;-)
Posted on 12/19/2001 12:19:27 PM PST by Starmaker
"Feminists don't like me and I don't like them...I don't know why feminists have it out for me, but that's their problem, not mine." – Mel Gibson (star of Braveheart, The Patriot, Lethal Weapon; 100% pro-life)
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." – Mother Teresa
"I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name. I would like nothing more than to have this law overturned." – Norma L. McCorvey ("Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade)
"Thou shalt not kill" – The Holy Bible
"The decision nullifies a law, expressing the will of the people of Nebraska, that medical procedures must be governed by moral principles having their foundation in the intrinsic value of human life, including life of the unborn." – Justice Anthony Kennedy (dissent from Carhart vs. Stenberg, the 2000 case in which five other justices overturned a Nebraska law against partial-birth abortion, the procedure Justice Kennedy references)
"The inalienable right to life is found not only in the Declaration of Independence but also in the Constitution that every President is sworn to preserve, protect and defend.ÿ Both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee that no person shall be deprived of life without due process of law." – Ronald Reagan
"Each of us has a unique beginning, the moment of conception..." – Jerome Lejeune (Nobel Prize, Genetics)
"A Person is a Person, no matter how Small." – Dr. Seuss
As a pro-lifer, I have to acknowledge that not only does a prenatal baby's life begin at conception, but that there begins fatherhood also. It is at conception that the father and mother are conjoined to produce new life. It is at conception that the most beautiful thing on the planet, the G-d-blessed spark of innocent human life, begins it's journey through existence.
From that moment, every good father loves his baby, and is moved by a need to protect, defend, and care for her from that moment, through all the days of her life. This empathy, this compassion and emotional investment, is a society builder. It is what gives fathers the motivation to work, to build homes, and to make the world a safer place.
It must be sanctioned and endorsed by every legal vehicle possible.
And it is time to define, for once and for all, what "pro-life" is.
Pro-Life is Pro-Baby. It is the understanding that babies have rights, rights worth protecting.
Every baby has a right to grow old enough to...
...gurgle, and smile, and laugh, and do all the silly, adorable things that babies do...
...take those first, halting steps as toddlers do, more waddling than walking, offering heart-melting toothless grins in celebration of their own efforts...
...see a bird, or a tree, or a cloud for the first time, and in wide-eyed wonder, point chubby fingers at each new wonder of Creation, as they discover them...
...know the joy of being protected from all the dangers of the outside world, by someone who loves them more than anything in the world...
This and more, babies deserve.
And the very human life of every innocent, vulnerable, defenseless little pre-natal baby begins with the moment of conception.
Prior to conception, each of the parent's respective haploid gametes contains twenty-three chromosomes, only half of what is required to create new human life. Conception results in a single cell which contains forty-six chromosomes.
These forty-six chromosomes are not only human, but are in a combination distinctly, undeniably different from either parent.
This combination is the blueprint for every biological aspect of the new human's life, and will determine infinite characteristics of the new individual. We all began our unique and valuable lives exactly this way. It is at this point that the processes of life are set in motion. Were they not, there would be nothing to terminate...
Dependency is a quality that extends well into toddlerhood. At conception, the new human life is at once dependent, and defenseless, and utterly vulnerable.
This is science.
This is reality.
It is indisputable.
The anti-baby ice-cold euphemism of "choice" defies science and nature no less than it controverts human decency and morals.
In the name of nature and science, we must recognize the reality that each of our unique human lives begins at conception.
In the name of human decency and morals, the very human life of every defenseless, innocent, vulnerable little prenatal baby must be fully protected.
Legally.
Roe vs. Wade will be overturned during this presidency, given two more United States Supreme Court appointments by very pro-life President George W. Bush.
When that occurs over the next three years, the road will be paved to the enactment of a protective law, reading as follows:
"Where the mother's life is not in danger, the father of every baby consensually conceived shall have the legal right to prevent the abortion of his baby, from the point of conception through birth, provided that he is willing to support and raise the baby."
