When I wrote this post last week about my reasons for supporting Mike Huckabee for the nomination for U.S. president, I cited my support for a constitutional amendment to end abortion as a major reason for my support for Huckabee.
Jenn left this comment:
If saving lives is what you are all about think of all the lives that have been lost in this God forsaken war and the many in the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. Not to mention the torture, kidnapping to black sites, etc. All this happened while YOUR guys were in charge.”
Deaths due to Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding: 1836
Iraqui deaths since January, 2005: 46,278
U.S. deaths in Iraq since January 2005: 3931
—From this website.
Deaths due to abortion in the U.S. in 2005 only: 1.2 million
—Estimate from Planned Parenthood’s Alan Guttmacher Institute
All of those deaths, both those that took place in Iraq and those that took place in an abortion clinic, are tragedies. However, clearly, the abortion mills are killing many, many more of our citizens than all the Al Qaeda terrorists and hurricanes put together. (I don’t know what “kidnapping to black sites” means.)
I believe in fighting terrorism. I belive in preserving as many lives, American and Iraqi, as possible as we continue to fight terrorists who would kill us and their fellow countrymen. However, I also believe that the moral fabric of this nation is being daily torn to shreds as we tolerate abortions that kill those who are defenseless while we bemoan the deaths of soldiers who have chosen to go into dangerous situations (Iraq) in order to protect us. Did those soldiers die so that we could be “free” to end the lives of the unborn?
I don’t think so.
Well said, Sherry.
Amen, Sherry!
And abortion is the deliberate ending of a specific life, while Jenn’s examples are all collateral.
Unbelievable. The deaths we cause are just “collateral.” I stand corrected. Huckabee isn’t a Whack-a-doodle. His supporters are.
Sherry, I’m glad you have the courage to say what you think on YOUR blog. Sorry to see someone name call when they disagree. Keep up the great posts.
Jenn and to whom it may concern,
I would not call any deaths “collateral” although unintended civilian deaths in a war zone are by definition called by that term. The deaths we Americans cause, intentionally, are the deaths of unborn babies, over a million of them a year. The deaths you mentioned in your previous comment to which I was responding were tragic, but mostly unintentional, aside from those deaths of enemy terrorists whom our soldiers killed to defend themselves, the Iraquis, and us. Oh, and the American deaths in Iraq were mostly “caused” by evil terrorists who want to blow things up and kill people.
And my point remains that all of those deaths pale in comparison to the number of deaths of unborn babies killed in the womb in the name of “freedom to control one’s own body.”
This is the last time I will comment on your site since I know that a person like me will never get through to people like you. So let me say this, being in control of one’s body is no small thing. My grandmother had 8 children. 8 Children! She spent the latter part of her life bedridden and then was dead by the age of 42.
I don’t like abortion but I do understand that the decision to have a child is one of the most important, sacred decision a family can make. It involves deciding if can you take care of the child and raise it right, whether you can afford it, as well as health concerns, both mentally and physically, for the woman.
The problem with people like you is that you look at the issues of reproduction in some strange one-dimensional prism. You don’t consider women (and girls) who are victims of rape or incest. You don’t want to talk about sex education. You basically want to preach and force your dogma down the throat of everyone around you. Abortion is an option, a difficult option. And it is a private decision that should be left for the individual family to make, not you and your ilk, who no nothing about why that family is making that decision.
Jenn,
I am sorry that your grandmother was ill and died so young. Do you think she would have chosen not to have any of her eight children? Even if she knew (I don’t know if this was the case or not) that her eight pregnancies caused her illness and early death?
I, too, heve eight children. Each one is a blessing. I would not force anyone to make the same choices my husband and I have made to have eight children. If anyone doesn’t want children there are other forms of birth control, including sexual abstinence, that are available and that do not take the life of an unborn child.
Again, nothing justifies the premeditated taking of an innocent life, not even the fact that one may have been sinned against (rape and incest). It’s not the child’s fault that the mother is poor, or has been assaulted, or is tired of having children. The child shouldn’t have to pay with his life for the sins of others.
I’m sorry that you don’t feel as if anyone is listening to your point of view. In fact, I have read your comments very carefully and tried to respond articulately. I hope that your “prism” will be enlarged as you consider the matter of abortion from the point of view of the aborted child who is given no chance to make a choice about his or her own life. And please also consider that a society that does not protect the helpless is a very scary and morally shaky society in which to live.