I read an interesting article the other day, one of many linking abortion to other human rights issues in our past. And I found myself wondering, why are people falling for this again? The same arguments, the same deception, the same evil is present every time! We treat abortion as if it is different. We like to think that we have come a long way, that we would never allow those things to happen now. Not in America. Maybe things like genocide and slavery would happen somewhere else in the world, but not here! And yet all this time I get the feeling that a dark presence is laughing, because it didn’t take creativity to fool us. Allow me to suggest a possible reason for the acceptance and promotion of abortion in our society:

If we were to turn against abortion, name it murder, admit that we’ve been wrong, and protect the unborn children just as we do the born, it would cost all of us very, very dearly because:

1. We’ve killed over 50 million people legally in the last 40 years.  If we admit that abortion is murder, we will be admitting to the most horrific crime in history, one that puts the most notorious genocides to shame. This fact is especially costly to us personally because

2. We don’t have a Hitler.  We have no one to pin this on. Instead of having a scapegoat to blame, we would be forced to look around at friends, family, even ourselves, and say, “we did this.” It is true that the Germans voted for Hitler, supported him, and hailed him, but in the end they could claim at least some ignorance of his actions. We, on the other hand, have the information to know exactly what is happening here, and based on the statistics, I would guess that nearly every one of us (whether or not we are aware of the fact) knows someone who has had an abortion.

2. This is the United States.  What happens if the most powerful nation in the world, the nation that is supposed to protect, provide for, and keep peace among other nations admits to mass feticide? What if the term, feticide, grows the same connotations as genocide? What does the world do with a country like that? Think about it for a moment.

3. This is the 21st century.  We tend to underestimate the intelligence, courage, and goodness of past generations. In practice, we scoff at George Santayana’s wise words, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And because we believe ourselves superior to those who have gone before us, we think we are immune to mistakes like the ones they made. After all, we are enlightened, informed, tolerant, progressive! Well, what if we say out loud that we did something worse than the slave owners or Hitler or Stalin or Mao? Something more gruesome than the Rwandan genocide or the child armies in Uganda?

I believe we have come to a point where it is a clear and proven fact that abortion is no different than murder. More information is available to the public than ever before, and there is no evidence to support the idea that abortion is neutral or tolerable or good. But truth can be painful, and in this case, very loaded. We need to be aware that this is no longer a discussion surrounded by reason, but one of emotion and pain and pride. Those who dare jump across the chasm onto the side marked by life and true tolerance are courageous and deserve our respect. And those who don’t have the strength need our encouragement and patience and love. Lets choose to be in this thing together.