Thank you for your cordial reply.
Sorry, but I don’t fully buy into your explanations, which do indeed seem to me to be an attempt to make the “mother” an additional victim rather than the co-conspirator with the abortionist, indeed initiator, of the abortion.
I quite agree that she is often victimized by our society and its misplaced sense of values, and that the perpetrator of a single killing is not AS guilty as he who kills dozens, hundreds or thousands. But we seldom apply that rationale in the case of those who kill born people, implying that those who kill only one should largely get a pass since others massacre entire schoolrooms full of kiddies.
I am also not averse to the idea of compassion for those who are vulnerable, and a young pregnant woman is one of the most vulnerable in our society. The only person I can think of who is even more vulnerable is, ironically, the person in her womb.
But I do indeed see a widespread attempt by pro-life people to absolve the “mother” of responsibility for her actions and the harm it has caused. And I think this is largely, though doubtless not exclusively, driven by the accurate political perception that any movement that properly characterizes the actions of the “mother” will go nowhere politically. That absolving the “mother” will help the movement and therefore save more lives in the long run. I cannot argue with that contention. It is probably correct.
Not being myself particularly involved in the politics, and having the benefit of being anonymous on this forum, I can express my beliefs as to what I think is the truth.
Which is that if abortion is the killing of a human person, which I believe it is, then all those participating are guilty of that killing.
The term “murderer,” as you probably know, has specific legal and cultural connotations that may not fully apply in such cases, so I don’t toss it around. But abortion is still the killing of an utterly innocent human being. And whether the word is used or not, it’s an awful thing.
I’ve been very blunt here, and I hope you can appreciate that my opinions are not expressed in a spirit of hatred or contempt. Even abortionists are not necessarily intentionally evil, as I suspect most of them fully believe what they are doing is right.
No, I understand, and I appreciate your cordial manner as well.
I guess I'll say this and leave it here: I agree with you that almost any woman who procures an abortion is participating in the murder of an innocent person. There's no getting around that, and I don't absolve those who've done it of the act just because they were in difficult circumstances.
But when you look at how Jesus and those who worked closely with Him in ministry handled people who were also knowingly doing sinful stuff, what you see is that there was a spirit of gentle firmness, not a diatribe. The Bible takes sexual sin very seriously, even referring to a woman who seduces men as being like a person who eats them like bread or pushes them into a grave. Not as bad as murder, but still...and look at the way our Lord treated the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery and the woman who anointed his feet. Heck, look at how he treated Saul, a mass murderer, and the thief on the cross.
Lastly, I know people who have looked an abortion-minded mom in the eyes and told her she'll be a murderer if she goes forward with the abortion. But if they had opened with that, or mounted it as some sort of public campaign...yeah, no dice.
Thanks for listening, and have a great week.