Current Column (The Sanctity of Life)

Pro-life. What does that mean? Other than serial killers and mass murderers, who is not pro-life? The fact that anti-choice groups have confiscated that label is meaningless. I’ll rephrase. It should be meaningless. However, to quote Vladimir Lenin who was something of an expert on propaganda, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” That’s what has happened in the current, furious debate over abortion rights. The totally misleading label, “pro-life” has been accepted by almost all of us so right off the bat reality has taken a back seat to propaganda. Just by accepting that misleading label we are saying that those of us who are pro-choice are against life. What a crock.

Those of us who are pro-choice understand the sorrow involved in any abortion. It is not a fun thing to do. It should never be used as birth control. With so many other options available, that should never happen. Paradoxically, though, the people who scream about the “sanctity of life” and oppose all abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, almost always support war and capital punishment. At the same time they rant about the evils of all forms of birth control. “The Pill Kills” is one of their favorite posters.

This is a zygote. It is one cell, not two, as many believe. When a sperm enters an ovum, they form a single cell. According to the anti-choice position, this cell is a human being. It is as human as I am, and has all the rights that I have. It is too small to be seen with the naked eye. But supposedly, as a fully human being, it must have opinions. I wonder what they are. Is it a Democrat?

It is religion that is causing all this chaos. Visit any anti-choice site and you will find it filled with biblical verses. As just one typical example, “The Army of God” opened this way on June 12, 2009: “The lives of innocent babies scheduled to be murdered by George Tiller are spared by the action of American hero Scott Roeder. George Tiller the Babykiller reaped what he sowed and is now in eternal hell. Psalm 55:15 ‘Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.’ ”

So Scott Roeder, who murdered an adult male human being, is pro-life. The murder, on May 31, took place in the Lutheran church where the victim was worshipping. The murderer, though, is pro-life. Why am I having a problem getting my mind around that concept? Then there is the Baptist pastor, Wiley Drake, who prayed for Dr. Tiller’s death and is now praying for the death of Barack Obama.

Aside from being inane, this kind of thinking is so filled with hate that it is shocking. Where does all this hate come from in the “pro-life” community? How can such hate come from people calling themselves Christian? At Dr. Tiller’s funeral there were picketers outside the church with signs that said, “GOD SENT THE KILLER” and “ABORTION IS BLOODY MURDER”. So God sent a murderer, but shooting an adult in cold blood is not bloody murder? I hope you are sharing my confusion here.

This is a 1-month embryo. According to the anti-choice position, it is a human being. It is as human as I am, and has all the rights that I have. I don’t know how it will manage to vote or get a driver’s license, but supposedly it has those rights.

Those who spout anti-abortion rhetoric are hiding behind their real feelings. What they actually want is to keep women in their place and they view pregnancy as a punishment for sex. It’s tragically simple. In the mid-1980s I was talking to my father, a fundamentalist Lutheran. We were discussing abortion and the laws about it and so on, and he was livid on the subject. Abortion is murder, he insisted through clenched jaws. I responded that when a 12-year-old girl is raped by her own father, she should not have to give birth to her own brother. He dismissed that with a grudging agreement but insisted that’s not what very many abortions are about. (He was completely wrong about that.)

I then changed directions and mentioned a female friend of mine who had been trying for years to become pregnant. She wanted a baby more than anything. However, if it turned out that she got pregnant but the amniocentesis showed that the child would be born with Down’s syndrome, meaning it would be severely retarded and not live past the age of 35, then she would abort the pregnancy. As much as she wanted to get pregnant, she did not want to inflict that on her own child. What did my father think of that? Well, he pulled in his chin, as he often did when impatient and/or angry, and finally sputtered through pursed lips, “Well, should they be allowed to get away with it?!” He was righteously angry. I knew of course who “they” were. “They” were young black girls who, he felt, were using abortion as a means of birth control. Yes, my father was a racist. But when I asked him what he meant by “getting away with it” he abruptly turned away and changed the subject. Case closed.

This is a 3-month embryo. Look how it’s grown! Probably riding a tricycle by now. Looks more like the mother than the father. This fully human being probably has a sense of humor! Think so?

But he had let slip the fundamentalist “Christian” position on abortion. Pregnancy is a punishment for sex, since all sex is sinful, and women have to get used to it. Birth control is still forbidden by the Catholic Church, which is utterly amazing in this over-crowded world with so many starving children. It is utterly callous as well. And just plain insane.

I hadn’t meant to start a fight with my father, who was a kind man at heart, which I know sounds contradictory. But I had strong feelings on the matter just as he did and I think he wasn’t used to such cogent arguments about it. Dad and I moved past that awkward moment, but it was indeed awkward. His other two children never posed such challenges. I had always been the odd one out in my family. I am the only atheist in a solidly Christian family.

Those who vehemently oppose abortion just as vehemently support war, like the obscenity we initiated in Iraq in 2003. How can this be? War kills humans, including innocent babies and children, while capital punishment requires no definition. So what is it? Is pro-life only pro-life when it involves embryos?

First and foremost, secular humanists consider murdering doctors a major crime and those who do it should be locked up for life, unlike those Christian positions which hold that those doctors deserve what they get. And as the term implies, secular humanism focuses on the value and welfare of humans. The word “secular” obviously excludes gods of any kind. So a secular humanist is someone who truly values human life and works toward improving the condition of people everywhere, with no religion necessary. Humanists try to do good deeds just for the sake of goodness (and things like peace and harmony) and not for some after-death reward. That reward thing kind of takes the goodness out of good deeds, doesn’t it?

When does a human life begin? What precise moment? I have no idea but I believe reasonable people should be able to come to a reasonable agreement on that issue. What is fascinating though about the ardent Christian position is that the Bible never mentions it. Not once. With so many silly commandments in the Bible, such as not making any “graven images” (whatever the hell that means) there is not the slightest hint that abortion might not be a good thing. Not a word about it. How can Christians explain that one?

Why can’t we get our priorities straight? There are millions of starving and abused children in this world right now, as I write this. So how about this: First, let’s take care of all the babies and children who are sick, starving, dying or abused, all over the planet. Let’s make them all well. It’s an enormous task, but isn’t it about as worthy an undertaking as can be imagined? Once that’s done, then let’s have a serious talk about the rights of embryos. It seems like loving logic to me—the atheist.