Abortion advocacy consistently claims a woman's "right" to choose an abortion, even as medical science makes it abundantly clear that a pregnant woman carries a living human person. A disturbing and illuminating parallel between abortion and slavery comes to mind. From its inception until the end of its civil war in 1865, the United States allowed white people to keep black people as slaves. The United States Supreme Court called slavery-the possession of human beings as property-a constitutional right in its 1857 "Dred Scott" decision. Abolitionists at the time argued that it is wrong for some people to keep other people as property. These abolitionists were told "You may not like slavery, you may think it is morally wrong, and you need not choose to keep slaves. But do not force your morality on slave owners. They have a legal right to keep slaves." Today, this argument sounds as absurd as it is morally repulsive.
Today's pro-life advocates assert that abortion is wrong, because no one has the right to kill an innocent person. In an eerily similar fashion, these pro-lifers are often told "You may not like abortion, you may think it's morally wrong, and you certainly do not have to choose an abortion. But do not force your morality on women who want to abort. They do (or should) have a legal right to abort their baby".
In 1858, Stephen Douglas ran against Abraham Lincoln for the presidency of the United States. The two of them engaged in a series of lively debates during the campaign. Douglas advocated letting each state choose to keep slavery legal or not. Lincoln answered Douglas this way: "No one has the right to choose to do what is wrong".
Abortion kills a human being. It often injures or kills the mother too. May the citizens of the Kingdom of Swaziland protect the right to life of all people, from conception to natural death.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
