Abortion Is More Than A Religious Issue
Dr. Hal Sobel argues that “Abortion foes impose their religion on others.” This is true only insofar as objection to the killing of human beings overlaps with the sphere of religion. Certainly there are nonreligious Americans who agree that a difference exists between right and wrong, and who also agree that killing innocent human beings is wrong.
William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was an English politician and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. He was also an Evangelical Christian. One of the main arguments used against Wilberforce’s abolitionist proposals was that Wilberforce was attempting to impose his religion on others. Wilberforce began introducing anti-slavery legislation in 1789, but it was not until 1833 that Parliament completely banned slavery throughout the British Empire—it had taken over 40 years for slavery to be recognized by Parliament as a complete violation of the rights of fellow human beings. The takeaway here is that accusing someone who defends human rights of imposing his religion on others is an old strategy—it is the strategy of deflection.
There are controversies that invoke with validity the principle of separation of church and state today, including prayer in the schools and use of the word “God” on our nation’s currency. An argument can be made that opposing gay marriage falls into this category. But when did killing people become something opposed only by religions? Since when is it the only the religious who can see that slicing apart a newborn baby who writhes in pain would be no different (no worse) from slicing apart the same writhing baby three months earlier? Where is our consistency, our intellectual honesty, as a society? Why not make it legal to kill newborns if they are unwanted? Why not terminate even older children if the child’s being unwanted is so terrible, or if he creates such difficulties for his mother?
Why not? I will tell you why not. Because one human being should not be given the power to calibrate the value of another.
M. Celeste Cole, MD
