I don't pray for things that can't happen. The fight over abortion legislation is a waste of time, and politicians use it as an intentional distraction. I don't care who is on the supreme court or what the law says; abortion rates are tied to demand. If you want to eliminate abortion, you've got to tackle the root problems. No woman gets an abortion for fun. Free birth control, pre- and post-natal medical care, and public daycare would go an incredibly long way toward reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions.
I understand why that rankles the "personal responsibility" crowd, but there are a lot of irresponsible, unlucky, and/or victimized people out there. If the goal is really the welfare of the child, we should be making it easier for everyone to get by, not using babies to punish people who make bad decisions.
In your own words.....
"If the goal is really the welfare of the child..." OK, so by your own words, we
HAVE established that we BOTH recognize that this IS a child we are talking about,........ that's very good, because there are many "pro-abortionists" that DENY that it's actually a child, in spite of every shred of scientific evidence we have today. Yes... I'm glad we agree! Every single persons life began when they were conceived, i.e.: a sperm fertilized an ovum. Period. The child may or may not live to full term, either naturally, OR, perhaps by intervention by someone that may seek to HARM that child, but absent that intervention, the only way it will die is by NATURAL death causes. It is entirely unreasonable and thoroughly impossible to justify murdering the very child that we are talking about, or that it can be an "option" for discussion,
"If the goal is really the welfare of the child..."
"we should be making it easier for everyone to get by..." OK, now we're getting somewhere. You've established what
your goal is, and where
you turn to determine
your justification of the murder of the child. You've suggested that if it was "easier" to get by and to raise a child, at least if it was "easy enough", then there would be no "need", or at least a drastically reduced "need", or in your words again, "demand" ("abortion rates are tied to demand"), for abortion. This is an "arbitrary" claim though. Who is to be the "arbiter" that decides what is to be the line where it is "easy enough" so that an abortion, "in this case", is not justified, but "in this case", is. You've just stated that "abortion on demand", in your opinion, should be the law of the land, and that every [parent???... or perhaps only every mother, with the father having no authority at all???] should have the right to murder their child, and decide if THEY think that it's going to be "easy enough" to raise it. Raising a child should be "easy", and if it's not, or even if you THINK it's not going to be, go for it... it's alright to kill that child then. Oh... but please, do it in a way that nobody ever really knows about it, won't you. If you let that child come visibly into this world alive outside of your womb, we're going to have to charge you with murder....... or perhaps not? I don't know for sure where you might stand on that one... only because you haven't yet stated it here...
"not using babies to punish people who make bad decisions..." What you're saying then is that you feel it's a better, and an "acceptable" solution to
punish the completely innocent babies with the death penalty for "bad decisions" other people made.... well, at least as long as we intentionally murder the child before it's actually physically been seen alive by anyone (oh, should that include "not seen alive on an ultrasound image then, or not??), and as long as we don't tell anyone/too many people that the child actually existed (of course the mother will have to know, and at least the abortionist performing the abortion.... or maybe not.... we can use drugs to do it too....), and as long as we then hide/destroy all the evidence that it ever existed? (If a tree falls in the woods and nobody sees it fall, did it or didn't it fall?) Or maybe you're supportive of "full term" abortions? Or partial birth abortions? Why not go one step further... I mean, a kid is a HUGE burden (responsibility..... I mean.... punishment) at least until 2 years after it's been delivered or so. And have you ever been through the punishment (your word) of raising a teenager? Man, a baby is a piece of cake compared to one of them. Caring for a child as it grows in the womb is probably the easiest point in its life of all! Shoot, just from the words you've used here, I don't think you were referring to the "punishment" that "people" go through while the child is in the womb as being the real "punishment" at all........... I'm pretty sure you were referring to the "punishment" that comes AFTER they are delivered. Maybe we ought to make abortion illegal, and only use the death penalty as a solution for the child if it actually turns out to BE a "punishment" at these other stages of life? I mean, who knows, maybe "some" of those children would actually turn out to even be blessings??? Why legally allow a preemptive premeditated death hit on them, purely on the basis that "they MIGHT turn out to be a "punishment"?
The whole abortion discussion is based on the premise, "
I brought you into this world, and therefore
I have every right to take you out"! There is one more thing that I wholeheartedly agree with you on Buck. You said,
"If you want to eliminate abortion, you've got to tackle the root problems". The problem here is as old as this world... the sinful heart of man. Our Creator God is the one who makes the rules here, and God tells us that murdering an innocent child that HE created and died for in the womb is immoral and sin, and against HIS law. Man rejects God and His laws, because man is a sinner, born that way, and inescapable. The only thing that has the power to change man's sinful heart is the gospel.
1 Timothy 2:1-6 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks,
be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.