It is the right thing to do.
Since this essay began with quotes I agree with, I will close it with a quote I do not agree with, but which eerily echoes the position of those on the other side of this issue:
"It had nothing to do with humanity, it couldn't have; it was a mass..." – a reference to the Holocaust by Franz Stangl, Nazi commandant of extermination camps in Sobibor (March, 1942 -September, 1942) and Treblinka (September, 1942 - August, 1943).
Interviewed by Gitta Sereny in 1970, Stangl's comments later appeared in the book Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience (1983).
Do you have photos, videos or signed affidavits?
You replied that your friend told you he propositioned her, that does not qualify as photos videos or signed affidavits...it only qualifies as hearsay.
The failure of the pro-life movement to explicitly endorse the legal right of good fathers to stop the abortion of their own babies contributes to this societal state, perhaps more than any other thing.
Pro-lifers are happy to fault pro-abort fathers, but refuse to fault pro-abort mothers. This is why we fail.
Pro-life fathers, and the need to legally enshrine the right of to protect their own babies, is the most categorically-ducked issue in the pro-life movement. And this is the other reason why we fail.
For thirty years since Roe, the pro-life movement has only mentioned fathers when they are pro-abort, and thus can take the fault. This is the final reason why the pro-life movement, on every conceivable legal front, has failed miserably for thirty years.
I support overturning Roe; after that and before a Human Life Amendment, other restrictions on abortions must be put into place.
I support a Human Life Amendment, the ultimate goal.
I call on pro-life women to support this.
And pro-life men, no less.
Our team plays against the opposing team. We have no game plan. Can any pro-life leader articulate a strategy or tactic that will help us gain yardarge or score points, not to mention win a game or win the season?
In Braveheart, The Patriot, etc. Mel Gibson does not win because his heart is pure. He wins because he recognizes that "General Gage is a fool". I'm sure the heart of general Gage was just as pure as that of Mel Gibson's character." But Mel has smart tactics.
Unfortunately we are not in a Mel Gibson movie, we are in a sappy Karate Kid 13 movie where "pure heart" wins. That is not real life.
Can you honestly say that the pro-life movement has found success over the last 30-years of avoiding the father-question? Of doing almost as much to peripheralize fathers as the "pro-choice" movement? Of only mentioning fathers when fault was to be assessed? Of preferring to keep abortion a "woman's issue" rather than explicitly advocating the right of every good father to love and protect his baby from conception forward? Of clouding the father-question rather than addressing it straight on and honestly?
Whatever kind of society you want, it begins with family.
I believe the author of the article provided the best potential strategy to overturn Roe vs Wade: force a legal decision which affirms the concept that human life begins at conception. This is the only argument that gets to the core of the matter - that abortion is murder.
I'm not saying this will be easy, as medical science is as fully stocked with liberals as any profession or segment of society. Yes, it will take a more conservative Supreme Court to uphold such a decision, if and when one could be made at a lower level (which is why it's also important for GW to appoint as many lower court judges as possible). Which brings us to the dastardly tactics of Patrick Leahy, who is setting records for how slowly the Senate Judiciary Committee can process a President's judicial appointees.
In short, we need an undivided Congress and GW in the White House, then a few years to balance the federal courts and wait for the right case to come along. That's a lot of "ifs" to consider, but I still believe that having a court declare that human life begins at conception is the only way to finally rid this country of the scourge of abortion.
"Women want to kill their baby because of the inconvenience of a few months, when the men are willing to pay for 18 years if the woman will please not kill his baby."
That says an incredible amount for the pro-life men, that they are willing to pay for 18-21 years if the woman will just...not...kill...his...baby.
I think that a lot of people would respect that. I'm saddened beyond measure that some pro-lifers won't explicitly support a man's right to protect his own baby. The issue is either categorically avoided, or someone will say, "Well, many men are pro-abort..."
