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- Newsgroups: talk.abortion
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!destroyer!ncar!noao!forgach
- From: forgach@noao.edu (Suzanne Forgach)
- Subject: Re: Suzanne's "Abortion kills children"
- Message-ID: <1992Dec23.211910.15833@noao.edu>
- Originator: forgach@gemini.tuc.noao.edu
- Sender: news@noao.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: gemini.tuc.noao.edu
- Organization: National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ, USA
- References: <1992Dec18.023340.25556@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
- Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 21:19:10 GMT
- Lines: 187
-
- From article by gjh@galen.med.Virginia.EDU (Galen J. Hekhuis):
- > In article forgach@noao.edu (Suzanne Forgach) writes:
- >
- >>People who argue for abortion on demand have no hope in the betterment of
- >>the human condition. Despite millenia of history, they have absolutely
- >>no concept that people can and do rise above circumstances, that every
- >>adversity which is overcome produces new and wonderful opportunities and
- >>accomplishments, not to mention, producing better, more caring, human beings.
- >>Because in their hopeless state they cannot think of any other way, they
- >>mistakenly fall into the trap of killing others to solve their problems.
- >>
- >>The practice and acceptance of abortion betrays nothing but a world view
- >>based entirely, and falsely, on despair, and frankly, pro-lifers don't buy
- >>despair. And perhaps that's why many pro-lifers also happen to be
- >>religious. Despair is banished by hope in the future, and a faith in God
- >>tends to focus that hope. There is a saying that goes, "Every new baby
- >>is proof that God thinks the world should go on."
- >>
- >>Anyway, abortion opposition = a world view based on hope
- >> abortion defense = a world view based on despair
- >>
- >>It's that simple.
- >
- >
- > This pisses me off just a bit.
-
- Oo, sorry, that was not my intention.
-
-
- > I have seen and carried bleeding
- > bodies. Some of my friends are dead now. Some were killed by
- > an "act of nature" and some were killed by the hand of another.
- > Not just pictures, Suzanne.
-
- Hey, more than half my relatives are in lines of work that could get
- them killed at any time. I'm glad the funerals they/we attend aren't
- very close together, but they do happen.
-
-
- > I know quite well the difference
- > between life and death, I refuse to see nothing. I have no
- > need of Suzanne pointing out something to me. As a matter of
- > fact, I doubt there is much that she could point out that I
- > haven't already seen.
-
- What I was referring to was acknowledging that despite difficult circumstances,
- beautiful outcomes can and do happen all the time. I was not pointing out
- the difficult circumstances. I was pointing out the beautiful outcomes.
-
-
- > Unlike some others, I have demonstrated that I have the
- > courage to stand behind my convictions, and the penalty
- > was hardly a few weekends or weeks or even years in jail.
-
- Hey, I would admire the pro-"choice" position if the penalty of their
- convictions was carried by the people holding those convictions, instead
- of by somebody else they've never even met - namely the unborn children.
- For that reason only, being pro-"choice" stands for nothing but cowardice.
-
-
- > Reliance on the law to enforce your particular beliefs or
- > to shield you from something you feel is distasteful
- > bespeaks a despairing attitude towards mankind that is
- > quite remarkable.
-
- Depends on your view of law! This view of law that you express - that it is
- nothing but the way one group of people forces its beliefs on another group
- of people, that the law enslaves, is one I've only heard from pro-"choicers".
- To the rest of us, what we write in the law is really a statement of what
- we stand for as a society. Whether people break the law or not, do we as a
- society stand for freedom at the expense of torturing little babies to death?
- Or do we stand for helping mothers and their children overcome every and all
- difficulties without killing anybody? Which vision of society would you
- prefer? (Despair or hope?)
-
-
- > People ultimately choose to obey laws
- > or to act according to their own beliefs. No law can ever
- > prevail against personal, moral belief. There will always
- > be people (always have been, anyway, despite attempts to
- > kill them) who will act according to what they determine
- > to be right or wrong, regardless of what authority tells them.
