I know this post is going to be a little outdated now, but I'm slow at blogging and I finally have a little time to spew my thoughts out to whoever might still be reading our decrepit blog. As a bit of a preface, I'm a people pleaser by nature. I don't particularly like conflict and I have a tendency to try to see all sides of an issue before I say anything. It seems like a good quality, and can be at times, but sometimes it's a hindrance because everything can start to feel like it falls into a "grey" area and people oftentimes have strong opinions about something only until they get placed into that life situation and suddenly they see things from a whole new light. But isn't the whole point of a blog to share life and have a platform to speak on issues that I'm passionate about, regardless if they please the whole world? So this is me speaking out about something that I think does not fall in that "grey" area, something I'm quite passionate about.
I recently changed jobs, which has been an interesting experience. For the past few weeks when we've gone on break, the Casey Anthony trial has been on the tv in the break area. I don't really know much about the case to be honest, but a lot of people I work with have followed it pretty closely. On the day when the verdict came out, it was the talk of the day. A few people specifically requested to be able to get info about the verdict as soon as it came out, so that's what happened. When people heard the verdict, "not guilty," the whole room was full of people's shock and horror and anger. The most frequent comment I heard is that someone will probably try to take justice into their own hands and right the mistake made by the lawmakers of letting her get off so easily (except their language was a little more colorful). I sat back and watched all of these people get so worked up, so angry, so passionately horrified that such little justice was done for a beautiful three year old little girl. Many people thought the mother should have gotten the electric chair. Passionate anger. They felt she was a murderer through and through. I don't know what happened to that little girl and my heart breaks about the whole situation.
What struck me the most, however, is this fact: if that little girl, the same exact little girl with the same DNA, who would grow up to have that cute little face and the beautiful brown hair, if her life had been taken a few years earlier - no one would care. Most people wouldn't have known and most people who would know would probably advocate for her death. The nation wouldn't be horrified, it wouldn't be the talk of the day at work, people wouldn't get passionately angry and fight for her rights. Her mom could have walked into an abortion clinic, had her little girl removed from her womb, and that would have been the end of it right there. No trial, no uproar, no investigation.
How is it different? Why at three years is it murder, but at three weeks it's freedom of choice? At three years people want to put that mom to death, but at three weeks people stand up for her and fight for her right to live out life how she wants. Maybe it's at three weeks she decides she doesn't want her daughter, maybe it's at three years... aren't they one and the same? If it isn't alright at three years, why do we have such apathy at three weeks? "But it's not a child yet, it's only a fetus and has no rights... it's not a person... it's has no soul, no spirit, no rights..." Really? That child when it is born will have the same DNA, those little bundles of cells will turn into a little boy or girl that will smile and learn to talk and maybe change the world. But we make pathetic excuses to make ourselves feel better when life doesn't go our way and we want to avoid the inconvenience or the pain or the turmoil that might come with having an unplanned child. We somehow think that getting rid of that little pile of cells in our womb isn't murder. We tell ourselves that we aren't murdering our child. But that's what it is and it's what our nation has done. According to the CDC, over 800,000 abortions were reported in 2008 alone. I read that number and my stomach turned upside down, I wanted to throw up at the mere thought of it. Over 800,000 in one year? What are we doing as a nation? Freedom of choice? The freedom to choose is a right that exists before a child is conceived, not after.
I know there are women hurting and I know it's a hard issue and I know I'll never know all the circumstances involved, but there are no good excuses. Every life is precious, every life is a gift, and it makes me want to weep when people can view a child's life with such disregard. It's an issue that makes my blood boil. Equally as bad, however, is that we've made it a cultural norm and have lied to our teenagers with a message that abortion is an accessible, easy way out. We let them think that it's a way to make the issue disappear, yet fail to tell them they will carry those wounds for the rest of their life. There's no easy way out. That's not how life works.
I'll step off my pedestal now and say a few prayers that those mom's considering abortion would consider adoption instead - that those children would have a family to nurture them into the child God intended, a child who just might change the world.
