At the beginning of our Christmas break, I was upset to learn the disturbing news of a young Connecticut man who took his own life, along with the lives of 20 innocent children and 7 adults, including his own mother.
It was also tough to see President Barack Obama respond to this tragedy. As the most prominent member of our nation, how could he even begin to convey his true sorrow to the victims’ families without seeming insincere? Given the challenge he was faced with, I believe he did the best he could in responding to the Sandy Hook shooting during his Dec. 14 and 16 addresses.
However, it was discouraging to hear the language he used in these responses: The loving, affectionate tone he used in referring to the young victims. The authentic sorrow he communicated over the loss of the promising potential of each of their lives. The true determination he expressed in committing to keep such tragedies from happening again. While I recognize the genuineness of his emotions toward those vulnerable and innocent young children, I was upset to be hearing them for what seemed to be the very first time.
What I mean to say is that President Obama has spent a considerable amount of his time and effort to thoroughly support abortion; in its legality, availability, frequency and convenience. Yet, in his speeches to the families of Sandy Hook victims, he demonstrated a sincere distress to the loss of such defenseless human life, and was even
moved to tears.
However, he has never expressed such an emotion for the losses of those even more defenseless young human beings whose lives are taken before they leave their mothers’ wombs. It was this contradiction between his consoling words and his track record with abortion that was so upsetting to witness.
It’s intentional that I mention this during the month of January, specifically this week. This Jan. 22 represented the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the infamous court case that made abortion a fundamental right to U.S. women. Since then, according to a study released in August 2011 by the Guttmacher Institute, well over 50 million abortions – which amount to over 3,000 per day – have been performed legally in the United States alone.
Shouldn’t that be just as troubling to our sympathetic president?
While I wouldn’t ever want to detract from the awful sadness of the recent tragedy in Newtown, I can’t understand how the loss of the innocent lives of those children could ever carry a different weight than the loss of the innocent lives of aborted children.
President Obama commented that we lost “beautiful, little kids” in the shootings who “had their entire lives ahead of them – birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own.” But if you think about it, how many of those over 50 million aborted children were denied the same opportunities? They, too, are children who will never have a birthday, swing on a swing, grow up or have a chance to attend college like all of us.
As we mark the 40th year since the legalization of such a tragic procedure, it begs the question: What have we gained since Roe v. Wade?
Some argue that women today can celebrate their right to choice. But, maybe, in looking back on these 40 years, the more important question is: What have we lost, specifically for our nation, for our families and for our future?
