Reported in The Wichita Eagle, May 23, 1996
Rodney Dangerfield complains he doesn't get it. Bill
Clinton demanded it and now Peggy Jarman, a founding member of the ProChoice
Action League and Propaganda Minister for Dr. George Tiller - a leading
abortionist in Wichita, has joined in the chorus and whines that she wants
it too.
Complaining about
pro-lifers, Jarman said, "If they could show me one ounce of respect
or appreciation or consideration for the law which is on the books - which
is what they all said they wanted - then maybe we would have someplace to
go."
Jarman would have us believe she should be respected for her attempts to
find "common ground" in the abortion debate. Jarman can hardly be commended
for seeking common ground though. Where is the common ground between life
and death?
I would only remind Ms. Jarman that "Abortion Kills!" There is no
common ground for a dead baby. Unlike the position Pro-aborts take, Pro-lifers
don't just prefer life to death - the sanctity of life is a conviction.
Abortion is wrong. It will always be wrong. Nothing can change that.
Jarman said in 1992, "It is very, very tough for pro-choice people to weight
the advantages and disadvantages and pluses and minuses on how do you compromise.
Where do you draw the lines?" (Wichita Eagle, Mar. 29, 1992). Indeed, where
does Jarman draw the line? What "common ground" might she be referring to.
What law did she support that she wants us to "respect" her for?
It couldn't be the following because they haven't passed into law, nor does
she support them:
- The "Woman's Right-To-Know" law would have required full disclosure of the name of the doctor performing the abortion, they type of procedure to be used, the age of the unborn baby, printed literature on fetal development, the risk of abortion compared to child birth, community resources available should she decide to carry the child to term, information on adoption and the father's liability for child support?
- Jarman opposes a Parental Notification Law that would require one-parent be notified before a minor could undergo an abortion. Jarman claimed this bill "potentially protects abusive parents, allows parents to dictate the school curriculum on an individual basis and challenges the judicial bypass that allows teens to seek waivers to parental notification." (Wichita Eagle, Feb. 5, 1995).
- A "Post-Viability Law" that would ban all abortions after the 23rd week of pregnancy, except to save the life of the mother.
- Jarman flippantly responded to a bill requiring the humane treatment of the fetus with , "I wonder why we don't also have a bill that demands anesthesia before we do circumcision? We don't seem to be terribly concerned about the pain inflicted then." (Wichita Eagle, Feb. 5, 1995).
- A law that would prohibit an abortion by burning the baby with a saline solution?
- A ban on the late term Partial Birth Abortion of a viable baby moments before its live birth.
- A law requiring that abortions be done in a licensed ambulatory surgical center? Jarman said of this bill, "This is just another poorly disguised attempt by anti-choice legislators to close clinics, force their particular beliefs on others and control the lives of women." (Wichita Eagle, Feb. 23, 1995).
- A law that would require the Attorney General to bring before the Kansas Supreme Court the medical and scientific facts of when human life begins?
Surely it's not Jarman's resistance to allowing a pregnancy counseling
center from locating on the same block as the killing center she defends.
It wouldn't be the law which passed requiring abortionists to report the
number of abortions performed to the Department of Health and Environment.
Jarman said in relation to that measure, "There seems to be an insidious
desire on the part of the anti-choice leaders in the House to do everything
possible to make abortion as inaccessible as they can, because they know
they can't outlaw it." (Wichita Eagle, Feb. 5, 1995).
Surely it wasn't the so-called "Miscarriage Bill" that makes the death of
a "product of conception," (not "human being") if in connection with another
felony or misdemeanor, a crime. Pro-aborts strongly opposed that bill, saying
that while they didn't oppose the concept, the measure went too far because
the wording of the bill might include death by abortion. Jarman said, "The
problem is that viability is not this exact point in time." (Wichita Eagle,
Apr. 8, 1994).
That leaves only legislation that passed in 1992 which placed some restrictions
on abortion but kept legal abortion on demand for most cases. House Bill
2646 requires doctors to notify at least one parent of a girl younger than
18 who is seeking an abortion and would require minors to receive counseling
before and after an abortion. It would make it illegal for a doctor to perform
an abortion after the fetus is able to survive outside the womb unless it
was necessary to save the woman's life.
Jarmans' compromise on this bill came only after an earlier attempt to pass
legislation that would make abortion legal in most cases with few exceptions.
Many loopholes exist for doctors to avoid notification of a minors parent.
- The counselors providing counseling to the girls include professionals that do not necessarily have the minor's best interests at heart.
- Few fetuses qualify for "viability" under the definitions of this law.
- Local communities are not allowed to regulate or restrict abortions.
- The loose definition of "the life of the mother" allows for the "pregnancy " itself to be a threat to a woman's life.
- The law further criminalizes "interfering with access" by instituting statewide penalities for those who block access to an abortion clinic.
Some compromise!
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. [Isaiah 5:20]
We must remember the people who want to promote unrestrained sexual license have made abortion on demand a universal right with Roe vs. Wade, and history will record - if anyone survives to write it - that the holocaust of abortion has far surpassed the Holocaust of Nazi Germany in the sheer number of innocent victims.
