Abortion and Human Rights


Gregory Koukl

Greg convincingly describes how the issue of abortion is truly no different than the issue of slavery. The issue to be considered is the issue of human rights.

Let me ask you a question. Are you against slavery? Do you believe that the issue of slavery is a moral position? Are laws legislating that particular moral position appropriate? What you've said is that it's appropriate to legislate certain moral issues and that you'd be in favor of that. The economic issue would actually be on the side of the South because slavery is what propped up the economic system of the South. When slaves were emancipated it gutted them of their economic force. Let's remove the economic argument.
Based solely on morality, are you willing to say that the moral issue of slavery should be enforced simply as a moral issue? This is a very important point. Many people have offered the objection that we should not force a particular morality in the issue of abortion. My questions are very pointed and leading, and they were simply to make the point that virtually everybody who makes that kind of objection actually does believe that there are cases in which morality should be legislated. We talked about the obvious issue of slavery because there is the human rights issue that is at stake.
 
The question for us is whether the unborn child is a human being that has inalienable rights in the same way that a black is a human being that has inalienable rights.

My encouragement to you and anyone else who would espouse the same position is to understand that the pro-life side is arguing this issue on the basis of human rights. The question for us is whether the unborn child is a human being that has inalienable rights in the same way that a black is a human being that has inalienable rights. If that is the case, it is just as appropriate for us to legislate on the abortion issue as it is in the slavery issue. It's not just a casual parallel because in 1859 Judge Taney on the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision that declared that black people were not human beings and did not deserve protection under the law. That was a Supreme Court decision that was later overturned by

 

The Emancipation Proclamation.

The point I'm making is that if you don't address this issue on a human rights basis then you're not addressing it on the basis that pro-lifers are addressing it. The questions should be asked about the appropriateness of abortion or about laws against abortion based on a human rights issue. To be honest with you, I and virtually every other pro-lifer will abandon the fight if the unborn child is not a human being worthy of being protected. We're not interested in getting into people's bedrooms and telling them how to have sex and how to live. We're not interested in restricting choices because we are bigoted and want to make people's lives miserable. We're interested in human rights just like those who argued against slavery.
If you are to reject my position on abortion, that's your prerogative. I respect your right to do that. But I would encourage you to engage intellectually the real critical issue: is the unborn child a human being? If you can answer for yourself with some rationality that there is no reason to believe that this is a human being, then I think you've justified your position. But I don't think the simple objection that it's not appropriate for one person to force their morality on someone else is ultimately legitimate. When questioned a little bit you acknowledge that that's not a valid way of approaching human rights issues.
What about cases of rape and incest?
 
During the slavery debate, both in this country and at the turn of the century in England, the issues were framed in the same way: choice, the government shouldn't be in the position of legislating morality, the government shouldn't tell us how to run our private lives. Yet there a human being clearly was at issue.

I don't say that it's permissible in those cases. I think you're pointing out an inconsistency in this discussion that is very valid. I agree entirely and this is why I do not hold that abortion should be allowed in those cases. This really demonstrates how important the question of the human rights of the child is because it compels us to certain conclusions. It removes from us the liberty of making ad hoc decisions based on our emotions. We must approach this in a disciplined way as a transcendent human rights issue. If we don't do that we are not doing the issue justice.

But what I don't want anybody to do is to mistakenly frame this issue as one of choice. It is not an issue of choice any more than slavery was an issue of choice. It's not an issue of what a woman can do with her body. Frankly, a woman can't do what she wants with her own body and neither can men. Laws restrict those freedoms given the right set of circumstances.
The issue to be considered here is the issue of human rights. It's unfortunate that the press and certain people arguing for one position have framed the question differently because they have missed the entire point. During the slavery debate, both in this country and at the turn of the century in England, the issues were framed in the same way: choice, the government shouldn't be in the position of legislating morality, the government shouldn't tell us how to run our private lives. Yet there a human being clearly was at issue. Even then when you had a living, breathing human being standing there staring back, they still could argue that way. I'm not a bit surprised that it could be done with an unseen infant that is growing out of sight in the womb of its mother.

