Abortion

Abortion has been in the news more than usual lately. President Barack Obama recognized and celebrated the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Thousands of abortion opponents rallied on the Mall on January 24 for their annual March for Life. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said that the abortion issue is "one of our highest legislative priorities." House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va) called the new Republicans in Congress the "biggest and the most pro-life freshmen class in memory." The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act was introduced in the House of Representatives last week and has about 160 sponsors. This bill would strengthen the U.S. ban on using taxpayers' money for abortion services as well as bar the District of Columbia from using its own money to pay for abortions. Another measure was introduced by Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R. NJ) to ensure that Obamacare does not allow funding for abortions. Conservatives are hoping for changes in abortion laws and practices. A Philadelphia doctor was accused of killing a woman during an abortion procedure and is suspected of killing hundreds of living babies over his 30-year career.

Abortion on demand has been legal throughout the United States since January 22, 1973, when the United States Supreme Court made the historic decision to overturn a Texas abortion law. This decision was based on the right of privacy and decreed that a woman with her doctor had the right to abort a baby in the early months of pregnancy with no restrictions; it also gave women the right to abort babies in later months with certain restrictions.

The plaintiff in Roe v. Wade was Norma McCorvey, and the defendant was Henry B. Wade, district attorney of Dallas County, Texas. McCorvey's attornies were Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee while the lawyers for the defendant were John Tolle, Jay Floyd and Robert Flowers. Justices in the majority on the case were Harry Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Chief Justice Warren Burger, William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, Lewis Powell, and Potter Stewart. Those dissenting were William Rehnquist and Byron White.

Norma McCorvey wanted to remain anonymous when she sued for the opportunity to have an abortion. Her baby was born and given up for adoption more than two years before the case was decided; she gave up two other children for adoption. In a 1984 television interview, Norma McCorvey revealed that she is Jane Roe, the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the most famous abortion case in U.S. history. In 1989 McCorvey joined in the pro-choice movement and gave a speech on Capital Hill before hundreds of thousands of people on April 9. In August 1995, she made an announcement: "I'm pro-life. I think I have always been pro life, I just didn't know it."

According to California Right to Life, the Roe v Wade decision in 1973 was not the beginning of abortion in mainstream society because the history of abortion goes back decades, centuries and millenniums. Abortion was present under Roman rule "[n]ot only [was] … abortion permitted; [but also] infanticide. The shriveled remains of exposed babies could be found in every countryside of the [Roman] Empire…." This culture was referred to by Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in Roe v Wade: "Greek and Roman law afforded little protection to the unborn … Ancient religion did not bar abortion."

In their article entitled ROE v. WADE REPORT: A Look at Abortion's History, the California Right to Life organization stated that "Limited records indicate that early Americans used abortion as well." After giving several examples of abortion and infanticide, they stated, "But overall, in America's early years abortion was recognized as a negative phenomenon and an attack on human life."

Even though "the legal system increasingly recognized the sanctity of life," there were people with the belief that any extra children "must necessarily perish." Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, stated "The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its members is to kill it." I am grateful that my parents chose life for all twelve of their children! I encourage you to read the complete article by California Right to Life.

It is interesting to me that the opponents to "pro life" activists call themselves "pro choice" instead of "pro abortion." They obviously want to change the discussion from killing babies to making sure women enjoy their right to privacy.

Kyle Ann Shriver wrote that "America committed herself to a Holocaust of unprecedented proportions" because Americans' "own hands carry the blood of more than 52 million innocent human beings. Deprived of life by the same evil that took the lives of slaves and all the Anne Franks. Our doctors have become killers. Our women have become clients for paid murder. And people who actually think of themselves as good stand up in public to defend this Holocaust."

I believe that Roe v. Wade needs to be overturned. It is a bad law and very much against the law of nature or nature's God: Thou shalt not kill. On the day that Roe v. Wade became the law of our land, I was about three months pregnant with my second daughter. I cannot imagine how empty my life would be without her - or any of my other children. I pity any woman who purposely kills her baby. Each woman who choses to have an abortion also chooses to cheat herself of many, many wonderful moments with her baby. I loved my children when they were babies, I loved watching them grow and develop, and I love being with my adult children!