Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Abortion and the Death of the West

I was in the midst of responding to a comment on the previous post and decided perhaps that a few words were in order for all of the visitors to my blog. Early on, I had mentioned that I would post about Liberalism and its seeming design to bring about the Death of the West. I am not the philosopher who can go into the reasons for the design, its underpinnings, et al. I leave that to those schooled in the study of societal phenomena. The purists exist who discuss - ad infinitum - the causes of this or that, such as the evolution of education within a society. They do not discuss the application of theory; they only delve into the theory. I have had little concern for theory unless it can be applied for good and so I leave the discussion of phenomena to the purists. Here is the comment of a visitor (mk) to my blog:
I am also an regular reader of Mark Steyn, even though it does make depressing reading, what is clear is countries like America and Australia, even with their current problems, are the best equipped to deal with world threats, the rest are dying and some have passed the point of no return. See this from Steyn, Seventeen European nations are now at what demographers call “lowest-low” fertility – 1.3 births per woman, the point at which you’re so far down the death spiral you can’t pull out. America is at 2.07, Australia is at 1.76. We are periliously close, and the pro-abortion and sustainability lunatics are not helping one bit.
My response began thus:
Yes, Steyn is clear in his expression of the peril in which we find ourselves. I wrote very early on in my beginning posts that I would write of how liberalism (the cult of death) is destroying the West. This of course all dealing with the issue of abortion. Of course, abortion coupled with the mad need for both parents to work just for a sustainable wage in some cases is designed to destroy the family. It has always astonished me that - especially with all of the birth control methods available - women and young girls would kill their unborn children and use abortion as birth control. I had never given this much thought, of a personal nature, until I wrote a novel in which the main female character had to come to grips with the decision. Her answers brought me to the understanding of the abominable nature of the deceit perpetrated upon the women in our society. But it is abortion and the stigma attached with motherhood brought about by the shrill rants of the likes of Barbara Boxer and company asserting the right to pull a baby through the birth canal and kill it through that abomination of partial-birth abortion - its very name heinous in the extreme - that has done much to destroy the West. Once a society crosses the threshold of killing its unborn so willingly and so easily, it is not a hair's width away from killing any persons in the society that it deems unworthy of life. I shall copy this response now and formulate it into a new post. Thank you for your comment and for calling forth this response.
The subject of abortion and the reasons for it is an issue that to me is so personal not to have been forced into the political arena. Alas, this is for the money. The sale of baby body parts. An abomination for which we will, as a society, pay dearly. Least you think that you are somehow safe from this wantonness of "death", consider for a moment your inexorable march toward old age. The hook upon which your fate may well rest will be the hook of guilt for being alive and you may well be snared into the decision the hasten your own demise for the so-tauted ideology of "the good of the whole". How sinful to cause a contributer to the society to feel that his very existence is now a drain that must be eradicated. As I have posted before, when the burden on society of keeping you alive is no longer economically advisable for the state, when we truly move into the socialized medicine so longed for by the likes of a Hillary Clinton and perhaps a Newt Gingrich (my apologies if I read his alliance with Ms. Clinton incorrectly), then your life hangs in the balance. Will it matter to you then? Will life become more precious to you then? There is a dignity to human life and there can be a dignity in our passing. And, yes, I know that these decisions are made daily by family members regarding the "quality of life" for an aged and dearly beloved parent. But these matters are still within the realm of the family; they have not been abrogated by the "state". Therein lies the difference. On abortion, do not be fooled. There is money to be made in "them thair hills" and it is being made. Hundreds of millions of tax dollars go to the killing of the most vulnerable amongst us - the babes in the womb but only does society approve if the unborn child is killed by the mother-to-be. On this one issue alone, how in the name of God can we call ourselves a sane society? And now the Left wants to add insult to injury by denying parental involvement thus potentially hiding crimes of rape perpetrated upon young girls. The utter hypocrisy of the far Left was apparent when Scott Peterson was found guilty of two homocides - one of Lacy and one of the named, yet unborn, Connor. How in the world can Connor be considered a human being when his death is the incidental result of the mother's death and not a human being when his death/murder is the result of the erstwhile mother going to an abortionist for a procedure I consider infanticide - namely, partial birth abortion? As the dust settles on the previous elections, many have asked or rather tried to compare the Liberal Left in the United States with what is described as the "death cult" of the Islamists. In this, it is interesting. The Liberal Left - and I do not include all people who call themselves Democrats or liberals in this but refer to a very select minority within the larger spectrum of "liberals" - it seems desires nothing more than the "death of our unborn" in the name of the religion of "a woman's right to choose." Since 1973 when the black-robed, somewhat morally challenged, court decided that the Constitution had mystically hidden passages giving American women the right to kill their unborn children, over 43,ooo,ooo babies in America alone have been sacrificed on the altar of Secularism and a "woman's right to choose". The number surpasses the entire population of the state of Texas. Staggering, is it not? At the very least, the issue is a state's issue, not a federal one. How arrogant and insufferable! Can't the federal government and court just leave us alone? Back to, back to... The Islamists abhor the very idea of abortion it seems desiring rather that all be born Muslim so that many can aspire to blowing themselves up as martyrs for the good of Allah. No tiny baby enters the world with the innate desire for death. Babies enter as free agents full of light and brightness, of hope and new awakening. Remarkable that their lives are held in so little esteem, especially by some who faithfully attend Mass. Remarkable. Yet back to the far Left and the Islamists, curious is it not - for both the result, the choice, is death over life. Is it any wonder that the death of the West is reaching a statistically irreversible threshold? Can the trend be reversed? Yes, with belief in life, in the miracle of life, and in the belief in the joy and wonder in the eyes of our young. Nothing can surpass the joy of holding the hand of your toddler as the tiny fingers grip your palm in companionship and trust as you step from the curb to cross a street, to cross the threshold into the world that awaits. Recently, I was asked to speak about life. I spoke of the miracle of life and I ended with this: "Life is a miracle and the miracle is you."