Anyway that's my personal challenge to you to rethink this issue in a different fashion.

 
This is a transcript of a commentary from the radio show "Stand to Reason," with Gregory Koukl. It is made available to you at no charge through the faithful giving of those who support Stand to Reason. Reproduction permitted for non-commercial use only. ©1992 Gregory Koukl

Debunking myths of Roe v. Wade

By: Gary Bauer

Few Supreme Court decisions have had as much of an impact on American life as has Roe v. Wade, which subsequent courts have interpreted as having discovered a constitutional right to abortion for virtually any reason and at any time during pregnancy. Since Roe, abortion has taken the lives of at least 50 million Americans (equal to the combined populations of 25 states). The demographic repercussions of Roe continue to shape voting patterns and are a driving force behind America’s fast-approaching entitlements crisis.

Despite its prominence, several profound misconceptions exist about Roe. These misconceptions help to explain why it remains so controversial 36 years after it was handed down.

The first misconception is that the right to abortion has constitutional roots. But Roe’s justification actually derives from an abstract interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s premise of liberty and the malleable concept of a right to privacy found not in the actual text of the Constitution but rather in its “penumbras” and emanations. These foundations are so dubious that even leading lights on the left have criticized Roe’s legal reasoning. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for example, has called Roe “heavy-handed judicial intervention.”

A second misconception is that Americans overwhelming support Roe v. Wade. But the public remains remarkably uninformed about what the court ruling means. The left has done a great job convincing many Americans that Roe is simply a synonym for abortion rights and that, if one supports even a limited right to abortion, one must also support Roe.

In a 2007 study of registered voters, respondents were asked whether they wanted Roe overturned. A majority (55 percent) said no, while 34 percent said yes. But when respondents were told what Roe means — that it prohibits states from limiting abortion during the first six months of pregnancy and that, if Roe were overturned, states could pass laws that would permit abortion — the share who opposed reversing Roe dropped 7 points, to 48 percent. Meanwhile, the number of people who supported overturning Roe jumped 9 points, to 43 percent. That’s a 16-point swing.

The survey actually understated how extreme Roe is. For instance, surveyors didn’t explain that the “health” exception to late-term prohibitions is so expansive that abortion is effectively available for any reason through all nine months of pregnancy, something most Americans oppose.

Another misconception concerns what would happen if Roe were overturned. The day after Roe’s reversal, abortion policy would revert back to the states. Some states would severely restrict abortion, while a bigger group of more populous states would likely pass laws guaranteeing the same access to abortion they have now. So, far from ending the abortion battle, Roe’s reversal would mark the beginning of a battle to which the past 35 years have been a prelude.

A post-Roe America would look like the America of today in terms of the sheer volume of abortions. The major difference would be an anti-abortion movement toiling to tackle 50 separate abortion policies simultaneously. Another important difference is that we would no longer teach young Americans the lie that — among their cherished constitutional rights of free speech, religion and assembly — there is also a right to take the life of an unborn baby.

A final misconception about Roe is one too often held by its opponents: that Roe’s reversal is the ultimate anti-abortion goal and that support for constitutional protections for the unborn betrays the federalist principles of conservatism. But by asserting states’ rights, Roe’s anti-abortion opposition effectively (if unwittingly) accepts Roe’s reasoning that prenatal life is not a due process right within the constitutional framework and, therefore, that the unborn child is not a constitutional “person.”

Moreover, in our system of government, certain issues are left to the states while others are deemed so essential to our understanding of democracy that they must be taken up nationally. We fought a civil war over the conviction that some issues are too fundamental to be decided state by state. Just as slavery was an assault on human dignity, the slaughter of millions of unborn children is an assault on a natural human right that exists prior to, and regardless of, the whims of a majority.

The misconceptions surrounding Roe help explain why it is at least as controversial today as it was when it was handed down. The passion Roe continues to evoke will be evident in the scores of thousands of people who descended on Washington this week not to celebrate the swearing-in of a new president but to march peacefully against the scourge of abortion initiated, in large part, by Roe.

