From Jeremy Rounds
Creston
As a new year dawns, we find ourselves in a nation that is as deeply divided as ever. The issue of abortion may not make the headlines too often right now, but it should and it will again soon. Abortion is more than a debate about the competing rights of a woman over her own body and the life of the child in her body. We, who are honest, must admit the unborn child is human, so we must then acknowledge the unborn child has the same human rights as the child that is born or the woman who is pregnant. To deny basic human rights, such as life, to the unborn child just because the child is unborn is not just immoral, but also ethically inconsistent.
What do I mean by this? If we act as arbiters of rights and take it upon ourselves the right to determine when humans have equal value with other humans, we set a dangerous precedent. Suddenly, the court of law or court of public opinion, or even junk science, can decide one life has more value than another based on whatever criterion seems expedient for the moment: physical dependency, self-awareness, IQ, age and disability status. If I can say the unborn child within my body is not entitled to the same life under the law as me simply because the child is totally dependent on me and is a burden to me, then why can’t someone else in 20 years say the elderly me does not have the same right to life because I am a financial burden on society?
Why can’t we all just be truthful and say all people are humans and are created equally? It is no mystery our propensity to classify and label people is a major cause to our current division. Labels like “black lives matter,” for example, elevate one group over another. How about “all lives matter?” White, black, young, old, disabled, healthy, intelligent, rich, poor, born and unborn. They all – we all – matter.
Life is a treasured thing. People flee danger when they feel their life is threatened. Many of you may not know this, but so does the fetus in the womb. We have much evidence through ultrasounds and other technologies showing unborn babies squirming and resisting an oncoming abortifacient needle injection or a chemical introduced to literally burn the baby alive in the womb.
As we approach another anniversary of the notorious Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that ruled abortion is legal in the United States, let us understand this was a disastrous decision. For that reason, I will be among a group of people meeting in peace and for prayer to remember the lives lost through abortion. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, we will meet at Calvary Cemetery, just west of Creston, for a memorial service. If the weather is bad, we’ll move the service to Abundant Life Family Church on South Birch Street. You will find we are not militant and hateful people, but people that cherish the right to life for all people. See you there.