Thursday, August 20, 2009

Abortion: Where do you Stand?

A friend of mine recently pointed out how ironic it is that we now have a "moral mandate" to offer health care to every citizen, but it is also considered "moral" to kill unborn humans. Don't they deserve health care too?

The issue of abortion is a contentious one as people on both sides of the argument try to establish a "moral high ground." The problem is that the primary proponent of abortion as a "birth control method" (another irony as abortion does not "control" birth, but rather ends it) is an organization whose founding is decidedely questionable. Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, a proponent of eugenics who believed that some humans were essentially "waste" and not worthy of life. In her own words she says:

"We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." (Letter from Margaret Sanger to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 10 December 1939, Sanger Smith Collection, quoted in Linda Gordon, Woman's Body, Woman's Right: Birth Control in America, second edition, New York: Penguin Books, 1990, pp. 332-333).


Dr. Dorothy Ferebee, of Planned Parenthood, further adds “The future program [of Planned Parenthood] should center around more education in the field through the work of a professional Negro worker, because those of us who believe that the benefits of Planned Parenthood as a vital key to the elimination of human waste must reach the entire population.” She further acknowledges what she sees as the importance of “Negro professionals, fully integrated into the staff, ... who could interpret the program and objectives to [other blacks] in the normal course of day-to-day contacts; could break down fallacious attitudes and beliefs and elements of distrust; could inspire the confidence of the group; and would not be suspect of the intent to eliminate the race.” (“Planned Parenthood as a Public Health For the Negro Race,” BCFA Annual Meeting, 29 January 1942, 3, MSCLC). This quote came from an article on the "Negro Project" and Margaret at http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/special_issues/population/the_negro_project.htm. For more info, please see the site.

While some may dispute these origins of Planned Parenthood, they have a harder time refuting current data. In a recent note from Mark Earley, we learn a bit of current views about race among certain proponents of Planned Parenthood (for more information, please see http://www.informz.net/pfm/archives/archive_831485.html). The bottom line is that this organization regularly kills humans under the guise of protecting the freedom of other humans. If we have a "moral obligation" to offer health care to American citizens, why then do we ignore the rights of babies in their mothers' wombs?

Tertullian (ca. 160-220 AD), an early church leader, made this comment: "“For us murder is once for all forbidden, so even the child in the womb . . . is not lawful for us to destroy. To forbid birth is only quicker murder . . . the fruit is always present in the seed.” For over 1800 years Christianity has historically deemed abortion an unethical, unnecessary, and even sinful operation. The views of some in the history of Planned Parenthood make the abortion business worse in some ways. Is abortion right? Is it a "right"?

Where do you stand?

Thanks for reading!