Roe at 40

“Picture a football stadium that holds 55,000 people, and then multiply that to 1,000 such filled stadiums, and you’ll have an idea of how many human beings we have lost, how many babies have been killed, since the Roe v. Wade decision 40 years ago.”

That stunning statement left a radio talk show host speechless for a moment, when my guest put a visual to the idea people have long lost sight of in the word ‘abortion.’ Or its terminology.

John Morales is the producer/director of the documentary film 40, a film that “will present the argument that abortion is not merely a religious or political issue but the most important fundamental human and civil rights issue of our times,” he said.

Lila Rose told me the same thing, of course because she has stood for and worked for that belief for a long time in her young life. She’s dynamic, courageous, creative, dedicated and determined to attract people to the truth and beauty of human life and the deception of the abortion industry. Live Action posted this intruiging list of questions to ask and answer on the anniversary of Roe.

FOR ABORTION SUPPORTERS

If there is uncertainty as to when individual life begins, should we error on the side of protecting life or discarding life?

Which right is more fundamental, the right to not be killed or the right to not be pregnant?

Does it concern you that everyone who supports abortion is no longer threatened by it?

Have you considered the fact that the arguments used to justify abortion were once used to justify slavery?

I make that anology a lot, myself. It’s so clear and direct and apt.

There are questions there for pro-life advocates.

If your grandkids ask you someday what you did to combat abortion, will you have anything to tell them?

If an outside observer were to secretly examine your life, specifically how you invest your time and money, would they conclude that abortion is a grave injustice or no big deal?

If all abortion-opponents responded to abortion as you do, would that help or hurt the cause?

Would you be doing more to combat abortion if the lives of your own children hung in the balance?

Is it more important to believe that abortion is wrong or to act like abortion is wrong?

If it was your life that was threatened by fatal violence, would you want advocates who politely held their tongue, or advocates who actually spoke up in your defense?

And more…

A site called The Gospel Coalition posted 64 questions for this anniversary, or presumably any other day people might engage a conversation or debate about abortion. Which is a good idea anytime.

A random sample…

What shall we call the unborn in the womb?

If the entity is a living thing, is it not a life?

So when does a human being have a right to life?

Shall we make intellectual development and mental capacity the measure of our worth?

Are three year-old children less valuable than thirteen year-olds?

Is the unborn child less than fully human because he cannot speak or count or be self-aware?

Does the cooing infant in the crib have to smile or shake your hand or recite the alphabet before she deserves another day?

If an expression of basic mental acuity is necessary to be a full-fledged member of the human community, what shall we do with the comatose, the very old, or the fifty year-old mom with Alzheimer’s?

Eric Metaxas gets down to the bare facts, stripped of euphemism and terminology. Here’s The Naked Evil of Abortion, his commentary at Breakpoint.

The numbers related to abortion are almost anesthetizing to the conscience of America. Since 1973, more than 55 million unborn babies have had their lives snuffed out.

These numbers are so mind-numbing that perhaps we in the pro-life movement may be forgiven if we occasionally forget what those numbers actually mean.

John Morales helped though, with his visual of the thousand football stadiums…

Look if you will, says Metaxas, or look anyway, because you should see.

That’s why we occasionally need a reality check—such as a brand new documentary called “3801 Lancaster.” It’s available for free online, come to BreakPoint.org, click on this commentary, and we’ll link you to it. The title refers to the address of an abortion clinic in West Philadelphia that is the site of a scandal so horrific that it’s almost impossible to describe without tears.

The documentary, written and directed by David Altrogge, shows what happened at the so-called Women’s Medical Society over a period of twenty years. That clinic, run by a well-known doctor named Kermit Gosnell and situated in a rough neighborhood, catered to a mostly poor, minority clientele. The documentary shows how the facility, which looks run down on the outside, was a filthy house of horrors on the inside.

Yes, Dr. Gosnell specialized in late-term abortions, but that’s a rather antiseptic description compared with the grisly reality. Walls and beds were stained with blood. Jars were filled with what are gingerly called “fetal remains”—arms, legs, you get the idea. It gets worse, and I hate to be so graphic.

But that’s what it takes for some people to see.

How, you might well ask, did authorities allow this carnage to go on for so many years? According to the grand jury report, the Pennsylvania state department of health, in order to remove “barriers” to abortion, had stopped inspecting abortion clinics. And no one cared anyway, because most of the women were poor and members of minority groups. In fact, “3801 Lancaster” makes it very clear that African-Americans and other minorities are specifically targeted by the abortion industry, making abortion one of the key civil rights issues of our time.

So while numbers are important, indeed inescapable, in the battle for human dignity, sometimes we and our neighbors have to see the naked evil and cruelty of abortion with our own eyes.