Today is Part Two in a series in which we pick excerpts from especially good responses to the question posed here on Friday: if you had only one to two minutes, how would you most effectively make the case for life? Many people took time out of their lives to write to me. If you haven’t, I hope you will. And as I mentioned Monday, I am not going to use anyone’s name.
A common thread to many responses was that their approach would be geared to someone not personally involved in a crisis pregnancy perhaps but who might be instinctively “pro-choice.” They would show them how the qualities they demonstrate outside the abortion context (indeed, the qualities most of share) ought to be applied in this context as well. One wrote she’d say something like this:
“You have a heart as big as Texas. Most Americans do; we’re the most generous people on Earth. We give our time, talent, and treasure, we give our blood and kidneys, we open our homes and hearts. [But when it comes to a girl in a crisis pregnancy]. Unless we’re in crisis and scared to death, like these young girls are–in that case, they just want to make it ‘go away.’ They need help dealing with pregnancy and motherhood, not help killing their babies. That doesn’t make it ‘go away, it’s simply a bad decision they will regret for the rest of their lives.”
Others would try to heighten the sense of awesome power a mother has over her unborn child (and the responsibility that goes along with it) and to weave that into the undeniable point that our “dependency” doesn’t end at birth.
One other feedback for today, again the oft-repeated request for intellectual consistency. As one respondent emailed me, they would say
“If a premature infant is treated with all medical means available to save its precious life, why, then, is an infant thriving in the womb not considered to be a baby? If you are saying that an infant in the womb is not a baby because it cannot live on its own, are you saying that all premature babies should be left to die? At what point are you willing to lift a finger or a voice to help the helpless? The definition of insanity is that in ‘modern civilization’ animals have more rights and protection than a baby in a mother’s womb.”
And one other for today that reminds us that the child didn’t just will herself into existence!
“No matter what anyone says about the child, the mom, the dad, how the child was conceived, what kind of life they think the child will have, the fact remains- there is an Innocent Human inside that womb. Abortion is the ONLY time anyone has ever tried to say it is OK to kill a Living Innocent Human. With adoption and pregnancy assistance, there is simply no excuse to intentionally harm that innocent human child.”
I really appreciate people taking time to write. Over the next day or two, I will continue to quote from some emails, categorize others, and in some cases (when the response is brief enough) quote the reader in his/her entirety.
Thanks again.
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