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you need proof that the left is a culture of anti-life, all you have to do is turn to Great Britain for an example. They've become so used to the idea of killing the unborn that now they're even advocating killing the newborn.

3:02 PM  
Blogger Beach Girl said...

I believe there is a "professor" at Princeton who advocates a mother being able to kill her child up to 3-12 months of age. And the Left is all for the "children" - those who make it through gestation, I suppose.

4:51 PM  
Blogger MathewK said...

This is indeed depressing, so now we have to be spared the burden of raising a disabled child, better to kill it off. Yet leftists insist that Nazism has nothing to do with them.

When a society reaches that point, it is unlikely it can change course, today we progress to 'letting go' of the burden of a disabled child, tommorrow it will be the elderly, the day after when someone wants your freedom, defending it becomes a burden as well.

6:34 PM  
Blogger Beach Girl said...

Defending it becomes impossible because it will have been lost long before that time. I was most distressed about Terri Shiavo. Her case is when I started writing again. I cannot discuss the arguments surrounding her case. It is just peculiar to me that my pets receive better and more humane consideration than Terri Shaivo received. Can you imagine a society that through the actions of a judge could not even give the poor woman chips of ice on her lips. Does her brain activity mean she is to be killed so mercilessly?

But back to your comment, after the disabled child, why not blue-eyed folks with blond hair? Why not people under 5'6"? It is no longer a slippery slope. It may well be the lemmings over the cliff. I have more optimism generally. I have a friend who pointed out to me one time, that life has a way of calling people up short just when they least expect it.

Thanks for your comments.

8:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Outstanding post indeed.

While I don't often discuss my personal life, there was a time when I became involved with an abortion decision (I was 19). Looking back, I feel guilt, shame. Every time I read about this topic I am reminded of what happened.

Simply put, I am reminded of what might have been.

Enough of that; your piece has done its work on me. Writers that have the ability to employ emotion to the reader have accomplished their mission.

Most of all, thank you for posting this. It is an eye-opener!

11:37 AM  
Blogger Beach Girl said...

Steve, my intent is not to harm the many who have faced decisions I have not had to face. I just people to take a look at how simple some of these decisions seem to be becoming.

4:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beach Girl,
I am most decidedly not a modern liberal, and I fully comprehend the fact that people of European descent are being bred out of existence. One key factor that many people overlook, which you alluded to, is that for the middle class it is just not economically feasible to have multiple children. In fact it is questionable whether it is economically feasible to have even one. This is not a concern for either the uber-rich or those on welfare. Only by significantly reducing or eliminating the overalll tax burden on the average person will this change.

Euthanasia is a tough subject. However, I firmly oppose the State having control. This should be up to the family, and ideally the person in question. There is a time where keeping a body alive by extraordinary means is cruel and inhumane. Yes, a lot of the actions in the Schiavo case were unconscionable, on both sides. Yet the core remains that the State should not be involved in deciding when innocent humans are to be given into God's care.

