In considering abortion among other issues, some might say "Well what about unemployment, and inadequate housing, and poverty? Aren't these issues important also? Why then is abortion made to be more important than these other problems?"
Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, puts it this way. "We who are leaders in the pro-life movement do not say that abortion is the only issue. It is, however, the foundational issue....An example will clarify this. We are rightly concerned about the poor, and need to develop programs and policies to advance their rights and enhance their lives. Sometimes people are heard to say that offences against the poor are a more compelling to them than the abortion problem. Certainly, the problems are related, because a consistent ethic of life recognizes that human life is sacred always and everywhere, and that progress in any area of advancing human dignity means progress in all the other areas as well.
But to make a truly equivalent parallel between the plight of the poor and that of the unborn, one would have to imagine a policy whereby a) the poor were officially declared to be devoid of "personhood" under the [American] Constitution, and b) over 4,000 of the poor were put to death daily against their will [as is the case for the unborn in America]...It is one thing to assert that a particular policy does or does not advance the rights of the poor; it is quite another thing to assert that the poor have no right to exist."
Without the right to life, all other rights mean nothing. Any rights to food, clothing and shelter can only be enjoyed by the living; if a baby is killed by abortion, then she cannot enjoy these other goods.
The Catholic bishops said the following in 1998: "Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence, and injustice...Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as advocates for the weak and marginalized in all these areas...But being 'right' in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life...If we understand the human person as the 'temple of the Holy Spirit'-the living house of God-then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house's foundation."
May Swaziland never adopt the abortion mentality, a mentality which denies the first and most important right-the right to life. May the nation respect the lives of all its citizens, from conception through all of life to natural death. No to abortion, and yes to life.
Rudy Poglitshrpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
