A time for truth on abortion
Star ParkerFormer Alaska Governor Sarah Palin missed a great
opportunity to personally kick off an issue of enormous importance to
her state and to the nation.
She was scheduled to appear with me at an Alaska Family Council event
in Anchorage to launch Alaska's Parental Involvement Initiative, which
will require parental notification of teenage girls under age 18 before
they can get an abortion. But, the schedules of we mortals cannot
retard the imperatives of history, so, despite Mrs. Palin's absence,
we've gone to war with the army we have.
Currently 35 states have laws that require either parental consent or
notification in order for a teenage girl to receive an abortion. Alaska
passed one in 1997.
However, after ten years on the books, in 2007 the Alaska Supreme
Court, arguing that sharing this information with parents violated the
privacy of their teenage daughters, found the law unconstitutional. So
now a 13-year-old can get an abortion without the knowledge of her
parents.
A large percentage of these abortions are paid for with state Medicaid
funds, but no one seems to think that parents' privacy is being
violated using their tax funds to pay for these.
Research shows the remedial benefits of parental involvement when a
pregnant teenager considers abortion.
And research shows the profound psychological damage caused by teenage
abortion. But, perhaps we should be wondering who we are today that we
need to gather data to address an issue as intuitively obvious as
whether a teenage girl may abort her child without her parents knowing.
Of course there are exceptional considerations, like abusive parents.
But the Alaska initiative deals with this, as did a similar initiative
in California, which was defeated last November.
No, this is not about being reasonable. It is about ideology. And what
we have are opposing worldviews that cannot be reconciled. It's about
choosing one or the other.
One view is secular, materialistic, and sees only individuals and the
rights they claim.
The other view is about truths that precede individuals, and social
realities of which individuals are a part, like family.
This contrast and conflict could not have been more clearly laid out
than in an exchange at a congressional hearing last April between
pro-life New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton.
Smith was questioning current administration policies to promote
abortion internationally. As part of his questioning, he waxed
philosophic and asked Mrs. Clinton about her recent acceptance of
Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger award. Sanger founded Planned
Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion-provider.
He pointed out to Mrs. Clinton that Sanger was a eugenicist and racist
who said "The most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant
members is to kill it."
The Secretary of State listened stoically and then replied: "We have a
fundamental disagreement....We happen to think that family planning is
an important part of women's health, and reproductive health includes
access to abortion."
A century and a half ago, a fundamental conflict in values in our
nation came to a head. In one view, black African slaves were not
human, so the question of slavery was about political, not moral,
reality. The other view saw the slaves as human and slavery as a moral
outrage. The conflict fomented at the nation's grass roots until it
exploded in the national arena.
The parental involvement ballot initiative in Alaska is about Americans
again grappling at our grassroots with crucial basic questions that
divide us that must be resolved.
Are we a people that see the unborn, family, and individuals as all
part of the fundamental fabric of life? Or are we a materialistic,
secular nation of individuals making political claims on each other?
Contact: Star Parker
Source: OneNewsNow
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Date: September 1, 2009
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The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
society. The IFRL is composed of people of different political
persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
dedicated to restoring the right to life to the unborn, and protection
for the disabled and the elderly. Click here to learn more about the IFRL.
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