promises to “abstain from whatever is deleterious or mischievous…and to give no deadly medicine.” I applaud the work of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life, an affiliation of medical doctors which began with Dutch physicians who objected to the “social hygiene measures” of the Nazis. This group has prepared a more modern version of the Hippocratic oath, to meet the challenges and advances in the technology of the modern world.
One may legitimately ask; when does life begin? The common, historically accepted, universal and Biblical perspective has been the traditional view that as long as there is circulating blood, the organism is considered to be “living.” We also know that many living organisms are single-celled life forms and contain no blood. But, nonetheless, their impact can be great if they make us sick. Technically, a human is genetically the same person at conception as they are all throughout their life. The fetus has a functioning primitive heart and blood circulating in its body between 17 and 21 days after conception. In other words, at 21 days, we have confirmation that there is human life in the womb, by the presence of circulating blood in the fetus. This begs the question, are Americans now espousing the Nazi conjecture that some human beings are “superior,” and other humans are of lesser value, and therefore not worthy of life?
Our Declaration of Independence recognized that humans are created equal (both mother and child have equal value) and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable* “rights” including LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (*unalienable means ownership or title deed of property cannot be transferred to the ownership of another = the mother can not own the “right” of the child to live. This was the central issue of slavery, one human cannot own the life and rights of another. God gave mankind their life and their liberty and another man can not usurp or transfer an individual’s self-ownership.) But, in recent decades, Americans have chosen to sacrifice the lives of 40 million of their innocent children on the altar of expediency.
We couch this political discussion as a “woman’s right to choose.” Women have choices. They can choose to abstain from engaging in activities that are procreative. They can use birth control. They can give the offspring of their so-called “unwanted pregnancy” to any of those many couples who truly “want” children. The woman has three very valid choices regarding pregnancy. What choice does the child have? Once this child reaches 21 days of gestation, this child is a living human being and our government, from its inception, has espoused that this child has an unalienable “right” to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
What is truly ironic about the abortion debate is that it is so similar to the slavery debate prior to the Civil War. In Dinesh D’Souza’s book, Letters to a Young Conservative, in chapter 25 entitled “Speaking as a Former Fetus…” the parallels of the slavery and abortion issues are clearly drawn. During the Lincoln and Douglas debates, Stephen A. Douglas, the Democrat, denied that he was “pro-slavery,” just like those who are “pro-choice” are often really uncomfortable with the label of “pro-abortion.” But, Douglas argued that it was inappropriate to impose the moral views of some citizens upon individual state governments who had the “right to choose” slavery. “Freedom of choice” was the principle that many southerners saw as their reason for tearing the nation apart in a bloody war. We have an even bloodier cultural war happening in this country now, where many more lives have been lost than were lost in the Civil War because America has again chosen “freedom of choice” over what is morally right.
Lincoln, the Republican (the party born out of the anti-slavery movement), saw the hypocrisy in this contention, and questioned how one can invoke the principle of self-determination in order to deny others their right to self-determination? How can choice be used to negate the choice of another human being? Can America justify a Supreme Court decision that designates one human as the “superior” human, who can thereby deny the right to life and the civil liberties of another human based on skin color or their age, or size, or stage of development? Remember, the Supreme Court also upheld the legality of slavery prior to the Civil War.
It is also ironic that the very people who continually decry slavery and civil rights violations are the very people who use abortion as their litmus test to determine their public leaders. Abortion has become the bloody sacrament for the modern liberal religions of humanism and licentiousness. Slavery and the systematic violations of the rights of blacks for an additional hundred years can never be justified. But, at least the descendants of those slaves can now enjoy the benefit of a standard of living and a level of freedom that they would have never found anywhere else on the planet. In Dinesh D’Souza’s book What’s So Great About America, in Chapter 2 entitled “Two Cheers for Colonialism,” on page 56, a story is related about Mohammed Ali, when he returned to the USA from a boxing match in Zaire. He was asked what he thought of Africa, and his reply was “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat.”
But, aborted babies have been denied the very life with which they were endowed by their Creator. Their unalienable rights, their civil liberties were most profoundly, completely and totally violated. Their personalities, their giftings, their unique individuality, their place on this planet, are all ignored as if they never existed. Most are not remembered, missed, acknowledged or mourned. We can never fully know in this lifetime what we have lost in them. Some may have been gifted athletes that would have broken world records. Some may have discovered cures for diseases. And some may have created inventions whose economic effects may have made life better for the whole earth. None of them will have a descendant who can pass on his/her genes or legacy, or who can benefit from their suffering and loss.
America, you are right, we do have to “choose”. Are we going to be consistent with the Hippocratic oath and the traditional view of respect for life on which our country was established? Must we endure another Civil War over this same issue of “choice,” or has enough innocent blood been shed through abortion that Americans are ready to repent of this great evil? Are Americans going to be hypocrites who oppose the death penalty for brutal murderers and decry testing soap in the eyes of bunnies, while they embrace the pithing and dismemberment of viable human babies in the birth canal like they were experimental frogs in a biology lab class? I beg you, America, reconsider this issue, return to your spiritual roots and the God of our nation’s founders, and “choose” LIFE that YOU and your descendants may LIVE (Deuteronomy 30:19&20). For if America does not repent, I fear that this country can only reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7), as we did in the Civil War, and as did Nazi Germany for their “crimes against humanity.”
Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 “that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”Hosea 8:7 They sow the wind, And reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; It shall never produce meal. If it should produce, Aliens would swallow it up.
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