by Michele Roach
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” ~Horton Hears a Who
Tomorrow the Super Bowl will be played. The commercials will run, and come Monday morning, everyone will compare notes as to which was the funniest or most memorable. For the past few weeks, a controversy has brewed over an ad that Focus on the Family has lined up featuring the story of Tim Tebow and his mom Pam, who in her freedom of choice, chose life. All the big acronyms are in hysterics: NARAL, PPFA, NOW. They want the network to pull the commercial. Three million dollars for a thirty second air spot. Capitalism with a side order of free speech is prevailing at the moment.
The only thing that bothers me about the premise of the commercial—as it did when someone made a similar ad about President Obama—is the implication that Tim's life had value because he has accomplished great things (if you consider excelling at sports a great achievement). I understand the angle (I've seen it referred to as the George Bailey effect), especially when trying to capture the attention of a wide audience, but these types of ads make me cringe a little.
Does each individual have a different worth? What are the criteria that we use to determine that worth? Most civilized, rational adults do not want to admit to a belief system that lessens the value of a black man in the inner city compared to a white woman in the suburbs. But the reality is that we do.
Our society places an invisible price tag upon its children, born and certainly unborn. A child that is conceived within an intact, financially sound family is assumed to be destined to lead a productive life that will “give back” to society. On the other hand, one that is conceived by a single, impoverished mother is expendable; the assumption is made that the child is destined to an unhappy, unproductive life.
The tangible evidence of these stereotypes is discovered by the locations of your own city’s Planned Parenthood facilities; here in St. Louis area, there are twenty. The suburban satellite centers mainly provide testing, distribute birth control and emergency contraception—the latter without an exam. But the headquarters—where the surgical abortions are performed—is in the city. This is not a fluke, but by design.
Margaret Sanger, infamous eugenicist and founder of Planned Parenthood, said, "The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."(1) As well as, "More children from the fit, less from the unfit -- that is the chief aim of birth control."(2) Thinking like this has funneled through the generations, each one watering down the inherent evil of shedding the innocent blood of its own children. Because of this, abortion is considered a prudent and palatable necessity of our modern society. Even if we do not personally believe these things, our silence allows them to advance.
These rationales are derived from man.
God does not base our worth on our wealth, our skin color, or our potential to help or hinder society. He values each and every life because they were knit together in the dark place by His very hand, and created in His image. If we know in our hearts that this is true, we should pray for the courage to be a continual voice for the voiceless.
Hopefully the Tim Tebow commercial will convey the most important of all pro-life messages—the circumstance of one’s conception in no way changes their humanity.
If that is the chatter around the water cooler next week, then Focus on the Family spent their donor’s money well.
Dedicated to the memory of my friend, a faithful pro-life advocate and servant, Arne Molbach.
(1) Women and the New Race (Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923)
(2) Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12
4 comments:
Well put. In a mock court when i was in high school (way back when)my Mormon friend and I were the only ones willing to represent the unborn...that is until this one young man quietly stood and walked over to our table for the planning of our defense.
He let us put him on "the stand" without any explanation and shared how his mom had given birth to his older sister (who we all knew) and she had "special needs". (We called it something else back then that is no longer politically correct.)
When she discovered she was pregnant again, the doctors and her family told her she should abort her unborn child. he said, "that unborn child was me.I'm nobody special. Just average and I am thankful she chose life."
Our class was the class was the only one to overturn Roe vs Wade in our mock court. Putting a face to someone's possible fate holds a lot of weight.
Thanks for the comment, Mari. What a great illustration you gave in your story.
Your last line really struck me, "Putting a face to someone's possible fate holds a lot of weight." That's so true. We have sterilized abortion, making it a faceless non-crime. To many, many people it lends humanity back to the unborn.
But a problem arises in the fact that the other side can do the same thing. It's been said, whether it be an urban legend or not, that Hitler's mother almost had an abortion.
Did that make any of you stumble in your pro life convictions? Did you think, "Wow, the world would have been better off..."?
This is the root of my point: even Hitler was created in the image of God. For better or worse, every child has the right to life, despite their potential for good, evil, or plain old mediocrity.
Well articulate, Chely. Sometimes I can't believe we're still debating the issue at all. It's not rocket science. And precisely because of that, I know at its core, it's a question of good verses evil.
I was 18 when I found out I was pregnant. The nonchalant Doctor was the one to offer the abortion shortly after giving me the news. I said "No thank you". Then later after my parents were told they asked what I was going to do and my Mother was relieved that I said that I was keeping my baby. So I became a Mother at 18 and started my life, through the good and bad.
I have always believed that this was part of God's plan. I went on to marry a man that adopted my son as his own and we added to our family later on.
At 24 years old, my son and his girlfriend found themselves in the same position. I immediately embraced the idea of being a Grandma but I had to make sure that was going to happen. They both said there was no other option than having my Grandson Jacob. Again, these children are God's plan. You are here to give HIM the glory, not live for yourself.
I know that I had a lot of support from my family to help me get through those trying years when I was making decisions basically on my own but God lead me down the path of my life. I cannot imagine my life without Kevin, because this means that I would not be with my husband of 23 years, have Justin, my Daughter-in-law Heather, and Jacob plus all the other blessings in my life.
It's his plan, and I cannot even think about destroying anything that God has provided to us in his name.
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