Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Is abortion child abuse?

I was passing a church today and noticed their display of 4,000 little white crosses and their sign that said "Abortion the Ultimate Child Abuse".  I had to stop and wonder why they didn't have crosses and a sign about the "murder" and "disposal" yearly of millions of fertilized eggs by the in-vitro fertilization clinics?  If one uses the reasoning that a sperm and an egg combined is "sacred" and a "human life", then shouldn't they be making couples who use in-vitro labs feel guilty?  Under this reasoning aren't in-vitro lab technicians guilty of murder and "child abuse" as well?  Have we as americans forgotten how to use reason and logic and science? Is the church peddling a heavy dose of guilt upon a woman who has made a difficult choice?  I had to comtemplate and step back and wonder about the 1/3 of all pregnancies that are "miscarried".  Whose will is it that that potential child was lost?  Is god to blame?   At the very least god is guilty for "allowing" a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy?  Is he not powerful enough to "save a life and preserve a pregnancy to full term"?  Logical "faith based" thinking would deduce that god allowed or "caused" a miscarriage and is equal in guilt to an "abortionist", or maybe more so, as far more pregnancies are lost to miscarriage than to abortion.  Has the church stopped to consider that a significant number of those abortions were performed to save the life of the mother?  Should a woman feel guilty for saving her own life?  Pregnancy causes 500,000 deaths yearly in america.  It is not a condition that is without risk.  Does a woman who is saving her own life feel guilty for "this so-called ultimate child abuse".  A fetus does not have a developed brain or nervous system and cannot feel pain before 24 weeks.  How is removing a fetus from a uterus child abuse?  A zygote and blastocyte does not have any way of "knowing, feeling, and being aware of pain"....how is removing a pregnancy in those stages child abuse?  Is any of this logical?  NO.  The display is an act of religious dogma that targets women and girls with the intention of applying a layer of guilt to their psyche and emotions.  To an ignorant populace who has expended logic and replaced dogma with guilt the anti-abortion sign will be accepted "as fact".  It isn't fact.  The dislplay is a  a display of self righteous dogma devoid of reason to force a public debate to their personal (not biblical)  positions of morality.  If they want their wives, sisters and mother's to die from an unsafe pregnancy...so be it...but leave the public well enough alone.  How many children are actually abused everyday?  As a child that was abused and risked death daily just by waking and breathing I can tell anyone who would care to listen about child abuse....I barely survived childhood.  The unwanted children of unwanted pregnancies are the real everyday potential victims of child abuse...not the act of removing a glob of cells from a woman's uterus!!!  Sperm and eggs are not sacred.  A human that is living and breathing as it's own "outside" of the mother is a human life.  Denial of food, shelter and love of a baby that is breathing and living outside the womb of a mother is child abuse....not an abortion!  Leave women alone and let them decide when a pregnancy is safe and prudent.