With President Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress, Roe probably won’t be overturned for years. But abortion-rights-supporting and anti-abortion Americans alike should welcome the day that it is, because it will allow a real discussion about abortion to take place. And in order for that discussion to begin, the misconceptions about Roe must be dispelled.

Former presidential candidate and radio talk show host Gary Bauer is president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families.
© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC

By Greg Evensen

NewsWithViews.com

THIS IS WHY WE BELIEVE IN THE REPUBLIC

“Mr. President, it is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free—if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending—if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained—we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we MUST fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!

Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun. Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!!”-----Patrick Henry

A REMINDER OF WHY WE BELIEVE WHAT WE BELIEVE

“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance, they are the people’s liberty teeth.”
“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”
“The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference—they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
“To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.”
--Quotes from General George Washington

A SECOND REMINDER OF WHY WE RESIST OPPRESSION

“I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude.

If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds, we must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread. We must live then, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling our miss managers to account but be made glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow suffers.

Our land-holders, too, retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, in foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, and watch the pretentious glory of the nation.

This example reads to us the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagances.

And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance, becomes a precedent for the second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering.

Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man.

And the fore-horse of this frightful team is PUBLIC DEBT. Taxation follows that, and in its train, wretchedness and oppression.” -----Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Kercheval, Monticello, July 12, 1816

Upon countless hours of reflection, I remain convinced that the only hope for a rediscovered, reinvented and revived nation, lies within the hearts and souls of her people. I mean clearly, people who understand her past, have worked to sustain her as a republic, and are prepared to do WHATEVER IS NECESSARY to rescue her from an evil so vile as to defy description. We have entered the city limits of hell on earth. Only a rescue on the level of angel warriors can escort us out of the mess we have created and allowed to occur. Assuming that the Heavenly Legions would prefer to see at least a modicum of effort on our part, I still see a catastrophic struggle on the near horizon that will call for every last ounce of our collective courage to see it through to ultimate victory.

God calls each of us to a path chosen and designed by Him because He knows our strengths and our flaws. He is the one who stands by us in the dark and calms us just before battle. I assure you I know this to be true. I have lived it out many times. He has never failed me. Like any seasoned warrior, I am prepared to do what I can for as long as God asks me to fight. I will also tell you that any victorious combatant will readily admit that it was his comrades in arms that made the ultimate difference and who stand with him in the gap that allowed survival and success. Strength in numbers and superior firepower are key elements in any battle. That is not a mere cliché. IT IS THE GO-AHEAD MARGIN!

However, without an A-Team of like-minded Green Berets who, when asked how far will they go, answer…”ALL THE WAY,” even then, you are destined to fight against all reasonable odds of success. As the late Charles Hastings Smith, the “Poet of the Ozarks,” and a personal friend of mine once said, “I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast, I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made—I am a disciple of Jesus. I won’t look back, let up, slow down or back away. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future secure. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, diluted or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, or negotiate at the table of the enemy I will not shut up, let up, or give up. I serve Jesus the Christ, I am already a victor with and by Him. N-O-T-H-I-N-G E-L-S-E M-A-T-T-E-R-S!” I could not agree more, Charles.

With friends and family like these listed below---those who have meant the most and who have accompanied me and the one who has paid the final price for my life, I can never thank them enough for their valor and their love for me and their native land.”

And so I begin this next phase of trial and effort for my beloved Republic. I hold her in my arms and whisper sweet assurances that I will not forsake her nor leave her without doing all that is possible to bring her back to peace and tranquility, safe from those who would violate and wound her further. I retreat for the time being into her gentle steams and forests, mountains and plains, farms and ranches…..to help those who need it the most and can do the least--the weary, the lost, and the defeated. I will assist as you now gather in small groups to discuss, prepare, train, and plan for winning the struggle that is set before you. It is the ultimate test wherein a nation and her people win freedom and life, or drown in a sea of slavery and defeat. For me, there is absolutely NO choice. I will do all that my experience, age, and tactical abilities allow me to do. I choose to join you on the field of struggle. In my heart, I pray to live long enough to see my children thrive and my grandchildren grow in peace---if that be possible. If not, then let me struggle for them, if someone must again see the horror that pits good men against evil ones. Oh, God, may they not have to see that. The willing, the righteous, and the triumphant must survive…there is no second place. Let me confront the bastards that eat men’s lives for wealth and greed; I long to place a dagger in their putrid hearts.

