In Philadelphia a trial is ongoing. The defendant is a physician who ran a clinic specializing in late term abortions. The parade of witnesses describing the macabre scene of live births, only to be terminated at the hands of this so called physician is graphic to say the least. I won’t go into detail of these murders, but make no mistake, these are murders, but instead I want to illuminate the dual personality of liberal politics.
Recently, MSNBC, ran an ad with Melissa Harris-Perry proclaiming children “belong to whole communities”, not just their parents. If this is the case, where is Melissa Harris-Perry on the Gosnell case in Philadelphia? Where is the community for these murdered children? If not in a position to stop such atrocities, but at least report on it now and condemn the perpetrator of these homicides. Instead, there is silence. With the exception of a few news outlets and commentators, the mainstream media is blind, deaf and dumb on the Gosnell case, but why?
The abortion debate has permeated a generation. Roe V. Wade was decided in 1973 and during my high school years, abortion was seen as a hard won right we women should be proud of. I never had to endure such a decision, but I did take a dear friend to such a clinic in her early weeks of pregnancy and endured the pro and anti-abortion protestors accost us that morning. It’s not a decision to be made lightly, and it’s not one to be celebrated. Generally, but not in all cases, it is the culmination of poor decision making, immaturity, and desperation that results in lives forever being changed and possibly ended. Those who celebrate a woman’s right to choose probably never had to choose. There’s no balloon drop at the end of the “procedure”, only soul searching and questions. Just ask yourself, how many women do you see at pro-choice rallies and legislative hearings championing their own abortion? I can’t think of any.
The thing is we go back to the idea of words. When we call the termination of a life an “abortion” or a “procedure” we take the humanness out of the equation. When these witnesses in the Gosnell trial refer to these infants as “specimens” they take away from the fact a life was ended at the hands of another, either trying to make a buck, or out of some other twisted and evil reason. The fact is for those of us who have had children and enjoyed 9 months of pregnancy, we never referred to our fetuses as specimens. We called them babies and we even named them prior to their earthly debut. Words matter, which is why it is so important to hold the left to their words.
Melissa Harris-Perry says parents should not look at their children as their own property or their own responsibility, but that we, as a society, should look at children as some kind of community investment. If that is the case, I for one would like to speak for these murdered infants and stake my claim for their loss. For that which might have been, I demand punitive damages as well as a just punishment for that evil that “snipped” their chance at life. I fully expect MSNBC and especially Melissa Harris-Perry to join my crusade as a part of my community to value and invest in our children. As Dennis Miller, comic and radio talk show host has said so many times, “The left believes in cradle to grave entitlements…but getting to the cradle can be a little tricky.”
