(ThyBlackMan.com) This piece is a follow-on to my previous one, “Right to Live.” There are a few points my friend Joe (he goes by “Smokin Joe” online) brought up in a discussion that I’d like to share with you. They follow:
“The seminal arguments of the left boil down to “It isn’t a human” [an unborn child] or “It is less than a human” so killing it doesn’t matter. And somehow, this ‘less than a human thing‘ is interfering with your rights to live the way you want to [I’ll talk about the right to live as you want to in a future piece. – Doug].
“Note, not ‘Right to live’ (except in the most rare and medically identifiable instances when that would not be the outcome), but ‘right to live as you want to.’ Heck, I want to be independently wealthy, have my own jet, have a few thousand acres and a few toys to go play with on them, etc. But I don’t have a ‘Right’ to have that without some good fortune and a lot of hard work (not there yet, might never be).
“In short the right to live is being confused with some nebulous ‘right to live as you want to,’ and while the Pursuit of Happiness may be a fundamental Right, that does not give one the Right to pursue that 
at the expense of the Right of another to live. If my idea of Happiness meant having more land, that doesn’t give me the right to just up and take the land of those adjacent to mine (or anywhere else, for that matter). My ‘happiness’ would run headlong into their fundamental rights, too.
“The conflict here seems to be one of Life versus Convenience (the latter being the pursuit of happiness). Again, as long as that baby in the womb, at any phase of development, is less than a human being in the eyes of the people you are trying to convince, it will be a war of the desires of the Human against the sub- or non-human, and the developing child will be accorded no more rights than a tumor.
“There are plenty of options in the search for ‘reproductive freedom’ without conceiving a child. A little responsibility and some knowledge can be sufficient. Knowledge is important. For instance, some means of Birth Control become ineffective while the woman is taking antibiotics (I got two grandchildren that way–different moms who are sisters). Had they been aware of that, pregnancy could have been avoided, but I am happy with the grandkids, as are their mothers (well, most days ). It isn’t a question of there not being ample options out there for the prevention of pregnancy in the first place.
“You have to do away with the idea that conceiving a baby and then killing it is ‘reproductive choice,’ because it isn’t. It is not a choice of whether to reproduce or not, but what to do about it when that is a fait accompli. Until these concepts are debunked and refuted:
1. That a developing child is somehow less than a human being with none of the rights any other human has.
2. That the right of the mother to ‘pursue happiness’ trumps the right of the child to live.
3. That destroying the result of successful reproduction is somehow ‘undoing the act’ and thus a ‘reproductive choice,’ and not killing a child.
The Left will continue to use those selfsame arguments to justify the slaughter. Those are the falsehoods they rely upon, along with some eugenicist twists, to support their position.
“I am not saying getting people to reverse their positions on these things is impossible, (All things are possible with The Lord), but at the same time, I recognize these will again be positions in which people are emotionally invested and on which their status may depend on consistency with past stated beliefs. Obtaining that change would be wonderful, indeed, but first you have to convince them they are wrong, and then to publicly admit it. For those religious, it may be easier:
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. – Jeremiah 1:5
“Now, how could that be if he was just a lump of tissue?”
Joe’s thoughts here are very clear and (to me at least) undeniable. I thought them important enough to share with you all (with Joe’s permission); I hope they are helpful to you in thinking about this important issue.
Finally, I want to issue an invitation and a challenge to you all. Convincing a woman to carry and bear an undesired child is only the first part of protecting that child’s right to live. If the woman decides to keep that newborn child, she may very well need the loving assistance of her community to provide the child with the guidance it needs to grow into an honorable adult.
We are all directed to help those in need of our help: “For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’”
If you’re a young person, please look into Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (http://www.bbbs.org/). No one can make a difference in everyone’s life, but everyone can make a difference in someone’s life. If you’re an older person (like me), please look into Senior Corps Foster Grandparents program (https://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/senior-corps/senior-corps-programs/foster-grandparents). If you can’t find these programs in your community, don’t despair. Go to your church, your community center, your barbershop, your hairdresser’s, wherever people from the community gather, and start an organization of your own. We can all help bring our children up to be responsible people, and in this season of the year it may be the greatest gift we can give them.
Staff Writer; Douglas Loss
