For I don’t know how long, Virginia has touted itself as being for lovers. When you come into the state you are greeted with a big sign with a red heart on it declaring, “Virginia is for Lovers.” The implication is that it is a fitting home for loving couples. Unless you opt for something different, that’s the “motto” you get on your license plate (mine says, “In God We Trust”). But there’s a problem. Loving couples build families; they don’t kill their children, especially children in the womb. Virginia is on the verge of being an advocate of the most egregious example of self-love (which equates to hatred of everything that is not self): abortion on demand for the entire term of pregnancy.
Many people like to call Trump and his followers, including pro-lifers, “Nazis.” However, when everything that is not you is what is wrong with the world, then you are the Nazi. If you are your own god, then the only thing you recognize as demonic (and which you might consider bad) is that which runs counter to your wants and desires. This the basic argument as to why true Christians cannot be pro-abortion. In fact, it’s not even a Christian issue, it’s a humanity issue.
From the Christian perspective, to be Christian is to die to oneself. If you are not willing to sacrifice for the baby in your womb, you are killing that child for your own pleasure, comfort, desire, etc. You love yourself to the hatred of another life. Jesus told us to love one another and specifically pointed to the children. “Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” (Matthew 19:14) In the Old Testament we regularly hear about civilizations and even Jewish leader who were condemned because they sacrificed their children to other gods. That is what abortion is, sacrificing one’s child to the god of self. The First Commandment says, “I am the LORD your God, … You shall not have other gods beside me.” And yet we regularly hear of people professing to be Christian and even trying to justify abortion with Sacred Scripture.
The whole foundation favoring abortion is built on lies. And this proposed amendment to the Virginia constitution continues that strategy. The wording of it sounds very vanilla but it is wording that one could drive an eighteen-wheeler through. While it claims to protect a woman’s “reproductive rights” it actually subjects women, including teenagers, to possibilities of abuse, trafficking, loss of medical protections, while at the same time eliminates parental involvement or informed consent. It opens the door for non-medical personnel to perform abortions, without consequences. It ignores all of the facts we have learned about the misuse and misinformation about chemical abortions. And it basically denies the harm done to women both physically and psychologically for killing their babies, including increased attempts at suicide. There’s a reason they don’t collect these statistics or try to hide them. If people really knew the facts, they might opt against abortion and that hurts many people’s bottom line, including the politicians that get financial support from abortion providers. That’s also why they attack pregnancy resource centers which focus on telling the truth about abortion, including alternative options. If you don’t believe this look at the affidavits filed in recent cases against reduced restrictions on the abortion pill or go to websites like ramahinternational.org.
Even the term “reproductive freedom” is a lie. The truth is, if they haven’t already reproduced, then there is no need for an abortion. Once a woman has become pregnant, reproduction has already occurred. The truth of science is that life begins at conception.
Another lie is that abortion empowers women. What really empowers women is their ability to say “NO!” Instead, women have been sold on the idea that they have to offer up their bodies to men in order to have any sort of relationship. It’s no wonder that liberal women find conservative men attractive, as those men believe in true relationships. But, similarly, conservative men don’t want to have anything to do with them because those women would never understand the mutual relationship and sacrifice that goes into building a family. There’s a large amount of selflessness that goes into a marriage and a family. Selfishness, on the other hand, is destructive. Selfishness is contrary to the common good and a successful marriage; and so is abortion. Selfishness is self-love to the exclusion of others, which equates to hate of everything that is not self. Don’t believe they are hateful? Look at how they react to people who pray for them or try to express the truth on campuses, at abortion centers, or other public forums.
Pope St. John Paul II noted, “It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all inalienable rights are founded and from which they develop.” (Evangelium Vitae, 101)
He also said, “A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.”
Consider these in light of the fact that the American reproductive rate has fallen to 1.57 (the rate necessary just for population maintenance is 2.1). If our children is our future, we are killing it.If you are in Virginia, vote NO! on this ballot measure.
But, wherever you are, VOTE PRO-LIFE.
ActuallyCatholic 