Have we really become desensitized to the scope of that horror?
Liberal politicians and other pro-abortionists continue to speak glibly
of "a woman's right to choose." Do they understand
that the "choice" which they defend involves violent death on a scale unknown
in human history?
We must worry about a society that allows harm to come to the innocent with
impunity. At a National Prayer Breakfast, Mother Teresa rebuked our President
and the nation, when she said, "The greatest destroyer of peace today is
abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the
innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother
can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one
another?"
She further argued, "By abortion the mother does not learn to love, but
kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father
is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the
child he has brought into the world...So abortion just leads to more abortion.
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but
to use any violence to get what they want."
The test of a civilized society is how it treats the most vulnerable - the
old and sick, the young and ignorant, the poor and disabled, the homeless
and despised, the dispossessed and imprisoned. The least among us. Once
upon a time there would have been no hesitation to include in such a category
life in the womb. Now there is a "serious" question about whether it is
human life at all. At one time, blacks were not recognized as human beings.
This was the rationale behind the slave trade that brought black Africans
to the United States. They were transported in slave ships that held them
confined in the same manner that livestock is confined when shipped to the
slaughter houses. In Nazi Germany, only the Aryan race was considered human,
and we know the consequences of that thinking. The treatment of Jews and
other non-Aryans was similar to that of animals. And the Nazi genetic experiments
remain a source for horror stories even today.
Abortion is not only a religious issue, as Jarman and others might argue.
It's a question of basic humanity which concerns
the entire civilized society we live in. It is an issue of who lives and
who dies. Loss of respect and elimination of safeguards protecting human
life at early stages progresses to a greater loss of respect and safeguards
for the protection of life at other stages of development. As Rush Limbaugh
reminds us in his book "The Way Things Ought To Be, "It is incumbent upon
us all to be concerned about the world we will leave behind. We also should
be concerned about the values we transfer to succeeding generations. When
we take actions that cheapen life, we are contributing to an overall decline
in our society's moral values. By allowing abortion we are indirectly promoting
values that encourage crime, illegitimacy, the dissolution of the family,
and callousness toward the living, especially the elderly."
The Right To Life IS the "pivotal" human rights issue today, because
once we abandon the basic democratic principle of equality - that ALL human
beings deserve the protection of the law no matter what their size, their
age or their degree of dependency - then the rights of all of us are less
secure.
The real difference between Pro-Lifer's and Pro-Abort's is not simply a
political difference. It is a difference in world
view. It's the view that God created man in His image versus the view
that man himself is a god. The bottom line is that it is an issue of idolatry
- the same sin that has plagued man since the beginning of time and the
same sin that had destroyed ALL civilizations who uphold it.
When Western culture began diminishing the Christian principles of createdness
and the exalted individual, the worth and dignity of people began to diminish
accordingly. Abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide
testify to our world's devaluation of human life. This loss of absolutes
destroys all grounds for the immeasurable dignity of every person. And despite
their claims to the contrary, secular philosophies fail to provide a sure
foundation for freedom against tyranny. When the state rejects God and attempts
to assume His authority, it ultimately rejects the freedom and dignity of
the individual. Fear, oppression, and persecution quickly replace freedom.
The real agenda behind the pro-choice movement that Jarman defends is that
abortion is the sacrament of their religion of feminism.
Their agenda is to see that there are as many abortions as possible - this
is their primary mechanism of asserting their power. The second part of
their agenda is that there is a huge amount of money involved. Abortion
is a huge business in this country. It is probably the largest uncontrolled
industry in our nation. With more than 1.5 million abortions a year at,
say, $300 each equals $450 million a year. That's a lot of money being made
on abortions.
No, I don't respect Peggy Jarman any more than I respect Adolph Hitler,
Idi Amin, Charles Manson, Richard Speck, Jim Jones, Jeffrey Dahmer, or Satan
himself. I am alarmed by Peggy Jarman and those like her who yield the power
of the tongue to sway otherwise reasonable people to their unreasonable
position.
Respect is something that is reserved for those who EARN it and it is something
reserved for those who do something worth esteeming. Jarman has not earned
respect and she doesn't promote a cause that merits respect. The death of
millions of babies by abortion is hardly something worth holding up in high
esteem.
Peggy Jarman and those who at earlier times became victims of the temptation
to abortion ought to know that there is still hope for them. Sin has a terrible
price, but the blood of Jesus Christ offers mercy, compassion and hope!
While we cannot go back and change the past, we do not have to be the slaves
of sin. In Christ there is true freedom from sin and shame (John 8:31-36).
Though our sins be many, God's grace is more abundant in Christ (1 Tim.
1:12-16). There is forgiveness, even for the taking of an innocent life.
Without Jesus Christ, we can only expect barbarism. It may be the barbarism
of an India out of control. Or, closer to home, it may be the barbarism
of an ethos in modern American culture that so values fornication and technical
control that we kill with impunity. But it is barbarism nonetheless. Without
Christ, there is only decadence, debauchery and death.
