Listen for awhile, and you will hear politicians refer to a “culture of life.” To demonstrate his unwavering support for our culture of life, President Bush is opposed to using taxpayer money to pay for abortions. He has openly satisfied a chunk of his primary voter base by declaring that he will veto any legislation that suggests otherwise, for as many politicians have said, we live in a culture of life that must be protected at all costs.
Behind political rhetoric, there lurks an honest belief held by some segment of the population. The actions of politicians who label themselves Pro-Life reflect the idea that many cling to concerning the culture of life in which we are supposed to live. Abortion is the destruction of a fetus. That is a fact. Even the most vocal members of the Pro-Choice movement will tell you as much. Others will go further and tell you it is in fact the death of a human being, and since the death of a human being is in violation of our culture of life, abortion must be banished.
They fail to understand that a true culture of life does not support the death penalty, does not veto stem cell research that might save lives, and it does not launch wars that kill people under the guise of spreading freedom. In a true culture of life, the sanctity of life is not exclusive to fetuses and other political tools, but rather, is open to all lives regardless of age, religion or political value. A fetus and a vegetable woman are not more important than a mentally-retarded homeless man, but you won’t see the Pro-Life Collegians holding prayer groups for a teenager suffering from Down syndrome forced to sustain themselves on the spare charity of others.
You also will not see them praying outside of children’s hospitals. Unlike a fetus, a child born with leukemia feels pain and knows that his life will end soon. Why is the outrage over terminal childhood diseases not as great as the outrage concerning abortion? These people believe that fetuses are alive. Well, here are living beings condemned to an early end from day one, so which is worse: dying as a fetus or dying after six years of life?
Unlike a fetus, parents actually know their young, terminally ill child. They know his smile, his laugh and his hobbies. He has a personality, and when he dies, their sadness is well justified. The only personality a developing embryo has is the one dreamt up by delusional people. When a woman miscarries or a doctor performs an abortion, the clump of cells that has been destroyed was merely a potential human life, nowhere on the same cognitive level as an actual person. Yes, Johnny-that-could-have-been might have cured AIDS. He also might have blown up a bus or, more likely, done nothing but be another cog in the wheel.
I invite those of you who support the Genocide Awareness Project to give your skewed perspective to a grieving mother of a 7-year-old with malignant cancer and pay attention to what kind of reaction you receive. If the Pro-Life movement was truly interested in the sanctity of life, they would create a memorial dedicated to all the children lost to incurable diseases. They would hold fundraisers and donate the money to research cures—something the Greek organizations have no problem doing—instead of promoting the idea that abortion is equivalent to mass murder, something that takes attention away from true problems in this country.
They trivialize the Holocaust, a proven act of genocide, by utilizing images from that period in their propaganda. The systematic slaughter of a group of people and the tough decisions made by many women are nowhere near the same level, no matter how deep their convictions run. In addition, they call for adoption in favor of abortion, as if the decision is that simple. An unwanted baby is an unwanted baby, and no amount of propaganda is going to alter that truth. Instead, it may serve to diminish true acts of cruelty.
The Pro-Life movement is quick to jump all over issues that they feel are morally wrong, yet if they gave half of their effort to solving real problems, then they would be worthy of the title of Pro-Life and politicians might have a right to speak of a Culture of Life.
As it stands now, they do not support a culture of life, but rather, a culture of selective compassion.
— Travis Lee is a senior in French. He can be reached at [email protected].
