Political Quicksand

The abortion of unborn children has burdened the United States for 40 years.  It has lowered our moral standards and hardened our hearts.  In 1973, in a split 7-2 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that abortion was legal.  During this 40 year period more than 54 million pre-born children have been killed.  You may quibble with my term killed, but what is abortion other than simply killing a child in the womb of a mother? 

Just to put the 54,000,000 number in context, this amounts to more people than the population of South Africa or South Korea or Spain.  It is a number 37 times greater than the number of Americans killed in all wars from the American Revolution until today.  Each one of these children killed was a creation of God.

The issue is not protection of the life of the mother, it is not rape or incest, it is not privacy, it is simply inconvenience.  More than 99% of these children were murdered because it was simply inconvenient to the mother.  I am not suggesting that this was an easy decision for the women who had abortions, nor am I suggesting that these women were not facing incredibly difficult situations.  Nevertheless, it does not change the fact that they agreed to kill the child that God had given life to.

America's founding document, the Declaration of Independence, states…

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The legalization of abortion violated the spirit and the intent of the Declaration of Independence.  It is not an exaggeration to say that the murder of more than 54,000,000 children makes a mockery of the foundational principle that every person is a right to life. 

But Joseph Stalin was right.  He said, "If only one man dies, that is a tragedy.  If millions die, that's only a statistic."  In this post-Christian era, many Americans have become hard-hearted and self-centered.  That is not to say that America is not still the most Christian, the most generous nation on the face of the earth.  But it does say that the Christian consensus that caused the flowering of generosity, compassion, goodwill, prosperity and freedom in our land is at the point of extinction. 

Yet, over the years, in the face of nearly monolithic opposition from the news media, Hollywood, and even our public schools, the tide has been slowly, but steadily turning against the horrific and barbaric practice of abortion.  Today, 53% of all Americans oppose abortion.  More than 70% of all Americans oppose abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy, and more than 90% of all Americans oppose abortion in the third trimester.

While the abortion numbers have declined, they are nothing to brag about.  In 2012, approximately 1 million children died as a result of an abortion.  That's 1,000,000.  But instead of thinking of it as a statistic, think about just one child, a child you know you might have been killed.  Personalize it, digest it.  A life is taken though abortion because it is simply inconvenient to the mother.

Who are these children who have been killed through the abortion process?  The number one killer of children in America is Planned Parenthood.  Through its many locations, Planned Parenthood killed approximately 300,000 little baby girls and baby boys last year.  And this appendage of the Democratic Party specifically targets minorities and the poor.

In spite of this mass murder, politicians of both parties steer away from the abortion issue.  Politicians being politicians, they are worry more about the next election than they do about the death of a pre-born child.  That's the reality of the matter.  Republicans, even conservative Republicans, are fearful of being caught in the trap of having to confess that they oppose abortion even in the case of rape and incest.  They know that is political death. 

But even though virtually all Americans oppose partial birth abortion (the killing of a child in the process of being born), and more than 90% oppose abortion in the third trimester, and 70% of Americans oppose abortion in the second trimester, no one ever asks pro-abortion candidates about these real issues.  As a state senator, our President, Barack Obama, voted for a bill that required a doctor to kill a baby that was accidentally born during an abortion, yet no one asked him why he supported such a heinous act.

It's time to go on the offensive in the abortion debate.  While a candidate who favors saving the life of a child in the case of rape and incest will find himself in political quicksand, a candidate that favors abortion on demand, even in the second and third trimester, skates.  We, who believe in life, need to take the political offensive.  The issue is not rape and incest, it is abortion on demand. 

In every debate for public office, at all levels of government, we need to make sure that voters know that those who are pro-abortion (or as they euphemistically call it, pro-choice) favor abortion in the second and third trimesters of life.  We need to ask them why they favor abortion in the second and third trimesters.

Over and over and over again, pro-life candidates for the state legislature, for Congress and for President need to ask their opponent why they favor abortion in the second and third trimester?  This is political quicksand for pro-abortion candidates, just as surely abortion in the case of rape and incest is political quicksand for pro-life candidates.

This is not a matter of purity.  It is a matter of advancing the pro-life cause.  It's a matter of saving lives.

Personally, I am opposed to abortion in the case of rape and incest.  I'm opposed to abortion at any time.  I can't understand how I, as a mortal, have the right to punish a child who has been created by God for any reason.  I am not God.  I do not have the right to take a life. 

But the outlawing of abortion is a political matter.  We must advance our cause.  We must put the other side on the defensive.  The left advances an inch at a time.  Through creeping socialism, the left has undermined our institutions, crushed our economy, and made a mockery of traditional morality.

We have a choice.  We can argue that we must stand on principle, and continue to let babies be killed in the second and third trimesters, or we can take big steps to permanently outlaw abortion in the United States through a steady process.

The goal is to outlaw abortion, stopping the mass murder of millions of defenseless children each year.  Just imagine what kind of a political conundrum we can put pro-abortion candidates in if we talk solely about outlawing abortion in the second and third trimesters! 

If a pro-abortion candidate (nearly every Democrat) is asked if he or she favors abortion in the second and third trimesters they will find themselves in political quicksand.  If they say, "Yes, I favor abortion in the second and third trimester of a pregnancy," they will be putting themselves at odds with more than 70% of all Americans.  If they say, "No, I'm opposed to abortion in the second and third trimester of a pregnancy," they will lose their base of support.  Any answer a pro-abortion candidate gives to this question is political suicide.  It is a lose-lose situation.

This is the kind of smart politics that can turn the tide for life in coming elections.  It is also moral politics.  We are in a war and every inch of ground we gain takes us one step closer to ending abortion in America.

In my view, that's the choice.  The Democrats have been winning the war for too many years by being smarter than those on the right.  They didn't demand total, all out socialism from day one, take it or leave it.  First came Social Security, then came Medicare, now we have Obamacare (at least for the moment).  Make no doubt about it, their goal is a total socialist America where the government owns and runs all the energy producing companies as well as all major industries.  Obamacare is just another step on the way to their goal of a socialist "paradise."

But you and I can advance our pro-life, pro-freedom cause by moving forward one step at a time.  We can learn from the "children of darkness" how to achieve our goals.  All we have to do is start asking the question of every politician, "Do you favor abortion even in the second and third trimester?"