An Open Letter to Our Government: Abolish the Slavery of Abortion

Abortion is a merciless and bloody master and the preborn child is its slave

President Obama, Members of Congress, and the Justices of the Supreme Court:  You have the power, this very day, to end the scourge of abortion on demand in America.  You have the power, this very day, to protect the rights of our children to be born. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - "Let us not despair; it is a blessed cause, and success, ere long, will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one victory; we have obtained, for these poor creatures, the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere and our triumph will be complete. Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt, under which we at present labour, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonour to this country."

William Wilberforce,
speech before the House of Commons, 18 April 1791

To President Obama, Honorable Members of Congress, and the Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States:

I've recently watched the inspiring film, Amazing Grace, which recounts the tireless efforts of William Wilberforce to end the evil of the slave ships.  For decades he fought to bring an end to the disgrace, the murder of thousands upon thousands of African men, women and children, who were forcibly brought to England by way of cruel and torturous ships; ships on which most of them died a horrible death.  He spent his youth and health struggling to raise the conscience of his countrymen until they would finally recognize the unspeakable injustice being inflicted on fellow human beings.

I was absolutely gobsmacked at the irony, the bitter realization that the very same battle for humanity depicted in this film is still being fought today.

It's true.  Slavery is alive and well in America.  What we thought we had abolished in 1863 was resurrected just over a century later.  It came to us disguised and called itself "privacy" at first; later it simply became "choice."  It came as an angel of light, and has wrought the most terrible darkness on our nation.

We have made our children slaves.  They are slaves to our convenience; slaves to our greed; slaves to our ambition; slaves to our insatiable sexual appetites; slaves to our self-interest; slaves to our irresponsibility.  Abortion is a merciless and bloody master and the preborn child is its slave.

The slave ships of today resemble doctor's offices and clinics, but they are vessels of torturous death nonetheless.  Our tiniest children are dismembered and suctioned from the womb; they are stabbed in the heart or the head; and if these methods of execution somehow fail, the "unwanted" is simply left to die unattended.

Our actions today are different from the evil of the slave ships in one important, noteworthy manner:  they are even more despicable because the human beings we disregard are our own flesh and blood, our own offspring, our own innocent, defenseless children.  We cannot claim ignorance or disinterest or the inability to protect them.  We are bound to them eternally, and we owe them eternally.

Unlike the "poor creatures" Wilberforce fought for, however, our babies have not yet even been recognized as fully human.  We've come to regard them as property, to be purchased at will and disposed of at will.  If for any reason, they are found to be defective or too bothersome, or we deem them unwanted, we simply rid ourselves of the burden.  They are abandoned and literally thrown away like trash; or left to drown in toilets despite Safe Haven laws; they are considered sub-human; an "it."  Can you not see?  When children are thought to be disposable, they will be more frequently discarded!

We can no longer deny them the dignity of their humanity.  We can no longer content ourselves with invented distinctions like "viability" and "quality of life."  We cannot go forward in the deception that full humanness is somehow magically endowed at birth and absent before. 

The trickery of euphemisms can no longer suffice.  Our modern science gives us the true picture and reveals to us what we've stubbornly refused to acknowledge - the child in the womb is as human as we are, is alive and distinct, an individual person deserving of life.
All the euphemisms in the world cannot provide a comfortable justification for an act of violence against the most innocent.

There is no honor in sacrificing a child's life for the sake of privacy or autonomy.  No man or woman has the right to make such a "choice."  Stop being hypnotized by legal-speak and see the child!  He is you; she is me; they are us there in the womb.  If humanity is qualified as a function of intelligence, or utility, or size and development, then we are an inhumane race.

Men in America have been allowed, taught and in many cases forced to walk away from their responsibilities as fathers.  The "choice" of abortion has robbed many good men of fatherhood and been a handy excuse for too many cads and cowards.  Even worse, it has turned mother and child into enemies. 

It's time the bar was raised once again to its proper height and that the adults grew up and behaved as adults again.  We've allowed our reckless sexual wants to control us rather than controlling them.  Everything now must be sacrificed on that addictive altar, including our babies.

But that is not how free and honorable people treat their children.  Parents give their lives for their children; we do not take their lives for our own.  Life goes forward, not backward.  Parents are obligated toward their children and we owe them the life which they have been endowed by their Creator.

The present-day evil empire that most threatens us is right within our own borders, built by our own hands.  A billion-dollar industry has morphed and exploded from a "penumbra, formed by emanations."  Killing our preborn children has become a wildly profitable enterprise.  It will ultimately be our downfall.  We'll surely drown in blood. 

Why has the United States lost the instinct to protect her youngest citizens?  How is it possible that the nation forged by the unalienable right to life can willfully deny life to future generations?  How can we call it "freedom" to "terminate" the powerless?

You have the power, this very day, to end the scourge of abortion on demand in America.  You have the power, this very day, to protect the rights of our children to be born.  You have the power, this very day, to uphold the humanity of every child in the womb.  If you refuse to do it, it is not because you lack the understanding or the means, but because you lack honor, honesty and the will.

I dare each one of you today to live up to the "Honorable" in your title.  Have the decency to admit the tragic and irreparable mistake we have now lived for nearly 40 years and have the courage to set it right.  Let this Congress not pass into history without abolishing the slavery of abortion.

Then once you have secured the right to life of every American citizen, expend yourselves in rebuilding a society where every child is welcomed and cared for.  Focus the energy of America on restoring the strength and dignity of the family.  Prove to the worried pregnant mother that she is not alone and join with those in her community who are there to offer hope and real help.  Take the hundreds of millions of dollars formerly poured into destroying human life and invest it protecting and caring for those lives instead.

Stop wasting time and money on politically-correct and useless endeavors and actually educate our children.  Stop condemning them to failing schools and crime-ridden neighborhoods.  Stop lining your own pockets and securing your own re-election and actually enable our states to provide health care for every citizen.  Stop creating one set of laws and benefits for yourselves and another for everyone else.  You are not kings and queens; you are servants in the People's house. 

But first, before any of these urgent needs can be satisfactorily met, you must guarantee the Right to Life of every child.  We who recognize the humanity of the child in the womb will never give up until the laws of our nation also acknowledge it.  As Wilberforce rightly said, "Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt, under which we at present labour, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonour to this country."

Wilberforce's friend, the slaveship captain haunted by the "20,000 ghosts" of the souls he killed, mournfully exclaimed to him, "We were apes.  They were human!"  So must we come to the same realization:  They are our children!  They are human!  We are heartless animals as long as we continue to slaughter them.

We've no business imploring the blessings of God on our country until we cease in this evil.  You, our leaders, must put an end to it now.

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Jennifer Hartline is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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