Even though the polls suggest that the majority of us are pro-life, a close look at the fine print tells a different story. It seems that 52 percent of those polled want to see surgical abortion protected by law in “certain circumstances.”
Logically, if we connect the dots, we can surmise that folks are confused about the actual identity of the second human being involved in pregnancy—not to mention the fact that someone dies during an abortion. The crux of the problem is either ignored or unknown to most—that abortion is always and in every case morally repugnant.
For example, recently the Washington Post attempted to define the moment when an individual’s life begins as a murky area because the editorial writer apparently thinks it is unpopular to expose the full truth. But scientifically speaking, there is no question about when a person’s life begins. So what is the real problem? Simply put, reporting such facts accurately is not in the best interest of those who wish to deny science in order to protect their agenda.
Sadly, this is why so many Americans are confused about what abortion actually is in the first place. It boils down to either refusing to acknowledge the fact or simply never being confronted with the opportunity to understand the actual facts.
When Dr. Philip Njemanze, a medical research expert who is one of the leading experts in the world on brain research, recently said that abortion is the greatest violence against women, there was not a single major news outlet in this country that reported it. In Dr. Njemanze’s country, Nigeria, the people are confronted with the same sort of political deception that betrays Americans. For example, trafficking in human embryos under the guise of healthcare is currently being debated by Nigerian lawmakers; in America the same thing is occurring. Such barbarian practices are debated by politicians because, in their opinion, the human being at his earliest stages is not recognized as a member of the human family; he is merely a “clump of cells.”
As a result, millions of our fellow human beings are dead or are currently sentenced to death. The moral gravity of these crimes is simply not an issue for the majority of us. It reminds me of these profound words written nearly 20 years ago by Pope John Paul II in his brilliant encyclical, The Gospel of Life:
#58 But today, in many people’s consciences, the perception of its [abortions] gravity has become progressively obscured. The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behavior and even in law itself, is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake. Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception. In this regard the reproach of the Prophet is extremely straightforward: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Is 5:20).
Turning the tide is a challenge of enormous proportions, but it is not impossible. We know the facts, we possess the truth, and we who struggle against the tide of hatred for the human being before he is born must teach it.