War on Women

By now, you have probably seen the video in which a woman at Planned Parenthood discussed harvesting and selling body parts from aborted children.  Outrage has been swift and fierce, with many Christians (and many politicians) crying for the defunding of Planned Parenthood.  Now, if the idea of harvesting and selling organs and body parts seems okay to you, you're not going to like what I have to say in the rest of this post.  However, I sincerely pray you finish reading this, because I want you to understand where most of us Christians are coming from when we say we are "pro-life," but I also want you to understand what we're not saying.


In a 2013 address at a Planned Parenthood conference, President Obama accused members of congress of telling "millions of women . . . you're on your own."  That "they've been involved in an orchestrated and historic effort to roll back basic rights when it comes to women's health," that they "want to turn back the clock . . . to the 1950s."

That's not what this is about.  I can't speak for all politicians, but for me, I'm not interested in denying health care to women.  I'm not interested in waging a war on women, or turning women out into the streets to die of cancer.  The President makes it sound as if we're trying to undo cancer screenings and that we don't care about women's lives.

But that isn't true.

What we aren't saying is that women belong in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.  What we are saying is that no one has the right to kill a child, which is really what abortion boils down to.  In fact, I think that anytime the debate arises, we should ask the question:  "In this situation, is it okay to kill a child?"  The answer is always a resounding "no."

But what about rape?  This is the accusation thrown out every single time anyone discusses abortion (even the President brought it up): that if you're against abortion, you're a heartless bastard who doesn't care about rape victims.  Firstly, I think it's interesting that people who say "Stop killing children" have become the monsters in society's eyes.  Secondly, I have absolutely no illusions that rape is okay.  I have no illusions that rape is something to "get over," nor do I have any illusions that carrying a child who was a product of rape is easy.  If - God forbid - my wife were ever raped, and was pregnant as a result, would I be okay with that child?  I'd like to think so, but in all honesty, I'm not sure.  I'm not sure there wouldn't be some emotional pain - for either of us.  But let's go back to my question:  is it okay to kill a child?

The answer is still no.  Why would my wife or I have the right to take the life of someone whose only crime is to be conceived?  Would we keep the child, or give it up for adoption?  I don't know, and I'm not sure I can know unless we're in that situation.  But the fact remains that neither of us have the right to murder a baby; we simply don't.  Let me put it another way by borrowing some logic from Canadian journalist Michael Coren.

In most states, it's no longer a capital offense to rape a woman.  In fact, in many states, capital punishment has been completely repealed.  So in the case of a rape in which a woman ends up pregnant, there are now three people involved:  the perpetrator, the victim, and the child.  To use rape as an argument in defense of abortion is to say that out of those three people, you are perfectly fine with the child receiving the death penalty. 

We're not against women, but we are for children.  We're not cutting off mammograms.  In fact, because of the ACA, mammograms are now free for most women.  To try to use that as a defense of Planned Parenthood . . . well, the President tried, but he shot himself in the foot on that one.  This is not a question about whether or not women can make decisions about their health, as if "pregnancy" is synonymous with "illness."  This is about whether or not anyone has the right to take the life of a defenseless and innocent child.

If saying "no" to that makes me a monster, then so be it.