[1]ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) — Thirty-nine years ago the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Roe v. Wade. The justices decided 7-2 that the practice of abortion in America was a right protected by the Constitution and thus legal throughout the United States. The date was Jan. 22, 1973.
The specific date of the Roe decision deserves to be remembered as a day of infamy along with other tragic events like the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Roe ruling also deserves to be compared to the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. All are despicable atrocities.
Those who track the numbers report that more than 50 million preborn babies have had their lives snuffed out as a direct result of the Roe decision. Think about the death toll and then compare it with the 2,400 who were killed at Pearl Harbor and the 3,000 who lost their lives on Sept. 11.
Ponder the number of 50 million dead preborn children and contrast them with the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, 1 million of whom were children. Also consider the Rwandan genocide, which took place in the spring of 1994, where between 800,000 and 1 million Tutsis were brutally slaughtered by their fellow countrymen, the Hutus.
Each historic event has been universally deemed a horrific calamity. Additionally, world leaders and historians have rightly declared these tragic events must always be remembered and studied so they are never repeated. The only exception is abortion.
[2]Abortion supporters continue to not only support the Roe decision; they celebrate it as a victory for the “liberation” of women. What abortion advocates refuse to acknowledge is that this so-called “freedom” has come at the expense of preborn children — many of them girls.
Feminist activist and abortion advocate Gloria Feldt summed up what she believes is the essence of the abortion debate by saying, “When you peel back the layers of the anti-choice motivation, it always comes back to two things: What is the nature and purpose of human sexuality? And second, what is the role of women in the world?”
Feldt continued, “Sex and the role of women are inextricably linked, because if you can separate sex from procreation, you have given women the ability to participate in society on an equal basis with men.”
Ms. Feldt could not be more wrong in her summation for the motivation of those of who are pro-life. It has nothing to do with a woman’s equality or a power struggle between the sexes. Individuals opposed to abortion on demand insist that human life is sacred and preborn children have an inalienable right to life.
Perhaps we need a refresher course in Biology 101. It is very evident from an anatomical point of view that a biological role given to women is child bearing. It is also quite obvious, for the same reasons, that men do not possess that ability.
Also obvious, since time immemorial, is that the primary purpose for sex, biologically speaking, is procreation. The two cannot be separated. The possible and/or likely fruit of any sexual union is the conception of a child — regardless of attempts at birth control.
Feldt believes the practice of abortion is one way of separating procreation from sex. Abortion does not prevent conception, but it can destroy the fruit of a sexual union and prevent a child from being born. Feldt and pro-choicers are more than happy for preborn children to pay the price for a woman’s so-called “liberation” and “equality.”
The day the Supreme Court granted a person the “liberty” to take the life of a preborn baby for any reason, or for no reason, was a dark day in the history of the United States. As a result, over the last 39 years more than 50 million preborn babies have had their lives sacrificed on the altar of “liberation.”
I will observe the anniversary of Roe v. Wade this year as a day of infamy on par with other dark dates on the calendar of history. Pearl Harbor, Sept. 11, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide are horrific events in which millions of innocent people lost their lives. But the number of babies aborted since Jan. 22, 1973 is many more times the combined number of those who died in those atrocities.
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Kelly Boggs is a weekly columnist for Baptist Press and editor of the Baptist Message (www.baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).