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Baby BoyAbortion.  This word is at the same time one of the most cherished and abhorred words in American culture today.  I fall on the side of those who are offended by the word and everything it represents.  Whether politically, social-scientifically or personally, I see this one word and its use as speaking volumes about the one who uses it.  When I hear or speak this word, without exception, I wince.

My heart breaks every time I think of each life that is shattered indiscriminately as it is snuffed out by a doctor who violates his Hippocratic Oath by harming an innocent life, and a mother who is convinced that she has no way to handle the challenges of pregnancy.  The worst of it is a society that esteems the notion as noble that offers women the “freedom” to destroy their own children.

Unfortunately, our concept of Liberty has become animalistic.  We no longer believe that our once great nation is intended to be a bastion for building, growing, encouraging, supporting a society that wants to work together to make the best of life.  It has come to mean simply that each individual can do absolutely anything they want to do, regardless of the impact to themselves OR society.  Frankly, I have occasionally been heard to speak in Libertarian tones on issues such as Medical Marijuana.  I don’t retract the opinions, but I fear that the general mindset of the Libertarian may be no better than the Liberal in this regard: they seem to have no real concern about the accumulated impact of “doing as you please regardless of the consequences”.  As long as every American is free to be as much of a drain on society as they want to be, this country will continue to crumble.  Please don’t misunderstand or lose sight of my desire to help those in need.  I simply cannot tolerate the idea that we are truly focused on how to help those in want.

Our society now lifts up the meeting of the individual’s physical desires, through whatever means is necessary, as the ultimate responsibility of society.  Essentially our traditional mores are confounded, and our resources are being directed toward the pleasures of the individual.  We go so far as to provide the tools needed to conceal our failings either before or after the fact.

That’s just a bit of how deplorable I find our current social state.  But even in the midst of all of this angst and frustration about our society’s self-destruction, I find those who I expect to help hold our society up to be falling themselves.

This past week our President announced that all employers, including religious organizations, would be required to provide as part of their health-care benefits, covered access to birth-control.  Understandably, the Catholic Bishops are up in arms about this.  The Catholic Church does not permit the use of birth-control for the simple reason that it has always been taught that the purpose of intercourse is to procreate, and to treat it otherwise is in opposition to God’s plan (I am not opposed to birth-control for married adults, but the Catholic Church should not be forced to pay for birth-control).

I interject this event at this point not because on the face of it I see a direct tie between birth-control and abortion, but because some who spoke out in support of the Catholic Bishops took the trouble to associate it with paying for abortions.  That association is justified, as some techniques that are referred to as “birth-control” are truly causing the abortion of a conceived human.

On Friday, the President announced that religious organizations who are opposed to birth-control would not be required to provide this to their employees.  However, their insurance companies would still be required to provide the birth-control at no charge.

I could focus my efforts on how stupid it is to believe that this is actually a compromise, but thankfully the Catholic Bishops have spared me from having to point out the obvious.  But I’ll say this much: this compromise solves this issue about as much as saying that paying Planned Parenthood to perform breast screenings has nothing to do with supporting abortion.  If I have to explain either of those, I will be wasting my breath because you’ve already been sucked into the lies of our media the Liberal elites.

What bothers me about all this (and the reason for the headline) is that we’re getting riled up about government forcing folks to pay for things that they don’t like, whether it’s birth-control or abortion, as if we live in a post-progressive society that has taken legalized abortion and social deterioration for granted.  Instead of actually fighting for the rights of the unborn or a culture that upholds purity, integrity and self-control, we’re busy pecking at the insults of government forcing some of us to actually pay to continue supporting the corruption of our society.  Don’t get me wrong; if we really want to see ourselves living in a universe where we allow everyone to live as they so desire, then this is what we are left with and I would (and still do) support Catholic organizations that do not want to be paying for birth-control.  However, too many are arguing that “You can let others pay for (and by inference, conduct) birth-control or abortions, just don’t force me to pay for it”, and this is the problem: we seem to have given in.

But I refuse to allow our corrupted society to set the baseline for my perspective.  Unfortunately, the Pro-Life movement is going nowhere, the contemporary Purity movement (chastity commitments by teenagers) seems equally paralyzed.  Too much money and effort is being spent to argue against the insults and not enough on the offense.  Making me pay for something that is an offense is only an insult… making me part of what allows the offense should be intolerable.

Standing by and hoping that our incremental steps to solve the ills of our society can themselves be goals is a formula for failure.  I hope every life-supporting politician is willing to vote for bills that make incremental progress, but these should NEVER be seen as successes, only as opportunity to save the lives that can be saved.  The only goal we should have is to eliminate all forms of optional abortion.

If we are really truly Pro-Life, we should avoid fighting for our right to be Pro-Life, and rather for rights of the unborn.  It is the unborn that need our voice… do not ever give up on them.

I encourage you to support your local or the national right-to-life organization.  Click here to visit the National Right To Life web site.

Photo © Calek – Fotolia.com

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