Throughout our history in America, people of all religions and faiths have condemned abortion.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI forbade abortion and most birth control methods. Although this stance has been disputed in recent days, many within the Catholic Church still valiantly defend the rights of the unborn child. Sister Deirdre Bryne, a retired Army officer and surgeon, discussed her work serving the poor in Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, and Iraq. The largest marginalized group in the world, though, Sister Dede stated, is not outside our borders. They are here in the United States and they are the unborn.
Many within the Jewish community support life-saving solutions to unplanned pregnancies. Rabbi Yakov David Cohen founded the Coalition for Jewish Values to provide pro-life education, Jewish-friendly pregnancy care, adoption referrals, and “healing after the terrible trauma of abortion.”
Christians of all denominations and affiliations recognize that, although there are a lot of social issues in America today that the Bible doesn’t have any direct answers to, the case for protecting innocent life isn’t one of them.
For example, Genesis 1 proclaims that God made man in his image; Exodus 20 records the Sixth Commandment, “You must not murder”; and Psalm 139 declares boldly and beautifully how life begins at conception. Very severe warnings are given against those who would harm children in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Luke 17:2, for example, states: “It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble”(Travis, 2021).
But the argument for overturning Roe vs. Wade isn’t just a moral one. Compelling legal, medical, and social reasons justify why it’s time for a post-Roe America. Here are just a few:
5. Legally speaking, Roe is bad law.
As we discussed last week, using the Roe vs. Wade decision to create a precedence for why federal law should trump state law is unconstitutional. The federal government oversees how the states create and pass legislation, but not the content of the law.
Many states have used their constitutional rights to sue the United States government for overreaching. For example, in December of 2021, The State of Georgia filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden (and won), seeking immediate relief from forcing federal contractors and subcontractors to receive COVID-19 vaccination to keep their contracts. Six other states joined this suit, including Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.
The courts based its ruling of Roe vs. Wade in 1973 on the idea that abortion is implicit in the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution; however, as Justice Alito argues in his opinion piece, “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”
Wow, not even implicitly protected.
4. The abortion laws in the United States are extreme. Most other countries do not view abortion as a fundamental right. In fact, according to the Washing Post article from October 9, 2017, only seven of the 59 countries surveyed permit elective abortions after 20 weeks. Of those seven, only three have no federal restrictions in place to limit the age of the child: China, North Korea, and the United States. Let that sink in.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that China permits abortion on demand at any time. “Abortion is virtually freely available in China, and there are no defined time limits for access to the procedure,” according to Pew Research Center. (Ye Hee Lee, 2017) Human rights advocates have criticized China’s extreme population control measures—namely its “one-child” policy instituted in 1970. Even though China amended its policy to allow for two children per family in 2016, state-run birth control programs are still in effect.
Countries that outlaw abortion after 20 weeks of gestation include but are not limited to Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, and many more. That’s just the first half of the alphabet!
This raises a question: Why does the United States—one of the champions for human rights around the world—legalize late-term abortion when most developed nations do not?
3. The debate is no longer about whether a fetus is a baby. Before ultrasound became widely available around 1978, many argued that a developing fetus was simply a clump of cells. Norma McCorvey’s lawyers successfully argued that a pre-born child doesn’t reach viability until around weeks 24-28 of the 40-week pregnancy.
Thanks to advances in technology, we now know that’s not true. A baby’s heartbeat can be detected as early as 22 days; brainwaves can be measured at 6 weeks, and all internal organs are present by 9 weeks. Experts speculate that children in the womb can feel pain as early as 8 weeks gestational age.
Dr. Ben Carson made the most persuasive argument proving the viability of pre-born children in a statement in July 2015 calling on Congress to stop funding Planned Parenthood: “If it’s not a human being, then why are you harvesting organs from it?”
Although many Americans don’t want to believe this is happening, tragically, plenty of evidence has surfaced. Committee members on a special House of Representatives panel investigating the claim that baby organs are being harvested and sold uncovered startling proof. According to the official report dated December 30, 2016, a researcher paid a middleman procurement company $3,340 for a fetal brain, $595 for a “baby skull matched to upper and lower limbs,” and $890 for “upper and lower limbs with hands and feet.”
Abortion is a multi-billion (with a b) dollar industry. Please don’t be fooled: politicians and activists fighting to uphold abortion rights aren’t worried about protecting “a woman’s right to choose;” they are protecting their cash cow.
2. Abortion is not Healthcare.
Since its inception, the abortion industry was never intended to be healthcare; it was designed to perpetuate a genocide.
Margret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood believed in eugenics. Eugenics supports the idea that a superior society can be created by encouraging procreation among the higher classes and discouraging it among the poor and uneducated classes.
As a resident of New York City, Sanger first implemented her “Negro Project” by establishing a birth control clinic in Harlem, a predominantly black neighborhood, in 1923. In short, Sanger sought to reduce or eliminate the black population through various birth control methods, including abortion. Even today, 62% of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinics are located in “targeted neighborhoods” where there is a high African American population.
Sanger’s influence on the African American community is tragic. Each year more African American children are aborted in New York City than are born. Even abortion activist groups such as the Guttmacher Institute admit that black women are more than five times as likely as white women to have an abortion.
In 2019, the CDC reported that in Mississippi 74 percent of the abortions in the state were performed on black mothers—even though African Americans make up only 39.7% percent of Mississippi’s population. (Jeffrey, 2021, pg. 2)
Dr. Alveda King, Chair for the Center for the American Dream at America First Policy Institute and niece of the great Dr. Martin Luther King, was asked about this CDC report by CNSNews.com.
“Abortion is one of the most violent, reprehensible, discriminatory crimes against humanity,” King said. “There is overwhelming evidence that many abortions have been performed to reduce minority populations in America.
Planned Parenthood is also under fire for its business practices. Even though many of the clinics stayed open during 2020 when churches, gyms, and many small businesses were closed, PP clinics received over $80 million in federal funds as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)—even though they were ineligible. The Small Business Association responsible for distributing the aid is demanding it back.
Do you want to know the number one reason why Roe vs. Wade should be overturned? Watch for our next post in two weeks!