Unless we know the answers to those key questions, we’re going to waste another generation.

Carol Everett is a great pro-life warrior, and I’ve been privileged to hear her speak a couple of times, but she missed the point when she told an audience at Liberty University, “They know it’s a baby; we’ve won that argument; they just don’t care.” Based on my experience on campus, I was taken aback, because college students want to debate that point more than any other.

When I asked, “Who is ‘they?’” she began to talk about the Texas State Legislature. She might be right about lawmakers, but I can tell you that all the politicians in Austin aren’t nearly as important as a generation of teenagers and college students who are streaming into abortion clinics. They rationalize their abortions because they naively believe their children to be “blobs of tissue” and “parasites.” The abortion industry knows they are uninformed and are all too willing to exploit their youth and ignorance.

As an example of profound teen ignorance, I am reminded of the Rutgers University student who staggered backward, as her knees gave way, when I pulled out a medical textbook and showed her a diagram of a 9-week fetus, complete with fingers and toes. Unlike Texas lawmakers, she didn’t know until I showed her. And unlike so many politicians, she still had a functioning conscience.

It is true that pro-abortion arguments have morphed over the years. Forty years ago, they said, “The embryo/fetus is not a baby nor a human being.” That argument could not withstand basic medical facts, so their argument had to change. Then they said, “OK, it’s a human being, but it’s not a person.” When that position also could not be defended, we began to hear yet another theme. They said, “OK, it’s a person, but the mother’s right to autonomy supersedes the baby’s right to life.” That’s where we are now, hence you can be convicted of murder (i.e., killing a person) if you kill a preborn child, but you can legally abort that same child if you are the mother.

Yes, the more sophisticated pro-aborts have kept up with all of this so they know it’s a baby, but most teenagers and young adults don’t know. The abortion clinics understand this. If a young girl calls a clinic and asks, “Is it a baby?” the clinic doesn’t say, “Yes, dear, it’s a human being with rights of personhood, but we believe that your right of autonomy gives you the right to kill your baby.” No, the abortion clinic says, “Of course it’s not a baby, it’s just a blob of tissue; think about a shrimp with appendages.” (We know they say this, because we called.)

In the annual Roe v Wade issue of World Magazine, Georgette Forney, co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, commented that “We’ve won the battle that it’s a baby,” crediting embryoscopy and 4-D ultrasounds that show the life in the womb (Red zone defense, World Magazine, Jan 29, 2011). Again, I love Ms. Forney and the great work she is doing on behalf of babies and moms, but she wrong to say “we’ve won the battle that it’s a baby.”

Yes, many older people, especially those who have sought healing for abortion, might now understand. But most teenagers and college students have not seen the embryoscopy nor the ultrasounds. That won’t happen until later, when they conceive their wanted children and when (hopefully) they’ve grown up a bit. Until then, they are just as susceptible to abortion industry lies as were their mothers. Unless we show them the truth sooner, they will continue to have abortions. We will eventually “win” the argument with many of them, but what good is winning an argument 10 years too late?

Tags: Planned Parenthood, Roe v Wade, teenagers

This entry was posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 at 8:10 am and is filed under Pro Life Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.