The Forgotten Child - My perspective

Looking back on my life I cannot recall a single instance of not thinking of a human baby as anything but lovable; never have I felt that a human baby or child was in some way worthless and should be disposed of. Historical accounts of ancient Greeks disposing of an unwanted child by abandonment to the elements, the massacre of the holy innocents by Herod because he wanted to kill the Christ child, astound me that such little value is put on an innocent child. The massacre of so many little children at a school in Connecticut so recently, disturbs me and makes me wonder at the depravity of a person doing such a thing.

The tragedy of abortion was present in the United States even before the supreme court decision in Roe V Wade in 1973. But the number of these abortions were few in comparison with the number of abortions that followed this Supreme Court decision. It is sad that abortion is taken by many to be the only solution to the problem of a pregnancy that is undesirable for a host of reasons.  There has to be a better way of coping with this problem which can only be found with better understanding of the true value of womanhood and the gift of childhood.

The abuse and killing of animals causes many, including myself, to feel so sad and yet many of such people cannot bring themselves to understand that the killing of a child in the womb should likewise bring great sadness. Maybe my experience of attending Catholic schools where we were taught that human beings are created in the likeness and image of God Himself who is perfect love and loves all His creatures had the effect of my wanting to love all of God's creatures;  however many of my fellow Catholics have not had the same feeling.

In 1984 I was given the opportunity to lead an organization in my home in Hawaii, Hawaii Right To Life. This gave me an opportunity to speak out for the right to life of the unborn in speeches, interviews, and in testimony in the state legislature. We were not able to get bills through the legislature that would somehow minimize abortion so we counted on trying to educate people to honor the life of a child in or out of the womb and in this way we were able to do some good. We were more successful in defeating bills that were geared towards ending the life of people who were old and sick. We were able to stop issues  such as assisted suicide, which happens to be coming up again this session in the legislature.

My experience in the Right to Life movement has led me to realize that it is not enough to just embark on a legislative program to overturn laws and policy that allow abortion but to first understand what has made the Abortion Lobby so influential in convincing women to resort to abortion in the first place; and to change the approach to eliminating abortion by making abortion far less of a necessary choice for women than it now is.  Through education, alternative problem solving and caring about the lives of women who have a "problem pregnancy" must precede legislation whose purpose is to successfully eliminate policy and legislation allowing for unbridled "free choice".

Next I would like to address how to deal with the connection between abortion and feminism.