Freedom of Choice: the destruction of a generation

In the midst of an economic crisis in which hundreds of thousands of Americans have already lost jobs and many thousands more are in danger of losing their jobs with no reasonable prospects in the near future, the president-elect of the United States offered to the Planned Parrenthood Action Fund on July 17, 2007: "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do."

Whether his comment was nothing more than empty campaign rhetoric directed at a particular crowd or a solemn vow made to a nation, it is difficult to believe that in the middle of such a melt-down in which so many are losing so much and face an uncertain future, the soon-to-be-inaugurated president of this nation can only believe that furthering the cause of abortion is a prudent and urgent priority. And if there are those who might suggest that candidate/senator Obama could not have known then how serious the economy would be today, I would suggest that he might have spent more time in the Senate doing his job than being on the road seeking another job.

Back on track, however. The very idea that such a proposal as the so-called Freedom of Choice Act could even be seriously discussed among civilized people is an affront to everything we claim to hold near and dear. The bill effectively stipulates that no state can restrict access to abortion on any level. This means no waiting periods, no questions, no exams, no warnings. By its wording, it could come down to the government obligating itself to actually financing, building, and staffing abortion clinics due to the fact that there are so many counties lacking in such facilities across the nation. The language would further obligate the US government to begin financing abortions through Medicaid. In other words, the government would be obliged to move beyond protecting the “culture of death” and into the actual business of promoting and facilitating death.

Within the wording of this bill, there is even the risk that minor children (not “women” in any sense of the word) who cannot obtain an abortion without parental consent or who cannot be transported across state lines by another adult will, under the guise of this bill, find themselves flush with new opportunities to obtain an abortion (not to mention the possible adult male who made such pregnancy possible in the first place, who can then take the CHILD to another state to eliminate the evidence). The possiblilities which exist under the wording of this proposal are endless, including the deliberate termination of the life of a child who survived the abortion procedure. And we think there are cultures less civilized than our own?

The whole rationale driving this bill to so-to-be President Obama’s desk is faulty, to say the least. Most of the existing restrictions pertain to underaged minor children making such decisions without the knowledge and/or consent of her parents. This is allowing the intercession of courts or other adults with no real stake in such a monumental decision except maybe a misguided concept of what “liberty” really means (or making such damning evidence disappear). These same adults will not be around to help clean up the emotional mess that is sure to follow, as statistics and testimony from countless women will attest to. These adults who would presume to know better than a girl’s own parents what is best for the pregnant child would be no more responsible than to see to it that the child is delivered safely back home.

Parents whose children will have endured such a traumatic event will have no clue why their daughter’s grades have begun to fall or why their child has suddenly withdrawn from life altogether. This child will be without the needed help because her parents will have been clueless as to what took place. If the parents were to find out that their child was taken across the state line, they would have no legal recourse.

If we are going to go this route and if this bill can actually make such things possible, then we may as well end the charade of differentiating between adult and child by such an arbitrary measure as biological age and make adulthood contingent upon puberty. Then the former child can quit school if desired, can get married, can enter into legal contracts, buy booze, or join the military. Such scenarios are not completely outside the realm of reason if we are going to allow minor children to take on such decisions as deciding whether to obtain an abortion without parental consent.

If such a bill actually becomes law, we parents will have relegated to the government our God-given, divinely ordained duties and responsibilties and surrendered our children to strangers, the same strangers we will have taught them to be leary of. By such actions it will not be exclusively the thousands of aborted children who will never see the light of day. The generation that was to be are those whose innocence will have been sacrified … for the sake of “liberty”.