And now, here are thoughts about the few that have traveled most of life with me. How grateful I am for their counsel, patience and love. My precious wife Liz, with her Christian testimony that has never failed, and a heart that loves and protects, she is our family’s model for life. My mother, whose kindness and generosity still abound. My sister Pam, for the courage and quiet dignity she has shown alone, for many years. To my brother Jeff, a true and faithful brother in heart through life that has never failed me. My son, Ben, is a peace officer and family loyal gentleman that stands above the rest, moral, strong and true. Jessica, my daughter, is breathtaking in her outer and inner beauty, a fighter for what she believes. Rachael, Jessica, and Nathan, Liz’ magnificent children, the family that came to me after my wife Yvonne went to be with the Lord. Liz’ “mom” Carol, sister and brother-in-law Kathy and Dan, our grandchildren Chloe, Rory, Gabriel, Sophia, Gavin, Trey, Pyper and Ayva, are all so unique. To Kathleen, Ronnie and Beverly, on the high plains of New Mexico, thanks, for giving me your wisdom and acceptance, you are all truly my precious family.

Rick, we have seen so much as peace officers. I can’t imagine going through this without you manning a “50.” John, you are the only honest attorney I know. Bail me out someday, please. Brian, the only honest “fed” I have ever known….I’m counting on you to live out your oath to this nation, we are counting on you.

Then of course there are Bob and Darlene, our “end days” family, Billy Joe, Col. Nelson, Jay, Jackie, John at RBN, John at My Power pad, Drew Raines, Dave, George, Don Nicholoff, Jack McLamb, Richard Mack, Chris, Bill Moore, good friends, always there at the critical moments.

Men of valor, my partners, Kansas State Troopers Larry Zeutenhorst, Charlie Smith and Conroy O’Brien, all there the day I received the Kansas Medal of Honor, the “Governor’s Award” at the State Capitol, sharing the moment and now all passed on to Glory ahead of us, waiting and watching. Hundreds and thousands of police officers at all levels who know the truth, I will be with you in spirit, on duty, standing against illegal orders, and all for the protection of “the people.”

My in-laws, Mel and Edna, always there, steady, wise, loving.

My dear deceased father flew a B-24 that paved the skies with power and courage. Finally, among thousands more I could name is one Maynard Brazeal, retired director of the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center. A man of courage, intellect, compassion for his men and valor in action only a few will ever see, one of my dearest friends and mentors. God protect you. My life and my dedication are made complete because of what you have all done for me. Thank you just opens the book. Brotherly love for all of you binds it together.

To Paul Walter, Devvy Kidd, Alan Stang, Frosty, Coach Dave, Chuck Baldwin, Andrew Wallace, Sheriff Jim, and others at NewsWithViews.com, who have distinguished themselves in full view of America, indeed the world. Friends I count on in this battle of words and people who possess courage unmatched in my view. They are standing “on the green” for you folks; they have sacrificed more than you can know with no reward, for the good of our nation. God bless each one, richly.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Republic, “Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country……” The rest is up to you. For the love of God and country, do not fail. Stand rock steady. Do not quit. Do not fear. God is with you, if you claim Him and surrender to His love. In the end THAT is truly, ALL that matters.

I am going into the field to teach men and women how to live and survive. I will be available at greg@theheartlandusa.com

Stay the course, your children and their children have nowhere-else-to-go. Believing we can and will get this job done; thank you for being there. Thanks for defending America, her patriots, and all of our FREEDOM.

© 2009 Greg Evensen - All Rights Reserved