42.4M babies killed by abortion in 2019; here's what's ahead for US abortion laws in 2020
CE Comment: In many ways, 2019 saw positive advancements in the pro-life cause. Several states passed laws that continue to push back against the pro-death lobby in America. Moreover, the public dialog shifted as many Americans were both shocked and ashamed to hear political leaders on the left push abortion advocacy up to and even beyond the birth of the child. (See Virginia Governor Defends Letting Infants Die and New York legislature votes to legalize abortion up to birth, let non-doctors commit abortions.) Still, the reality that more than 3,000 babies are murdered every day is a scourge upon our nation. When history is ultimately written, abortion advocates will stand next to other infamous names and ideologies that have murdered millions of people.
According to Worldometers, which tabulates global statistics on abortion procedures based on the most current available figures from the World Health Organization, 40 to 50 million abortions are performed annually worldwide.In 2019, around 42.4 million pregnancies ended in abortion worldwide.The website notes that in the United States, approximately half of pregnancies are "unintended" with four in 10 ending in an abortion, amounting to over 3,000 abortions happening every day. Not including miscarriages, 22 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion. Globally, around 125,000 abortions happen every day.
Abortion debate: Whose rights take precedence?
The abortion debate has hinged on a crucial question: is the baby in the mother's womb a human being? The pro-life advocate says a human baby is a person and has a fundamental right to life, while the pro-abortion advocate argues that "the fetus" is not a human/person and therefore the woman's right to bodily autonomy is greater than a fetus' right to life.While the question of personhood is another false narrative created by the pro-abortion advocacy groups, I found this quote from the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights incredibly ironic given the strong pro-abortion stand of the UN during the last 45 years. I quote from an article by Katherine Ranck via The Christian Post:
The Preamble of this declaration recognizes “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world” (Emphasis mine). The rights protected by this declaration, among many others, include the right to life, the right to freedom, protection against torture or cruel punishment, protection from discrimination, and the right to be recognized everywhere as a person. As members of the human race, the unborn deserve these same rights and protections. The final article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.” Abortion is an act “aimed at the destruction of . . . the rights and freedoms” of the preborn child. The right to life, the right not to be discriminated against based on their size, development, location, or dependency, the right not to be tortured, and the right to personhood.This now begs the question, which right receives precedence? Many advocates for abortion claim that because of the nature between the woman and the child (fetus), they cannot both have equal moral and legal rights. Unless one holds to a Darwinian ethic of “survival of the fittest,” where the stronger have the right and obligation to overpower the weaker, ethics and our legal system call for a higher moral obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us. The Oxford Dictionary defines a vulnerable person as “[A person] in need of special care, support, or protection because of age, disability, or risk of abuse or neglect.” The United Nations has an entire section dedicated to the rights of children and the most vulnerable, being the disabled (children, women, migrants, the poor, minorities, etc.). The Preamble to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 defines “child” as, “every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier” and notes that there needs to be “particular care” extended to the child “Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, ‘the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth’”
Abortion is not acting out of one’s own right to bodily autonomy. It is acting to take away the human rights of another person. This does not make the woman any less human. This does not take away a woman’s rights. It only forbids her from taking away the rights of another person. As members of the human family, the preborn have the right to live, to grow, to thrive. They have the right not to be poisoned or town limb from limb. The have the right to be protected. Our society and our nation have failed to ensure that ALL humans’ rights are protected. The most vulnerable of all humans have been disallowed their rights. Enough is enough. It is past time to demand that all humans, all members of the human family, are awarded the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Satire Drives Home Painful Truth: Why My Wife And I Decided To Abort Our Unborn Gay Son
Many times satire is used to drive home painful, unavoidable truths. Enter exhibit A. The Federalist published an article last week that hits on all points of the cultural absurdity we find ourselves at the hands of the Cult of Progressivism. Intersectionality is one of the most absurd, illogical philosophies to plague a culture. It simply doesn’t make sense. Yet, in many ways, these are rules the Progressives live. It is a core doctrine.Stephen Lavedas published an essay titled, “Why My Wife And I Decided To Abort Our Unborn Gay Son.” It is brilliant. What is truly sad is that, like many pieces of brilliant satire, many leftists won’t even get it. They will be outraged that someone could be so cruel and inhuman to abort a child simply because he is gay. Here is just a taste of Lavedas’ brilliance:
We got to the clinic almost an hour early. They made us sit in the waiting room for a while and finally called us back, but instead of walking us into a table with stirrups like we expected, they escorted us into an office. A man in a lab coat was waiting at a desk.“I recognize you,” he said, after looking at us sternly for what seemed like an eternity. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. My wife didn’t speak either. “What you are doing should be a hate crime, and I won’t have any part in it,” the man said, looking angry.“But it’s my body,” my wife said, sounding defiant, but like a little girl too. “It’s my right.”“It’s hateful,” the doctor responds. “You are terminating this pregnancy because you don’t want a gay child. Are gay children less valuable than straight children?” He sounded like a teacher trying to impart a lesson to a very slow student.“No, but—” my wife started to say.“A gay child has just as much value as a straight child. In fact, you are lucky! Gay children are very rare. Census numbers put the number of homosexuals in America at around 3 percent. It wouldn’t take many more people like you,” he nearly spits the words, “to eliminate homosexuality in America. That’s genocide, and I won’t have that on my conscience!”With that, we were ushered out. My wife cried all the way home. When we got there, we found that someone had firebombed our rented townhouse and wrote “Bigotry Doesn’t Belong Here!” and “Love Wins!” in spray paint on the sidewalk. I guess some fetuses are more equal than others, but I can’t understand it. I just followed all the arguments I’ve heard from our society to their logical conclusions.
A piece like this will never win a Pulitzer Prize, but it deserves an award of equal stature. It is brilliant. Read it and weep for our country.