Friday, September 19, 2008

What Should Government Control?

I was talking with my neighbors yesterday about some of the political issues of today. I expressed to them that I felt that parents should have the legal right to know if their child is being given birth control, or an abortion. They began to say that some parents would beat their daughter if they found out she was pregnant. The one neighbor also said that many young women try self abortions if they aren't allowed to have them secretly. They tried to make the case that I wouldn't be losing my rights as a parent in this situation. I told them that if I found that my daughter had an abortion without my knowing it, I would be very upset because I would have liked to encourage her to give it up for adoption instead of aborting it. By not telling me about the abortion, the government would be taking away my right to parent in that situation. In addition, studies show that a teenager's brain isn't fully developed until they are in their 20's. How can the government expect a teenager to make a rational, mature decision about abortion if they don't even have the brain capacity to do so at their age? I think the answer to the problem isn't abortion, but better education about birth control and adoption options. Too many people use abortion as a method of birth control.

I recently saw a news program where a guest was interviewed because she was the survivor of an abortion. The doctor used saline to abort the baby, but it didn't kill the baby, and she was born alive. The routine was that they would then allow the baby to die, but the attending doctor wasn't present, so the head nurse called an ambulance and the baby got medical care. She survived, although she did develop cerebreal palsy in the process. She is now about 30 years of age, and is very healthy despite her CP. She speaks out as an advocate for babies born alive after abortions.

My one neighbor seemed to think that it isn't the government's right to decide what is moral, that there should be a separation between church and state. I told her that the law is set up to decide what is moral. We punish people every day who abuse others, or murder or rape. There are certain things that are moral issues, and it is the duty of the law to uphold those things. We don't allow others to hurt each other without punishment, or to steal or to do any other harmful thing. But we allow people to kill unborn babies. One might question when life begins. I don't think that time should be considered solely on the basis of when the baby can be independent from it's mother. A baby can be alive, but still dependent on it's mother in the womb.

To close, I want to share several quotes from Mother Teresa:
"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters"
And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign." (Mother Theresa -- "Notable and Quotable," Wall Street Journal, 2/25/94, p. A14)
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"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. "
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"Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted, and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child, and be loved by the child. From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortions. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents, and have grown up so full of love and joy!" Quotes from

4 comments:

Nene said...

Have you ever read that little book about Mother Teresa's life? You really learn what a great woman she was and the amazing about of service she gave her entire life. Really a great woman!

Keira said...

did you see my blog? i posted some of these same quotes on tuesday...great minds think alike ;o)

Lindsay Logic said...

I just watched the movie "Juno", it's about a teenage pregnancy, and it's a little bit weird, but good. I wouldn't let my teenagers watch it, though. :)

*L*

Amber said...

well i have to say that I have mixed feelings about the parents being told because I feel that it is better for teenagers to be able to get birth control, etc than to go without it - as for the abortion i have never been one for that either - it's definitely never the baby's fault, so why end its life? and adoption is always a better way to go