By Judie Brown
Abortion is an act intended to kill a person. That is a simple fact. But in the culture today it is anything but that, at least if you listen to the commentators and proponents of the act.
Words are fashioned to disguise what abortion is; those words are what we call the red herrings of abortion. They are words intended to mislead others into thinking that abortion is something personal but certainly not deadly for anyone.
This may sound terribly oversimplified to you, but think about these examples and ask yourself how many of those you know, accept as fact, or even believe.
“The pregnancy was unintended, therefore it can be aborted.” The word unintended is used to suggest that because the expectant mother did not intend to get pregnant or thought that her sexual liaison would not result in pregnancy, she is well within her rights to end it. The very word unintended ignores the reality of the baby and suggests that the entire focus should be on the woman’s mistake.
“Oops! I did not intend it to happen. Sorry about that!”
Or what about the word unplanned, which suggests that since the expectant mother was not planning to have a baby it is certainly understandable if she chooses to get rid of the “evidence.” After all, she never planned for it to happen.
“Oops! The evidence has to be destroyed because it does not fit into my plan. Sorry about that!”
These are the scenarios that play out in our society hundreds of times every day. The children who die are never recognized; rather, they are dismissed as difficulties that can be done away with. After all, Planned Parenthood says, “Abortion is legal. It’s your right.”
They do not explain that what they’re actually talking about is a “right” to kill your baby. Nobody who favors abortion uses the word baby! And why should they?
These are the same folks who disseminate the false idea when discussing abortion that “Your body is your own.” While it is biologically true that YOUR body is your own, it is not true that the baby existing within your body—and procreated because of your actions—is also your own. She has her own identity, but culturally that fact means nothing.
A few years ago, this prompted one young man (my grandson) to write the commentary entitled “My Body, My Choice.” He wisely wrote to his fellow human beings: “You have been granted unimaginable power to write the future through your choices. Do the future a favor and don’t remove someone from the timeline just to make your own life easier. You never know who that tiny person was meant to be or what he was meant to do. Give life a chance; you won’t regret it.”
The world around us constantly proclaims that there are too many children and too many pregnancies that result in millions of unwanted people being born. This is blatant propaganda. It is the narcissist’s way of making sure there’s enough of everything for him or her even though millions have to die to provide the assurance he vainly claims is his own.
But the truth is something vastly different.
And when it comes to abortion, there is only one truth. St. John Paul II said it clearly: “The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder and, in particular, when we consider the specific elements involved. The one eliminated is a human being at the very beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined.”
Further, he writes: “The unborn child is totally entrusted to the protection and care of the woman carrying him or her in the womb. And yet sometimes it is precisely the mother herself who makes the decision and asks for the child to be eliminated, and who then goes about having it done.”
This is the tragedy of abortion. There is no red herring in this truth, only great sadness and death.