A Grim Anniversary

Today signals the 39th grim anniversary of legalized abortion in the United States of America, known as the historically malevolent 1973 Supreme Court Decision, Roe v. Wade.

Justice Harry Blackmun authored the law under the leadership of Chief Justice Warren Burger. The court's decision invalidated a Texas state statute that regarded abortion a felony and made abortion legal. Their winning argument was based on the right of privacy for the mother prevailing against the right of life for the baby. In my view, this morally-flawed court decision 39 years ago was when America lost its moral compass. The degradation of life and family versus the individual pursuit of private pleasure continues unabated from sea to shining sea.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta stated in 1994 at a Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC hosted by both houses of the U.S. Congress, "Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion." Those present said, "you could have heard a pin drop in that room."

Since 1973, it has been estimated that over 50,000,000, that's 50 MILLION, babies were legally aborted in this country. Across the world, the aborted babies are in the hundreds of millions. For some prespective, in World War II, over 50,000,000 troops and civilians died. The war dead like the aborted babies had little to say about who lives and who dies.

The gnawing shame of abortion has many fathers and mothers: the US Supreme Court in 1973; immoral doctors who perform abortions whose duty is to preserve life per the Hippocratic oath "I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy"; those with child who elect to abort for private inconvenient reasons; administrations who support abortion of all types particularly the heinous illegal practice of partial-birth abortions; and, the mainstream media that marginalizes, manipulates and conceals the sordid truths of abortion and its horrific impact on mothers, fathers, families and society.

Speaking of administrations, President Obama stated last year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, "Abortion helps ensure that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms and the same oppportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams." What about the beating heart of a baby in the mother's womb, what about his or her right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? For me, I'll leave it up to God as to who lives and who dies not President Obama and our misguided Supreme Court.

As Bishop James Conley from Denver wrote recently about the Obama comments, "What a tragically confused perspective. In order to protect the rights of our sons and daughters, President Obama and many others, believe that we must deny the most fundamental, inalienable and God-given right - the right to life. This relativisim has tried to convince us that abortion is a fundamental right, and that life itself is not."

So, as we move forward towards the 40th year of legalized abortion in our country, let us as Christians offer forgiveness and compassion to those terribly scarred-mothers who aborted their babies. For as Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."