10 weeks. Source: Wikimedia Commons https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/74896762@N00\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>I oppose abortion for one reason: Abortion kills a living child.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat\u2019s it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI don\u2019t have any other reason for opposing abortion. If abortion didn\u2019t kill a living child, I would not oppose it. In fact, if abortion did not kill a living child, then opposing it would be wrong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut I do not just oppose abortion. I am pro life. That means I also oppose the misogyny, violence and discrimination (both legal and social discrimination) that leads to abortion. I believe that the sanctity of human life extends from conception to natural death, and that it includes all people.<\/p>\n
Abortion is wrong because it is wrong to kill people. At a more basic level even than that, abortion is wrong because people matter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHuman life matters because human beings matter. White people matter. Black people matter. Brown people matter. Men matter. Women matter. Children matter. Old people matter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDementia doesn\u2019t change that. Male and female doesn\u2019t change it. Race doesn\u2019t change it. Age doesn\u2019t change it. Disability doesn\u2019t change it. Poverty doesn\u2019t change it. Wealth doesn\u2019t change it. Power doesn\u2019t change it. Powerlessness doesn\u2019t change it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHuman beings matter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI favor laws that support the sanctity of human life, including ending abortion, and I\u2019ve got the scars to prove it. By the same token, ignoring or fighting public health restrictions in a worldwide pandemic is wrong because it kills human beings. Human beings are made in the Image and Likeness of God. Human beings matter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLying is wrong because all human beings deserve the truth. We know lying is wrong because Jesus specifically singled lying out. He even called Satan the father of lies.<\/i> Rape is wrong \u2014 every bit as wrong as abortion \u2014 because it is an attack on the humanity of half the human race and it is a direct attack on maternity, and on Our Lady. Rape is an attack on the life force itself, a kind of murder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCheating, stealing, corruption, bullying are wrong because they deny the sovereignty of God Who says they are wrong, because they create poverty, destroy justice and lead to despair. Cheating, stealing, corruption and bullying destroy the common good which allows people to live together in peace.<\/p>\n
Greed is wrong because it is idolatry of money. It is wrong because it deprives other people of the goods of life. Greed leads inevitably to other sins against God and humanity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHuman beings are unique because we are free. We are moral agents. We can do good, and we can do great harm. We are the only creatures on this planet who can do evil. Because we can chose. Because we understand the consequences of our choices. Because we can know. We can think and understand. We can plan and remember. We can communicate with one another through the generations by the written word. We can build on what we know. We can chose. We can decide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe don\u2019t just kill. We murder. We don\u2019t just breed. We rape. We don\u2019t just use. We steal and hoard and deprive others, and ultimately, we destroy. We exploit, deprive and kill. We share, love, help and build.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe are moral agents. We can choose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe can sin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat is the signifier, the burden and the privilege of being made in the Image and Likeness of God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAbortion is wrong because it kills a living child.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut this same right to life belongs to every human being, not just the unborn. You can\u2019t kill people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou can\u2019t cheat people, steal from people, lie to people, rape people, subject people to discrimination, deprive people of the goods of life, impoverish people to feed your greed. You can\u2019t in any way reduce a human being made in the Image and Likeness of the Living God to a thing or a chattel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCatholics adore the Eucharist. We treat it with utmost respect. The thing we sometimes forget is that the unborn child, the elderly person with dementia, the raped girl, the murdered black man, the impoverished child searching through garbage for food, are <\/i>the Eucharist in human flesh.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIf you do it to the least of these, you do it to Me, <\/i>Jesus told us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBeing pro life is an expression of that. It is not confined to politics and its end game is not making abortion illegal. \u201cPro life\u201d is a simple political slogan expressing in two words the most basic teaching of Christ.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPeople are the Eucharist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAnd you may not kill, cheat, lie to, steal from, exploit, rape, or deliberately harm them for your own selfish purposes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I oppose abortion for one reason: Abortion kills a living child.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have any other reason for opposing abortion. If abortion didn\u2019t kill a living child, I would not oppose it. In fact, if abortion did not kill a living child, then opposing it would be wrong.\u00a0 But I do not just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":37858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7041,7228,752,7309,50,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abortion-2","category-corruption-2","category-misogyny-2","category-racism-2","category-violence-against-women","category-feminism"],"yoast_head":"\n
Abortion Kills a Child. That's Why I Oppose It.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I oppose abortion for one reason: Abortion kills a living child.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have any other reason for opposing abortion. If abortion didn\u2019t kill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2021\/10\/abortion-kills-a-child-thats-why-i-oppose-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Abortion Kills a Child. That's Why I Oppose It.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I oppose abortion for one reason: Abortion kills a living child.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have any other reason for opposing abortion. 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