Framing the debate

I've been thinking this week about abortion. As a child born post Roe v. Wade to an unwed immigrant mother who put her up for adoption, I've been pro-life ever since I knew pro-life existed. My husband was adopted. My grandmother was adopted. My brother was adopted. My best friend in high school was adopted. We all have different stories, but a common thread--any of us could have been killed before we'd been given an true chance at living. Unwed mothers, immigrants, college students with bright futures, drug and alcohol abuse, potential physical deformities, birth defects, a mother who died giving birth, unwanted pregnancy, abuse, poverty; we run the gambit of all the "good" reasons to abort. And yet, every one of us is ALIVE. In every case our biological mothers chose to have us, and every one of us is pretty darn thankful for that. So, pro-life for me is part of my very existence and the existence of many of the people I care the most about. I take arguments in favor of abortion as a personal affront--because what these people are saying is that we SHOULDN'T BE HERE. With the stroke of a "clever" argument meant to inspire compassion for women, my existence is negated. While compassion for women is difficult circumstances is the duty of every Christian, nay, every humane person, compassion for the child is just as important, in some cases more so.

I am the face of abortion.



But recently I've thought about how we throw that word around. "Abort" "Abortion" Even pro-choice advocates use the words all the time. Familiarity breeds contempt. When's the last time you really thought about what these words mean? The World English Dictionary defines abort as:

— vb

1. to undergo or cause (a woman) to undergo the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable

2. ( tr ) to cause (a fetus) to be expelled from the womb before it is viable


3. ( intr ) to fail to come to completion; go wrong



4. ( tr ) to stop the development of; cause to be abandoned

5. ( intr ) to give birth to a dead or nonviable fetus

6. (of a space flight, military operation, etc) to fail or terminate prematurely

7. ( intr ) (of an organism or part of an organism) to fail to develop into the mature form

— n

8. the premature termination or failure of (a space flight, military operation, etc)

"abort." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 09 Jul. 2011. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abort>.



http://3dultrasoundss.com/2011/05/16/3d-4d-ultrasound/



In addition to the common definitions we think of, abort also means, "to fail to come to completion; go wrong," "to stop the development of; cause to be abandoned," "to fail or terminate prematurely," "to fail to develop into the mature form," and "the premature termination or failure of." Even the very word abort should bring to mind the tragic snuffing of a real person. Because we bandy the word about in political efforts we, in my opinion, cloud these definitions with a convenient short-hand that lets abortionists off the hook.



How many young people today even understand what the word means? It's not some ivory tower description of a simple medical procedure. It's the ending of something special, something magical, something good and blessed. And I weep for those who unwitting support it without ever coming to that realization.