This post is copied from Dr. Denny Burk. I read it on Friday before I left town for a short time and scheduled it to be posted today. Emphasis in his article by color is mine.
I just read a report in the Associated Press that is too awful to believe. But it is true nevertheless. An 18-year old girl went to an abortion clinic near Miami, Florida to abort her 23-week old unborn baby. After the procedure had begun, the abortion doctor did not show up in time to kill the baby before it was delivered. Here’s the description from the AP.
‘She sat in a reclining chair, medicated to dilate her cervix and otherwise get her ready for the procedure.
‘Only Renelique didn’t arrive in time. According to Williams and the Florida Department of Health, she went into labor and delivered a live baby girl.
‘What Williams and the Health Department say happened next has shocked people on both sides of the abortion debate: One of the clinic’s owners, who has no medical license, cut the infant’s umbilical cord. Williams says the woman placed the baby in a plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.
‘Police recovered the decomposing remains in a cardboard box a week later after getting anonymous tips.’
This story is tragic on so many levels, but one particular part is worth focusing on for just a bit longer. It’s the part that the pro-choicers want you to ignore but that you dare not ignore. According to this report, the mother of the murdered child had a change of heart after she saw her dying daughter taken away. Now she is filing charges against the abortion clinic. The mother’s lawyer describes her shift this way.
“She came face to face with a human being, and that changed everything.”
When the mother saw what it was that she was having killed, she changed.
Seeing the humanity of the unborn does change everything. Just one glimpse sweeps away the farcical euphemisms that we use to tell ourselves that abortion really isn’t that bad—like, “terminating a pregnancy” or “aborting a fetus” or “it’s my right to choose.” You can argue all day about why abortion is wrong, but the image of the baby that is to be killed changes everything. Apparently it did for this mother.
The report also says that this story has “shocked people on both sides of the abortion debate.” Of course, pro-life people are scandalized by stories like this one, but it is disingenuous for pro-choice people to behave as if they are shocked that this kind of thing happens with botched abortions. Abortion rights supporters lobby against laws that protect babies who survive abortions. That is why so many of us were sounding the alarm about President Obama during the 2008 election. As an Illinois legislator, Obama opposed a law that would protect little girls like this one from being treated like refuse. And he said at the time that he opposed legal protection for survivors of abortion because it might imply that abortion itself is taking the life of a human person. Abortion-rights proponents praised him for this stand, and none of them should be acting surprised by this latest story.
Finally, a word to those of you who either support abortion rights or who are indifferent to this whole issue. If you are shocked and appalled at how this little girl was killed, then why not be shocked and appalled at the fact that if the doctor had arrived on time the same outrage would have occurred? The only difference would have been that the killing would have taken place in a different location.
I aim to win hearts and minds to stand in defense of the unborn. The only way to do this to keep the humanity of the unborn in plain view. This tragic story does that. How can anyone with an ounce of decency remain indifferent to this?
Amen Dr. Burk… and thank you for your post!