Not too long ago, President Obama gave a speech at Notre Dame where he declared that we must be “open to compromise” regarding the abortion “debate.” At the time I thought to myself that this is one debate that should actually be over because I believe that almost everyone is truly pro-life; they’ve simply convinced themselves that an unborn baby is not a life. They are being intellectually dishonest in order to rationalize their own behavior, in order to avoid tough questions — and their answers.

Then the Cap and Trade bills came up and, of course, Obamacare, and I let those distract me. I know how the left simply likes to use abortion as a wedge issue at every turn so I thought it best to focus on the pressing pending legislation. Well, the left has brought abortion back into “the debate.” In fact, they’ve brought abortion in as a cornerstone argument in regards to Obamacare. Senator Barbara Boxer, Ma’am, proudly declared on the Senate floor that she believes that if health care covers Viagra, then it should cover abortion. Yes, because a treatment for a dysfunctional male naughty bit is exactly the same as a surgical procedure that many consider immoral and that takes a life. Speaking of immoral, Senator Dianne Feinstein went one step further and stated that it is “morally correct” for taxpayers to fund abortion.

This was capped off today by the launch of the Rosa Acuna Project, which aims to expose the dishonesty (intellectual and otherwise) of Planned Parenthood. The first video shows a counselor, with corroboration by a Doctor, telling a woman that the baby growing inside her womb isn’t really a baby:

“That is not a baby.” Dr. Polhaska, the abortion doctor, insists, “It’s not a baby at this stage or anything like that.” Polhaska also states that having an abortion will be “much safer than having a baby,” warning, “You know, women die having babies.” …

They are wrong, and worse, they know it. They are perpetuating lies, and manipulating people, all to further an agenda and to gain and keep power. It is far past due to finally be honest about it, but I’m still going to try.

Gracie, 6.5 week internal ultrasound

Some say it sounds like a train, some say it sounds like a galloping horse. Others say it is nothing; just a clump of cells, a mass of tissue. Some even call it a “punishment.” But it’s not. It is the sound of an unborn baby’s heartbeat, 8 to 12 weeks gestation. Hearing that sound, the sound of my daughter’s heartbeat in the womb, and seeing the picture above, which was my first ultrasound at 6.5 weeks pregnant, is what made me begin a far too slow realization that I am, in fact, what is commonly known as Pro-Life. It was a bracing epiphany after years of espousing the “choice” mantra. Still, for some time afterward, I clung to the belief, albeit diminishing, that just because I was Pro-Life it didn’t mean that I could force my views on others. What can I say? It was the libertarian in me. Recently, I finally realized how oh-so-wrong that was.

That bright spot in the middle of the tiny bean-sized Gracie? That’s her heart. Beating. You can see clearer pictures by googling images, but I wanted to show an un-enhanced personal photo of a baby some of you may know by name. (I did crop it, though. Y’all can see my fancy womb, but seeing my bladder is just icky.)

Surgical abortions aren’t performed until after that 6th week mark. This is after the heart is already functioning and vital organs, such as the brain and digestive organs, are formed or forming. OBGYNs won’t even schedule a maternity appointment to confirm pregnancy until after that 6th week mark, so a surgical abortion is not even possible until then.

Still, I continued to delude myself that I was more in the “pro-choice” camp. I don’t much care for limitations on freedom or individuality and I have a rather strong libertarian bent (without the cuckoo pants parts.) I believe that humans are flawed, so, who am I (or the Government for that matter) to pretend to be otherwise and think that I know best? Part of being free, to me, is being allowed to fail, being allowed to be wrong, even being allowed to be an utter Asshat.

I believe that we aren’t fully evolved or “enlightened,” whether you lean more secular or spiritual. That old line, “You can’t legislate morality?” I believe that it should have been amended to include “you can’t legislate evolution of a human thought process level.”

So, I continued to justify my increasingly floundering position for the above reasons. But eventually I found that I could no longer do so. One of the reasons? Trig Palin.

The fact that 95% of the “Trigs” of this world are killed before they are born sickens me. If that isn’t Eugenics (Thanks Margaret Sanger! Sigh) then I don’t know what is. Those babies are killed AFTER 16 weeks, which is the earliest an amniocentesis can be done. The picture above shows Gracie at 16 weeks. I labeled the head, the foot and the arm for any men reading this – I know y’all aren’t too good at “seeing” the ultrasounds, and they can be difficult to decipher. The fact that my niece, born almost 2 months early could have been killed, legally, even up to the day she was born, also sickens me. It angers me. President Obama says it is perfectly fine for an infant (that is what they are) who somehow manages to survive an attempted abortion, be left to die. He attempts to justify the indefensible in his mind because he wants the self-satisfaction of saying that he is sparing “Mommy’s” (term used loosely) feelings. It is important that SHE doesn’t “feel” bad.

What are we doing? Why is this OK?

Once life is devalued in any form, all life is devalued. We have allowed ourselves, at least I did, to believe that “When does life begin?” is an actual debatable question, and maybe even one that is above our “pay-grade.” We couch the issue, we don’t allow ourselves to believe an unborn baby is Life. Sometimes this is done out of compassion; we feel like we don’t have the right to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. Sometimes it is done under the guise of personal freedom or a right to privacy. We use these weak arguments to somehow try and justify the horrible and inhumane actions, actions for which I believe humanity itself, in the future, will judge harshly. All our misplaced compassion, all our rationalizations, are meaningless because if we are honest with ourselves, we are using them to sanction the killing of a child.

An unborn baby isn’t just a mass of tissue, it isn’t just a clump of cells. In fact, at day one, it is Life. We have laws protecting fish EGGS as Life (and not just as “potential life”) but not our own unborn children? An unborn child, upon conception, is Life. It’s potential is to have a life, but it already is Life. There is a difference.

We must be intellectually honest about it, at the very least. I find it odd that the very same people who deride religion and embrace science conveniently forget what Francesco Redi proved in the 1600s, and which Pasteur went on to prove yet again, Biogenesis or Omne Vivum Ex Ovo; Life CANNOT spring from non-life, every living thing from an egg. Biogenesis – THAT science really is settled.

Can one grieve for something that isn’t alive? I know from experience that when you lose a baby through miscarriage, you don’t think, “Oh, it was just a clump of cells anyway.” You grieve and mourn, both physically and mentally. Can something not alive THINK? Because unborn babies move around in the womb; they think to move to give themselves more wiggle room. They respond to voices. They respond to movement, they respond to music and they do so very early on. Gracie, for some odd reason, liked the theme from Sex and The City, something I have yet to completely forgive her for.

Viability isn’t an issue for me either. Not viable does not equal not alive. A full-term delivered baby isn’t viable on its own either. It can breathe on its own, but that’s about it.  Even then it needs some additional help. If you put a newborn down to sleep on his or her stomach and anything blocks their nose and mouth, they won’t be able to turn their head and will suffocate.

I do not expect to change anyone’s mind overnight. I am not trying to preach. I understand the pro-choice position. I believed many of the basic concepts myself for a long time. I am simply hoping for a little intellectual honesty.

Acknowledge that the unborn are alive and that abortion is the ending of that life. Of course, this won’t bring back the almost 50 million (yes, million) babies aborted in America since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Just a little intellectual honesty, for now. I hope that one day, the rest will follow.

Originally/cross-posted at iowntheworld.com

Courtesy iowntheworld.com