American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (www.aclu.org) attorneys and Planned Parenthood abortion wonks are prone to define anything that smacks of equality for all as nothing but extremism. Take the case of the human embryonic child for instance.
Ever since the personhood effort began in earnest several years ago, the pro-abortion forces have attempted to neutralize arguments favoring the humanity of the preborn by making wild claims designed to scare the public into voting against human rights. Such tactics usually focus on a hard case like rape, incest, or life of the mother. The argument goes like this: Since nobody wants to sacrifice an expectant mother whose life is allegedly threatened by being pregnant, we have to admit that the fetus is not the equivalent of a human being.
As wrong-headed as such a position is, Americans who have never really thought about this become concerned. They don’t want to vote in favor of an amendment to the state constitution that would jeopardize women. Such truly concerned people have never understood the fact that aborting a preborn child does not save the life of a mother who has health problems, but rather can make it worse. They do not understand the principle that the ethical doctor will do all he can to save both of his patients, mother and child.
Instead, such voters are easily convinced that those of us who strive to protect the rights of the not yet born are callous, extreme, and even fanatical. Funny, isn’t it, how the absence of facts always causes the enemies of life to do some name calling instead of engaging in the substance of the argument? And of course since the voting public knows no better, for the most part, the death mongers win and the innocent continue to die.
This troubles many of us, including black pro-life leader Walter Hoye, who himself led a personhood effort in California a couple of years ago. Walter is a passionate advocate for human rights whose love for the preborn knows no limits. He is the founder of the California Civil Rights Foundation and no stranger to controversy.
Hoye focuses his time and energy on making sure people understand that human rights are meaningless unless they are equally protected for every person, regardless of race, age, or condition of dependency. When he started his campaign for personhood in California, he explained why he could not wait for total protection for all—born and preborn—by sharing the undeniable fact that “my people are dying.”
Hoye wrote,
Imagine the power of Christ at work in us as we engage the culture for His sake by asking such questions as:
What does it mean …
• To be made in the image of God?
• To be fearfully and wonderfully made?
• To be respected as a person?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in defense of his belief in “Nonviolence” said:“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. Both a practical and a moral answer to the Negro’s cry for justice, nonviolent direct action proved that it could win victories without losing wars, and so became the triumphant tactic of the Negro Revolution of 1963.”
Walter Hoye, along with thousands upon thousands of us, believes that the human rights of an entire class of people is worth the struggle, the consistent demand for equality, and the persistent cries for justice for all—both born and preborn.
If this quest for equality makes us extremists, then I invite you to engage your fellow human beings in the art of being extremely committed to God’s law rather than man’s. That’s an extremism everyone can live with.
To learn more about the tactics and strategy of pursuing human rights for all, contact American Life League today (www.all.org). God knows the time is right.