"There were 75,000 abortions in Texas last year. If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those woman, that's 3,000 lives. That's almost as many people as we've lost in Iraq."The incentive Texas State Senator Dan Patrick is talking about is a proposal he has filed into legislation that would offer $500 to pregnant women who are planning to have an abortion if they deliver the child and put him or her up for adoption instead. While I disagree with the idea of paying people to do what is right, the quote got my attention because numbers he used to validate his point made me stop and think. We are so concerned about the lives we have lost to the war effort (and rightly so), but at least every life lost in Iraq was a life given. The soldiers sent over there knew when they volunteered to serve their country that death or severe injury were very real possibilities. These unborn children are not given that choice. If you walk around DC, you will see a variety of war protests, a silent protest in front of the Capitol, a rally with brightly painted signs on the mall, an old man, sitting vigil in front of the White House, but very few protest the killing of the unborn, and yet the casualties are so much greater (approximately 3,700 every day in the US). The comparison of numbers put things into perspective for me. It is one thing for a solider to give his life for his country... it is very different for a mother to give the life of her child for her own "quality of life." While we're out there running marathons to cure Diabetes, AIDS, and Cancer, maybe we could try to find a cure for selfishness. In the end, I think that is what will destroy this nation.
To read the whole article, click here.
The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill
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