I have no empathy for pro-abort men.
I have no empathy for pro-abort women.
The natural right of fathers to protect their own babies from conception forward needs to be enshrined in law.
It will save lives....
And yet some pro-lifers won't get behind it, preferring to keep abortion a 'woman's issue".
It's Gyncentricity over Life.
Therein lies the central problem.
Tactics get more people to vote for Bush than Gore; for pro-life senators; for pro-life officials at every level. No voter casts his vote based on your ability to win debates about who or what is "pure of heart".
Check how many pro-lifers featured in newsletters are not registered to vote. How many are registered but do not vote! Karl Rove says 4 million! In 11 precincts I worked in the last 3 years, 99% of feminists and gays vote every election.
But 50% of those with a conservative bumper sticker (or with Rush Limbaugh, Fox News or Christian radio on when I knock on their door) are not registered to vote. 50% of those registered do not vote. Politicians give lip service because they know we are all bark and no bite. But they do give lip service because they don't want us to wake up.
Organize pro-life activists to knock on the doors of neighbors (who only care how their football team does). Be neighborly. Get them to vote pro-life. Register 300 to vote. Then email me back.
ps. I don't mean to imply elections are everything. I use this to point out where we are currently not effective and are losing.
One of many reasons why:
One reason the "pro-choice" position succeeds is due to the spectre of "unwanted children". This argument hugely sways the voters-in-the-middle to the "pro-choice side, which is why the "pro-choice" side has adopted "Every Child A Wanted Child" as their official slogan. The legal endorsement of fathers rights to protect their own baby prenatally offers a situation in which the baby is wanted.
That is why it will get through before a Human Life Amendment will. Indeed, it paves the way to the HLA, and is a strategy on that level as well.
The "if" is not what the courts or senate do. The "if" is what we do. We are quick to point out when someone else does not take responsibility for his own actions. We are quick to point out to Algore supporters that "we won".
Well, let's take responsibility for our own failure. It is not Patrick Leahy's fault that politicans only give us lip service because we do not vote.
You are correct. It is likely that the 2002 elections will be the GOP's Waterloo. After that you will see the GOP begin its fight for survival by deleting the abortion plank. IMHO
Pro-Fatherhood = Pro-Life = Pro-Baby.
Feminists are notoriously, passionately, anti-father on every possible level. They fear this issue, they know it is their #1 Achilles Heel!
How do you know? To how many voters-in-the-middle have you listened? I knocked on every door in 11 lower middle class suburban precincts NW of Chicago the past 3 years. I hear people talking Bears and work. When pressured to name issues, Education is always #1 (Nobody agrees on what to do about it.) Taxes is #2. 2nd amendment is far ahead of abortion. BTW Nobody has listed health care as an issue when I knock on their door.
Truth is they have no opinion on abortion. They will agree with both pro-life and pro-abortion statements that are contradictory. Truth is they see abortion as a debate between extremist, irrational fanatics whom they can make fun of on Rush or SNL or KISS-FM. They don't want to take sides; then people would make fun of them. Of course, that works for the status quo.
Please get out and listen to 300 of your neighbors and let me know if they are different from my neighbors.
They may be baby-killers, but they are effective propagandists as well.
To fight one's enemy, one must fight the enemies means of success!
Half true. Republicans can win the senate, in Illinois with pro-life candidate John Cox, and in other states. But they can win only if we implement winning tactics such as getting our neighbors who care only about the Bears and their job to vote for Cox. We are not going to convince our neighbors to do this if we appear fanatical and doctrinaire. We will accomplish this if we appear neighborly.
But if we do not implement smart tactics and we lose the election, then the Republican establishment will dump the pro-life plank from the platform. Note that the pro-life plank is currently "lip service". It has had no impact in the past 3 years on any election in Illinois, nor on any politicians actions in office that I am aware of. The pro-life and pro-abort people who do vote look at the candidate.
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