The 'Prochoice' Movement Is Selfish

Abortion must be illegal to protect the life of the innocent

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By Gary Marx

, Executive Director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition

January 22, 2013

About Gary Marx:

Gary Marx is executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

On Dec. 14, 2012, America wept. Parents held their children closely while learning of the gruesome murders of innocent schoolchildren; principals and politicians announced their plans to increase school safety. Yet America hardly bats an eye when an expecting mother chooses to end the future of their unborn child. Our society embraces individuality to the point of encouraging selfishness. The "prochoice" movement views the lifestyle of the pregnant mother as more valuable than the life of the unborn.

This leads us to the inevitable question: When does life begin? Conception? When an ultrasound shows the baby developing? After the first trimester? When the baby kicks for the first time? When labor begins? When the child takes his first breath outside of the womb? Depending on who you ask, the answer varies.

[See Photos: The 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade.]

Of course, from a Christian standpoint, the answer is clear: Life begins at conception. If you ask a couple who has been trying to get pregnant for years, the life of their child begins as soon as they learn that they're expecting. Ask a teenager who got pregnant accidentally and her answer would be much different. How can an opinion determine the value of life? From a legal perspective, if someone murders a pregnant woman, the murderer is faced with a double homicide. Yet if a woman chooses to end the life of the child she carries, many praise her for embracing her "right" as a woman.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Catholic contraception controversy.]

So, should abortion be illegal? Absolutely. We must do all we can to protect the most innocent. This change cannot just be enacted by law, however. We must reverse our selfish thinking that the outcome of a pregnancy is based on the mother's wishes, and remember that the mother is a vessel for new life. Taking away the life of a child is, without question, the cruelest murder there is, because they cannot defend themselves from the mothers and doctors who should love them most and seek to protect them. We must do all we can to ensure that the child has a chance to live.

And first and foremost, those of us who are prolife must continue to lovingly seek to change hearts and minds in this 21st century. It is only in this way that we will ultimately restore a child's right to life and the promise of "life" that our Declaration of Independence speaks of so movingly.