-
- That's why there are rapists, child abusers, terrorists, murderers of all types.
- Should we as a society condone these practices by legal decree? Or should
- we have a better vision for society than that?
-
-
- > It is reliance on law, faith in authority, which led to
- > excesses in almost every scornful act in history. Either
- > the law demanded it, or otherwise good people had faith
- > that the government or authority or whatever would act
- > in concert with they thought was right.
-
- On the other hand, "The law teaches." If we as a society make a legal
- statement accepting the crushing of one group of people under the boot of
- another group of people, in this case adults against unborn children, (in
- other cases it's been whites against blacks, Germans against Jews), then
- the prevelence of such abuse is far more likely to occur than it would
- have otherwise been, precisely BECAUSE so many people do place their faith
- in a government authority doing, or at least saying, what is right.
-
-
- > I would much rather put my trust in mankind rather than in
- > a set of laws. I have much more faith that my fellow man
- > will help me than some statute.
-
- Listen, if I didn't have faith that mankind as a society could set higher
- standards for itself, and _reach_ them, we would not be having this discussion.
- As it is, all we have set right now is the lowest common demoninator, rather
- than any higher aspiration, and so the sheep types of society are sinking
- down to it, rather than rising up to a better level.
-
-
- > In case it comes as a surprise to some people, it takes
- > absolutely no legislation, no law, no statute, no regulation,
- > no action by any authority to make abortion legal.
-
- Then what the hell was Roe V. Wade? 46 out of 50 states had in fact
- outlawed it, and that one court edict did indeed "make abortion legal".
-
-
- > It may be a bit harder in some cases to talk someone into
- > the belief that it is wrong to kill than it is to point
- > a gun at them and tell them not to do it.
-
- Galen, "The law teaches." Think about it.
-
-
- > You aren't
- > guaranteed success either way, but in one case you can
- > be pretty sure of the outcome when you are gone, in the
- > other case you can't at all.
-
- In the long run, whether you've actually convinced the would be killer
- not to kill, or forcefully prevented him from doing it, it doesn't matter
- a hill of beans to the would be _victim_ of the killing, if he has managed
- to walk away.
-
-
- > Excuse me for ranting a bit, but I tend to get carried away
- > when some nipple-headed jerk tries to tell me that
- > faith in law is somehow more hopeful than faith in mankind.
-
- _Your_ problem is knee-jerking, Galen, since you obviously have not looked
- closely at anything I've said in years.
-
-
- > There is a simple exercise that one can think about when one is
- > contemplating faith in law versus faith in mankind. One of the
- > best ways discovered yet is government by the people. If you
- > don't have faith in people, perhaps another kind of government
- > is preferable. From whence comes its authority? Divine
- > right?
-
- I say, Let the PEOPLE VOTE on it!! And dump Supreme Court judicial
- fiats out the window! Which group is forcing their view on the other,
- when they keep relying on court edicts to over-rule what people have VOTED ON!
-
-
- > Suzanne Forgash protests quite a bit that she
- > does not bring religion into this issue. That is quite
- > untrue. If you do not have faith in mankind, you must
- > have faith in something else. Perhaps you call it God.
- > Perhaps your particular flavor is Roman Catholic. If that
- > isn't enough, and you really think there is no question that
- > "God knows best," perhaps you should reflect a minute on who
- > was given the ability (according to some stories) to make
- > the decision between right and wrong.
-
-
- Galen, I will not discuss religion with you, even if you do try to forcably
- bring it up, since it has nothing to do with this issue. We as a society can
- either reach for a higher standard than killing unborn babies to solve our
- problems, or we can reach as low as worms as we have been doing for the last
- 2 decades, and continue to prey on those weaker than ourselves.
-
-
- > And God said "Be fruitful and multiply, and be sure to make
- > plenty of laws to try to coerce people into acting according
- > to your interpretation of what is My Will."
- > SF 3:16
-
- Galen, you are far more hateful and disgusting than I ever gave you credit for.
-
-
- S. Forgach
-