I'm very vocal about my distaste for abortion. I even hate the word "abortion". It dehumanizes the act that is taking place. I get a lot of criticism for my view. "A fetus isn't a human so it's not murder" I get told all the time. I even get told by a lot of people who are pro-life that I should leave it alone. It doesn't affect me so I should just let it be. If I'm pro-life that's all well and good, but I shouldn't be telling anyone else that abortion is wrong for them.
I can't. I won't. I want to tell you why.
In the 1940's, there was an uprising in Europe, specifically in Germany. A man, Adolf Hitler, along with many other influences, was convinced that humanity could reach a state of perfection by eliminating imperfect genes from the human race. If people who possessed these lesser genes were eliminated, then their genes could not be spread. Eventually we would be left with nothing but perfect genes, creating a sort of super human race. Members of the Nazi regime would round up these carriers of imperfect genes under false guises. Some were told they were being moved to better places. Some were told their skills were needed elsewhere. Others were simply ripped from their homes. All were placed in cramped box cars on trains or in small buses and trucks, packed in like animals, and transported like cargo hundreds of miles from their homes.
When they arrived at their destination, most found that what they were told was simply not true. They were taken to camps where they were forced to work in factories for seemingly endless hours with little food or water. The women were separated from their husbands and children. Many were beaten and raped. Most were merely herded into warehouses like sheep, stripped of their clothes and their dignity, and gassed. Some were yanked from their families in broad daylight in the middle of busy towns, dragged into the street, and shot right their in front of their children, their neighbors, their friends. In most cases, no one tried to stop it from happening. "No one is trying to kill me" they were say to themselves. "It's none of my business."
Imagine their surprise when, one day, the Nazi army marched into their town, and into their homes, and took them from their families. And imagine their horror when they begged for someone to do something to help them, and no one came, justifying it because "No one is trying to kill me. It's none of my business. I don't believe someone should be dragged out into the street and killed, so I won't do it. But I'm no position to tell someone else they can't do it."
"But, Patrick, abortion is the termination of a cluster of cells. A fetus isn't a human. The Nazis were killing humans." The Nazis didn't believe they were killing humans. Jews, were viewed by the Nazi regime in the same way we as Americans once viewed black slaves. They looked like humans. They could do things that were human like. But they were somehow lesser than we were, and therefore, their life was not of any real value. And yet, even though the Nazis declared the Jews as a lesser form of human, we knew better. We knew that it was murder! And, until the Japanese decided it would be a good idea to mess with us, we let it happen! We watched over here, an entire ocean away from it, and watched as Nazi Germany rounded up "lesser" people and killed them! In camps! In their churches! In their homes! In front of their children! In front of their neighbors! And we watched it happen all because it wasn't our problem, and all because just because we believe something is wrong, doesn't make it wrong for everyone.
Today, the exact same thing is happening! Only this time, the people being rounded up are incapable of defending themselves. They're incapable of speaking up; incapable of asking that someone put a stop to it! And we're letting it happen, all because we think that it's none of our business.
I wrote that we as American's citizens lost our right to life in the case of Roe vs Wade. Someone told me that because no one is trying to abort me that I still have my right to live. That's how those folks that watched the people around them get taken from their homes felt. "It's not affecting me so it's nothing for me to worry about." Let us forget for just a moment that whether or not they ever come for me or you is not the issue, but that standing up for others is just the right thing to do. Set that aside. Everyone always says that it's not their problem. And then one day, they do come for you. One day a person who believes that an unborn baby isn't a viable life decides that an elderly person who needs an oxygen tank isn't a viable life. It's not that far-fetched. One day a person decides that an under educated man who isn't contributing to society by his definition decides that that person should be eliminated for the betterment of the community. One day a person who believes that an unborn child is not a person uses that same logical pathway to come to the conclusion that a perfectly healthy newborn child is not a person because he does not posses it in himself to be self aware or self sustaining, and that "abortion rights" should be extended to parents of already birthed children.
If you don't believe that standing up for the defenseless is just the right thing to do, your moral compass is a little off. If you think the idea of murdering babies simply because they are an inconvenience to the parents is something that you should be indifferent about because it doesn't affect you, you're just plain ignorant and maybe even stupid. As a Jew; as a member of a bloodline that has been under attack for as long as human history has been recorded I ask of you this one thing: don't wait for someone to find a reason to justify eliminating your family, or your neighbor, or you before you wake up and say something.
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