When a doctor was invited to a school to state his position regarding abortion, he was welcomed with applause as he started his speech by stating that he was ‘Pro-choice’. He continued by saying: “And because I believe in the right of choice of the individual, I believe that a man has the right to rape a woman if he chooses to do so. After all, his body is his possession and he can do whatever he wants with it; no one can interfere!”
Shocking, isn’t it? But we should be aware that there are people in our country labouring for this law of the jungle to be legislated. I am saying this because those who are in favour of abortion, even if by subtle arguments, they are arguing in the same way: “I have the right to do whatever I want with my body.”
The law dictates that although the body is ours, we cannot do with it whatever we wish. For example, even though your body is yours you cannot choose to use it for stealing, hitting or hurting others. Your right of choice ends where the rights of others begin.
Those in favour of abortion say that it should become legalised because otherwise, the rights of women would be withheld from them. If these people really cared for the rights of women, they would not be the ones themselves withholding the female babies who are being aborted, from the fundamental right to live.
Some may say that all there is in the womb are some cells, or that it is simply an embryo and not a person. This is all play on words. Whoever argues in this way should know that he himself, before he was born, was this way as well.
Ironically, those who want abortion to become legalised, are saying that they are being discriminated, when they themselves are discriminating the life in the womb and judging it on its size and appearance.
I call it ‘life’ because that is what it truly is. It is human life because it is reproduced by humans.
Some may say that all there is in the womb are some cells, or that it is simply an embryo and not a person. This is all play on words
Even if the baby is a result of rape, it is a human life which is as innocent as the mother. Unfortunately, whoever is in favour of abortion is not being honest when using cases of rape to justify the death of a baby. Studies show that only less than a quarter of those who are raped actually choose to commit abortion.
For a raped person to have a baby is not the worst thing that can happen to her but having an abortion is, because its effects, especially emotional effects, stay present as long as the conscious is alive.
It is because of this that many raped people, with help and support, choose to raise their own child. Even if for various reasons the mother could not keep the baby, abortion surely shall not be the solution; there is adoption.
With the legalisation of abortion, the doctor practising abortion, will be working against the very nature of his profession because he is supposed to save lives and not end them. The hospital will also lose its identity because from a cradle it will become a coffin.
I have to say that the wish for abortion is not only a result of moral problems but also of spiritual problems that have contaminated our country. No one can deny that the things that are morally correct find their roots in Christianity; without it the world would only be a jungle!
‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you’ (Jeremiah 1:5).
Marilyn Bellizzi is a freelance writer on Christian themes.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece