Humanity of abortion

Incredible violence has been committed against abortion providers, including butyric acid attacks, anthrax threats, bombings, arson and murder since Roe v. Wade was decided 40 years ago.

Small change, R.C. Sproul Jr. would contend, when compared with the “American Holocaust” women are carrying out under the protection the court case provides — not to say he would condone the violent actions of anti-abortion radicals.

To characterize abortion in the United States as a holocaust is to oversimplify the issue. To compare the 40 percent of American women who have had abortions to Nazis ends the conversation before it can begin.

Who wants to listen to a Nazi?  Who wants to listen to someone who calls you a Nazi?

I doubt Sproul will change any minds today. Instead, he will further discourage sympathy between two points of view. He will further fracture the Bloomington community.

It is easier to vilify the pro-abortion position than it is to truly address it, because the truth is that most women get abortions for reasons that coincide with evangelical values of commitment to family.

Three-fourths of women get abortions because they are worried about taking care of the children they already have. These women already have what Sproul would call a blessing and want to do right by that blessing.

Sometimes that means not welcoming a little brother or sister into the family.  
Raising a child for 17 years costs a minimum of $212,370.   

Even with two parents, even with wages better than the federal minimum, it is hard to adequately provide for just one child to the minimum acceptable standards.
 
And most parents want what is best for their child. They refuse to settle for what is minimally acceptable.

In this sense, terminating a pregnancy to better serve your existing children can be a rational decision.

Additionally, half of women who get abortions express concerns about bringing up a child in a single-parent or volatile household.

The prevalence of divorce and disjointed families is an aspect of American society that Sproul criticizes in his 2003 book, “Bound for Glory.”

When women apply the same principles he champions to the real world, however, he unilaterally dismisses them as evil. 

Sometimes parental relationships cannot be fixed for the sake of baby. Sometimes the only way to avoid bringing a child into a toxic environment or a single parent family is to not have a child.

Most women do not take their abortions lightly, and portraying abortions as heartless acts of selfishness is unfair. Careful consideration for other people’s welfare, for the quality of others’ lives, goes into these decisions.

These women are not motivated by hate — they are motivated by love.

The issue of abortion will probably not be comfortably put to rest in even my lifetime, but we cannot tolerate rhetoric that encourages hate and misunderstanding just because recognizing the nuances of a problem is inconvenient.

Throwing around the word “holocaust” is the antithesis of a sophisticated argument.

­— casefarr@indiana.edu