This past Tuesday marked the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Since that fateful decision, over 48.5 million children have perished at the hands of abortionists. One out of every four children conceived in America will be killed by an abortionist. In 2003 alone, more children died from abortion than the total number of Americans who died in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Gulf War combined. Two-thirds of all abortions are performed on single women. Statistically, the womb has become the most dangerous place in America.
This war against unborn children has been waged by white-coated mercenaries who are paid to carry out surgical strikes against defenseless human targets. Their techniques are effective—1.21 million casualties in 2005. Not content to merely wage war against the unborn in the operating room, however, the abortion industry has expanded the theater of action. Chemical warfare is now waged against the unborn. RU-486, the abortion pill, is hailed as a "quick and easy" chemical-induced abortion. With FDA approval of the deadly drug in 2000, the casualty count from "killing through chemistry" can be expected to grow.
In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court adopted a disposable-man ethic. The Court decided that the taking of an unborn child's life was a matter of "choice" to be determined by the needs and desires of others. This disposable view of human life has adversely affected our culture on many levels. Beyond the millions of unborn babies who have been killed, the last 35 years have led our culture to accept the idea of killing the elderly and handicapped. What is the justification for such heinous acts? Their quality of life didn't measure up to someone else's subjective standard of perfection and they had become "inconvenient." And no doubt, they would have wanted us to end their lives anyway.
The disposable man ethic has also negatively impacted the frontier of science. We now take lightly the destruction of millions of human embryos in the hope that we might possibly find a cure for some diseases. What is the justification for this experimentation? Pure utilitarianism. By killing these tiny embryonic human beings, we offer hope for larger ones. In the process, we have adopted the notion that it is acceptable to sacrifice some members of the human family in the hope that, by their deaths, we might save others or at least improve their quality of life. Of course, those being sacrificed have no choice in the matter.
The rationale of Roe v. Wade is a fabrication. The right to abortion is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. The justices maintained they saw it in "emanations" arising from the "penumbras" of the document. If your teenager claimed such fanciful hallucinations, you would immediately order a drug test for them. Yet, coming from such an august body as the Supreme Court, many Americans have accepted such ravings as the law of the land. Roe proved the power of the law to teach and mold the populace. Emboldened by the results, the court has foisted other fictionalized requirements of the Constitution on a people who have lost the art of reading the Constitution for themselves.
Despite the long standing acceptance of Roe and its devastating consequences, there is room for hope. Improved ultra-sound technology has provided a window on the womb, as a result of which, women contemplating destroying that growing "blob of tissue" within them now realize that it is a baby's life that is actually at stake. And the selfless sacrifices of countless volunteers at crisis pregnancy centers has resulted in the saving of thousands of lives as people have learned that the most effective way of saving a baby is by loving, and helping, that baby's mother.
Slowly, attitudes about Abortion in America seem to be changing. In the past few years, there has been a spate of popular movies with pro-life messages, including "Waitress", "Bella", "Knocked Up", and "Juno." Several surveys among young adults have shown increasing pro-life sentiment among the younger generations. For example, a Washington Times article, reports that a recent Harris Poll found 55 percent of young adults opposed abortion rights.
History will not look kindly upon our cruelty toward the unborn. Theologian and author Francis Schaffer rightly noted in his book, Whatever Happened to the Human Race, that the character of a society will be judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable members. Sadly, the history of the destruction of our unborn children is a stain on America’s character that will not go away.