The Super Bowl and Abortion, and Why Scott Brown is Wrong

The past few weeks have lent themselves to the topic of abortion. The anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Tebow family Super Bowl commercial, Susan Estrich’s recent opinion piece, or the recent comments made by America’s new “man of the people” Scott Brown, have let us blow off a little philosophical steam, without really accomplishing anything. And after the Super Bowl, the topic will be placed back in that dark closet America stores its deficiencies; and that is a shame.


What we do at the moment of a life revealed will determine not only that baby’s fate, but the fate of all humanity. Our sense of not only our compassion towards our fellow man, our kindness to those in need, and our charity to mankind rest with the very first time many of us held the fate of a pure life in our hand, only to realize that it is not our choice to make. It is God’s will, or nature’s vocation, or the stork; whatever method you subscribe to, all of it enviably leads to one concrete fact. Standing before us, safe in the womb, is a living being. Commonsense demands you surrender to fact and reason; it is then your choice to ignore it or embrace it.


When we feel that we have the power over life and death, than we should not be surprised when people choose to use that power; whenever, wherever. The very essence of our communal respect for all existence starts at life’s beginning. Our humanity starts in the womb, the vessel that nature or God deemed to the safest place for our undefined destiny. Each of you reading this was offered the opportunity to make a difference, because you were given the gift of life; ultimately because someone recognized your humanity, and did not succumb to a “truth is relative” concept used to define life.


What some people have lost in this debate is the essential question of fact. Is the baby in the womb a human life? Not, “does the baby have a soul.” Not, “is the baby perfect.” Not, “can I afford this child.” Not, “is this the right time.” Not, “should I bring a baby into this painful world.” Not, “but it is a woman’s body.” Not, “but I wanted a boy.” Nor is the question of how the baby was conceived relevant to the most basic truth. The only thing that matters is whether the baby in the womb is life?


The question of life is beyond reproach; it is mans own selfness and insecurities that opens the door to “debate,” and closes the window to the known genuineness of our being. It is mankind’s own hubris that allows all us to be devalued.


There is no greater hope for humanity than the innocents and purity of a child. Each time we exercise power over another human being in a way that extinguishes innocent life, than we chip away at not only our individual humanity, but our shared empathy.


If you choose to ignore your own humanity, be honest about. Society has deemed, for now, that the practice of taking of an innocent human life (for whatever reason) to be the province of a free-society; not a just society, not a compassion society, not a moral society, but a free society. If you support abortion, then don’t bother with the facade that reduction should be a goal, all while supporting the endeavor that will end the life. If you support abortion as “public policy,” but not as a personal decision you would choose, please recognize that people are keenly aware of your own inconstancies.


And if you support life, put into action a course of kindness and charity that makes people want to choose life. Let all know that they are never alone, and that you value all other life above your own.


Brown, Estrich, and even Tebow are all wrong, but so are all of us. All of us have failed to live up to the promise declared over two-hundred years ago – “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Our past failure to live up to the absolute truth that is our Declaration of Independence has been corrected, but our future injustices await our resolve. But make no mistake about it, the issue of abortion is “not settled,” and as with the question of slavery, we only need to recognize that, as a country, we are sanctioning a transparent injustice.