via spiritdaily.com
In the world of politics, it is impossible to vote for any party
that supports abortion while what we need from any party that has
declared itself "pro-life" is specificity: the way it will not just call
itself pro-life but take an action or pledge to initiate the end-game
against this most odious and incredible of human practices. A visit to
an abortion mill by a leader would be an excellent way to start, and
there is no reason it couldn't be done (and every reason why it should).
We can no longer slough it off to the courts, hoping they will solve the issue. Despite its Catholic majority, the U.S. Supreme Court seems unlikely, for now, to overturn existing law (that is, Roe v Wade, the most notorious decision in America's history, opposed now even by the woman who was "Roe" and in whose name abortion was legalized in 1973), while moving the legislative branch on any issue has proven to be all but impossible in recent times. [See at bottom for a recent view on what Roe does and doesn't mean.]
There is however the powerful weapon of the "bully pulpit," and a leader speaking loudly and candidly about this great evil would have an impact on personal decisions, especially those of the young (teens and those in their twenties), who account for three-quarters of abortions.
A constant drumbeat from the top of government could be extremely significant and we have never really seen that -- abortion spoken about with the same passion as foreign affairs, scandals, or the economy.
Beyond choosing judges, we need politicians to make appearances (can you imagine if leaders did this?) at those clinics.
Up to now, abortions have proceeded largely because they have remained an issue that is not openly and loudly and constantly denounced. It is more a sporadic issue. The good news: abortion is somewhat down. From a peak in the United States of 1.4 million in 1990, it fell through the 1990s and into the 2000s to 1.2 million in 2008.
And the rate of abortion, which was once twenty-nine each year for every thousand women, is now more like twenty per thousand women (a third less, with the total number remaining more than a million in part because the population has increased).
That's good news. The rate is down.
But fifty million U.S. babies have succumbed, which is like taking the metropolitan areas of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago and combining them.
Can you imagine if a disaster killed that many? Astoundingly, more than a billion babies have been killed worldwide in the last several decades. There are nearly a hundred thousand babies terminated each year in Canada but at a lower rate (about fourteen per thousand).
Back in the U.S. -- sadly and scandalously -- 28 percent of abortions are performed on "Catholic" women, though Catholics are twenty-five percent of the American populace.
The statistics are beguiling: there are rises and declines no matter which party is in power, though the general decline would seem to bear testimony to the awareness raised by pro-lifers on billboards, bumper-stickers, and clinic placards. After rather steady decline through the 1990s and first few years of the 2000s, the long-term decline in abortion stalled starting in 2005.
Thus, it remains a searing crisis.
We are reminded of this by a new book, Abandoned: The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars, by Monica Migliorino Miller, a pro-life leader in Michigan who fought her first battles in Wisconsin and Chicago. It is called "the best book ever written on abortion" by author-film-maker Dinesh D'Souza, and "unprecedented" by nurse Jill Stanek (a nurse and major pro-life blogger), while Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League has described it "the most important book ever written on the subject" and pro-life activist Father Frank Pavone calls it "revealing like no other book." Raw. Gritty. Compelling. And tough to stomach.
It is no pleasant topic, as will be seen by the excerpt we are running from the new book below, but perhaps an excerpt every politician should be required to read. Although it is not the type of book we usually carry, we will offer it for a limited time here. These are snippets taken from descriptions of pro-lifers searching through trash at a notorious Midwest clinic [caution: graphic, upsetting]:
Read more here: http://www.spiritdaily.com/abandoned.htm
To Begin Again by Davis, Cortney [Paperback] (Google Affiliate Ad)
