At What Cost Comfort and Convenience?

What price are we willing to pay for our own comfort and convenience?

Saw a link to this story the other day: "Why I became an abortion doctor." Read it for yourself, but here's a quick summary:

• Garson Romalis became an ob/gyn in the early 60's. Early on he saw the terrible side-effects of illegal abortions-gone-wrong. Seeing so many women suffering from back-alley abortions motivated him to become an abortion provider. "...I believed strongly that a woman should be able to decide for herself if and when to have a baby..."
• Despite two very real attempts on his life, he finds the work very satisfying because his patients are truly grateful. e.g. "Did you do an abortion on my daughter?" ... "Yes, I did." The mother replied: "Thank you, Doctor. Thank God there are people like you around."

First, a couple of quick points:

1. I don't think that there's any justification for the attempts made on his life. I am not a pacifist (as C.S. Lewis says, "I can respect an honest pacifist, though I think he is entirely mistaken"), but I don't believe this kind of approach is acceptable.
2. Does this doctor believe he is killing people? Of course not. Does that thought ever cross his mind... I've no idea. The Bible says clearly that mankind supresses the truth, stifles the voice of his conscience in order to do that which pleases him. This post is not so much about the doctor as the rest of us.
   
   Now I want to comment on a few things he says:
   

• "...I believed strongly that a woman should be able to decide for herself if and when to have a baby..."
• I agree heartily with this statement. I think every woman has this responsibility to choose if and when to have a baby. However, this is determined as a woman decides whether or not to have sex, or use a contraceptive. Choosing ends at the moment that there is another life involved. At this point a woman is no longer deciding just for herself; she is deciding for someone else also... does she have the right to do that?

• A couple of examples are given of when abortions "save lives" and "give women their lives back." Again, there is virtue in this only if a life is not lost in the process.

Obviously the crux of the matter is whether or not the fetus is a child. Personally I think there is good - even overwhelming - reason to believe that this is the case. However, there are many folks who articulate this far better than I. You may not agree with me here... the fetus is simply tissue, it does not meet the requirements for human life. I want to ask you just one question:

What if you're wrong?

Now you may not agree that a fetus is a child, but before you dismiss what I have said ask yourself how you know this: how do you know for certain that we are not talking about a child here. If there is any chance that the fetus is a child, is it really worth our convenience and comfort to abort it? If the fetus is in fact a child, we have made a tragic mistake. 46 million mistakes every year!

The Dark Ages

I've heard it said that we need to allow for safe, legal abortions because people are going to do it anyway, and we can't go back to the dark ages of medically unsafe procedures. Do we really believe that we should condone illegal behavior simply because the consequences might be dangerous? I thought that's what "consequences" meant. We are far too quick to evade responsibility for our own actions. You could say that prison is a dangerous place for people, so let's do away with the whole concept. Does that make sense?

Comfort and Convenience

Another argument put forward for legalized abortion is that sometimes women are impregnated against their will (rape), or there is danger to their own health. I respect the difficult position a woman might find herself in under these circumstances*. However, take a look at the Wikipedia page on abortion, you'll find:

• A 1998 aggregated study, from 27 countries, on the reasons women seek to terminate their pregnancies concluded that common factors cited to have influenced the abortion decision were: desire to delay or end childbearing, concern over the interruption of work or education, issues of financial or relationship stability, and perceived immaturity.

Not convinced? Look at this chart. This is stunning. The vast majority of abortion are matters of personal comfort and convenience. I don't doubt that these folks have been in tough spots - perhaps dire circumstances, but rarely life threatening.

We block our ears and cover our eyes to protect ourselves from what might be troubling truths... in order to protect our "rights" (read: desires). I believe this strongly refutes the common arguments for condoning abortion (endangered mother, rape, incest), and reveals that, at the end of the day, abortion is a matter of selfishness and an abdication of responsibility.

Are those motives strong enough to ignore the possibility that someone might be paying for our self-centeredness with their life? Is it possible your own desires for freedom from conflict personal fulfillment are drowning out the uncertainty?

All comes down to sin

The Bible hails this principle in general to be the result of sin. God's commands are given for our good and the good of the world we live in, but we violate them to satisfy our desires. Abortion is just another manifestation - albeit a horrific one - of the state of mankind. "...since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done." In fact, abortion is most often the sinful solution to a previous sinful act... all in the name of comfort and convenience.