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With the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts
looming in the near future, the abortion issue has once again been
placed front and center in the public debate. Though it has been over
three decades since Roe v. Wade, Americans are still very
passionate about the abortion issue. In fact, based on the rhetoric of
many left-leaning senators, John Roberts’ confirmation may very well
be decided based on his views about abortion and the Roe
decision. Because John Roberts’ views on the abortion issue are
under scrutiny, it is not surprising that the issue itself would once
again be passionately debated.
Pro-choicers use many varied
arguments to attempt to justify abortion, but the pro-choice position
centers on one question: is the unborn child truly a person? Even the
most ardent abortion supporter will not deny that abortion kills something,
they just insist that the “something” is just a lump of
tissue, not a person. If the fetus is not a person, then one certainly
cannot consider it to be murder to kill it. The pro-choice side has
been pretty effective by framing the abortion issue around what the
fetus is now, as opposed to what it will be later. Because the
unborn child is in a process of development, it will many times lack
the characteristics one would associate with personhood or a human
being, particularly in the earliest stages of development. Focusing on
what the fetus is now is effective for the pro-abortion
position because it is more difficult for the pro-lifer to make a case
for personhood when many of the characteristics or abilities
associated with personhood are not present.
Despite all the pro-choice
arguments against the personhood of the unborn, there is one fact that
cannot be denied: abortion denies future life to a person. Were
it not for abortion, another person would be alive to grow through the
innocence of childhood, wide-eyed at the wonders of the world. Were it
not for abortion, another person would be alive to experience a first
date and going to the senior prom. Were it not for abortion, another
person would be alive to go to college, marry, and start a family. All
the experiences and decisions and pains and joys that comprise what we
call “life” are taken away from a person forever by the act of
abortion. This is both grievously immoral and tragic. Our nation was
founded with the belief that all people are endowed by God with
certain “unalienable” rights - rights that are never to be taken
away. The Declaration of Independence declares the first of these
rights to be life, and American values dictate that life is not to be
taken away without due process. Whether or not an unborn fetus is a
person now is irrelevant because it is certain that it will be
one in the future. Abortion is the cutting short of an innocent life;
it denies the future to an innocent person. The act of taking away the
life of an innocent person has a name in our society: MURDER.
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