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March 18th, 2009
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly managing editor Kim Lawton discusses how the Obama administration is attempting to reach out to Catholic and evangelical prolife activists who are angered by some of the administration’s new policies.
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The content of the Freedom of Choice Act was never described at all, nor was President Obama’s history of advocating Partial-Birth abortion and attempting to legalize infanticide at Christ Hospital in Chicago while he was a state senator in Illinois. He did indeed vote more than once against protecting babies born alive after abortion attempts. He also supports Planned Parenthood, an organization that routinely covers up statuatory rape of minors. Your attempts to sanitize this issue is offensive to all religious readers who are not completely ignorant of the current abortion issues. Stop treating your readers like we are so ill-informed that you can fool us with weak, propagandized “reporting.”
This abortion issue is such a contentious one and it makes you wonder when it will ever end. For those who oppose abortion I have some questions. Since you believe so much in the sanctity of life, why do you disregard those who commit suicide? In the US, 16.7% of children from 5 to 14 years of age took their life. 19.4% of adults 45 to 54 did the same.
How about those who die because they have no health insurance? And children without insurance have a greater death rate than those who have insurance.
And what about the 780,000 who dies a year from being overmedicated?
Yet abortion has declined:
“In 2005, the U.S. abortion rate declined to 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44, continuing the downward trend that started after the abortion rate peaked at 29.3 in 1981, according to a new Guttmacher Institute census of U.S. abortion providers. The abortion rate is now at its lowest level since 1974. The number of abortions declined as well, to a total of 1.2 million in 2005, 25% below the all-time high of 1.6 million abortions in 1990”
This is the real problem when I hear about the pro life movement. By focusing so much on one issue, they lose sight of so many others. As long as you have this emotional rigid and obsessive fixation on abortion as being morally reprehensive you will never solve the abortion problem-because you are stuck there. Abortion-among other vices- is the price we pay for failing to understand on a very deep level the many ills of our society. The (lack of) the distribution of wealth, the high cost of education, health care, inequality, injustice, and the ignorance of the masses in not being aware of what matters most in life is the greatest tragedy ever. We are asleep in our waking state.
I have yet to hear of one clergy -ANY clergy- who has voiced his or her concern on these issues with the same passion the pro life have regarding abortion.
Religion, while it is suppose to guide us to live a good and moral life, remains insufficient in dealing with the enormous complexities of being human and no amount of faith can help. On the contrary, too much faith can be dangerous.
Of what good is it in learning about Jesus the son of God when we don’t know enough about Jesus the man? While abiding by the 10 commandments may be virtuous, living up to them is quite another and unfortunately we are failing.
It would never occur to us to think that the moral rules we abide by leaves out
The most important virtue: learning how to be more human-oppose to more than human. And in this respect, we have a lot yet to learn.
I agree with Marian. We are not stupid. Just because it is hard to find out the truth doesn’t mean that we don’t try. This was no help.
SMILE…YOUR MOTHER CHOSE LIFE !
Email or Call Legislators
“Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching it’s people to Love, because it is a war against a child. The greatest destroyer of Love & Peace is ABORTION” Mother Teresa
Do something beautiful for God. Act now, before it is too late.
I am agnostic. I don’t think social issues should be decided by vocal minorities devoted to imposing their values on the society in general. This goes to the militant feminist as well as Evangelical Protestants and militant pro life Catholics. None of you have the right to impose your version of reality on the public in general.
Ideally this would be a personal issue, decided by individuals and families not church and state.
But we live here not Utopia. No right is absolute.
One might ave the right to own a gun, but that does not extent to the right to keep a bazooka or a fully automatic ak-47 in your Den. Likewise
the “right” to abortion must also be subject to reasonable restrictions to protect the rights of all involved. You may have the right to control your own body, but I personally don’t feel compelled to interpret that as an inalienable right to terminate a pregnancy 5 minutes before you give birth. Perhaps this issue would not be so contentious if it had not been dictated by a court and decided by a democratically elected body, perhaps we could find some social stability
if like the issue of gun control reasonable restrictions could be created to safeguard innocent victims, and some tolerable if not ideal compromise can be reached.
Dear Ms. Lawton: This is my second message to you in three weeks: Please, switch the discussion of Prohibition of Abortion to HOW WILL THE GOVERNMENT ENFORCE SUCH A BAN? No one talks about it! As Murder, both the Doctor and the Mother who aborts her child must be prosecuted for this high crime. Let’s go back to Ronald Reagan, he strongly opposed it, but, he said the Government just cannot enforce its bann. I feel in my heart that Abortion is murder, but the Government is not the correct deterrent- like throwing water on a chemical fire, it will only ignite the flame. Rather, moral leaders, parents, religious leaders must step up and oppose it vigorously with “soul”. I have never, in all my 70+ years heard a priest preach to the parents in the pews in front of him, “Be responsible for your actions. Don’t kill your unborn”. Timid, so timid are our priests that they must blame the government for their own ineptitude!
I plead with you, Ms. Lawton, your calm eloquence will do wonders to refocu this crucial debate!
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03/18/2009 :: 05:18:05 PM
Robert E. Geary Says:
Abortion of any kind is against God’s will.