Abortion, another hot button topic. Again, it is not the State's place to regulate this. I believe that this should be legal. HOWEVER, (I hope people are still reading) I think that it should happen a lot less than it does. There are times it is moral, including but not limited to rape. Admittedly, these situations are hopefully not as common as the number of abortions would indicate. Unfortunately, many anti-abortionists do not acknowledge any moral reasons. Not to mention the fact that many of them also tend to attack and vilify the poor women who have had to make those choices. A little support and a healthy dose of Christ's forgiveness will go a long way toward reducing the number of abortions, most especially serial abortions.

Sorry about the length of my post it just kind of took over.

5:43 PM  
Blogger Beach Girl said...

I appreciate your comments. The middle class is supporting the welfare state and essentially, the fewer children they have equates to fewer middle class workers to support the horrendous welfare of "victimology" state we have created of folks who just think I owe them a living and I don't.

I did not say this as I recall, but I do not fault the women who find themselves in situations I have not had to deal with on a personal level.

Abortion is and will remain legal but to have it funded by tax dollars and to have some "clinics" sell body parts which they do, is reprehensible.

I know of one young woman who has had 8 abortions for birth control.

An unpopular subject about which I have written, which I read Thomas Sowell discuss several years ago, is that no one on welfare, generational, or because of illegitimate births, etc, should be able to vote. It is, to me, un-American for folks who are contributing nothing and have contributed nothing to be able to vote money out of my pocket into theirs. We are a generous people and will care for those who need a hand up, much of this help used to come from families and from churches.

Again, drop by any time. These are not easy topics but they are ones we need to discuss without name-calling and without "pandering" to lobbists who gain money from the suffering of many of the women. Can anyone imagine how horrible it would be for a mother-to-be to learn, after the late-term abortion, that her unborn child was "stripped" for body parts? I'd bet money the "harvesters" don't tell the former mom-to-be that the skin, eyes, etc of her "unborn" baby were harvested and sold to the highest bidder. Sorry for my long response.

But these little "clumps" of cells are not the cells of trees, they are the cells, that if given a chance, could be our next genius.

I have a theory - given the 43,000,000 - that much of our illegal immigration is "nature filling a vacuum". If these 43,000,000 Americans were living today, some of them would now have their own families, etc.

6:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beach Girl,
Thank you so much for your well-reasoned response. I agree thoroughly that without the financial burden of our increasing welfare state that the American middle class would be much better off. Personally I would prefer to see both the welfare organs and the rest of the government scaled down.

Historically, as you mentioned, private groups took care of this as they were able. My mother, who lived through the tail of the Depression, has told me that during the Depression, neighbors would look out for each other. Whichever families had a surplus that week would donate what they could to those families who happened to be without that week. This was done anonymously with baskets of food left on people porches during the night. Allowing those in need to keep their dignity. Obviously the expetation was for those who benefited to return the favor.

I firmly believe in giving people a hand up not a hand out. Heck, I even think that Jesus had the right idea with the parable about fish, 'give a man a fish and feed him for a day or teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime'. In the past we taught those less fortunate and our country benefited greatly.

The problem with not allowing those on welfare to vote is that by doing so you are creating a de facto poll tax. While I do not have a problem with that per se it is a slippery slope potentially, though it does reduce one of the major problems with a democracy. Yes that is one of the reasons that this country was styled more as a republic than a democracy, which you most likely already knew.

Oddly enough, I must also agree that the sale of body parts from aborted fetuses is reprehensible, and that I personally find the utilisation of abortion as a form of birth control to be morally repugnant. Though why someone would do that boggles my mind as there are cheaper and safer forms out there. Yes, I know that it is a bit more complicated for Catholics, but find the right priest and you will get a greater penance for not using birth control than for using birth control.

The problem I tend to have with the concept of : "But these little "clumps" of cells are not the cells of trees, they are the cells, that if given a chance, could be our next genius."
Is that that clump of cells could just as easily become the next serial killer, or other reprobate.

Oh, and thank you for the warm welcome. I have actually added you to my daily bloglist.

4:01 AM  
Blogger Beach Girl said...

Just left you a good comment - messed up on posting it. Welcome to my blog. Gotta get my coffee.

8:57 AM  

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