In a recent movie titled, "Come What May" there is a debate whether or not overturning Roe vs. Wade is even plausible. Students from Patrick Henry College set out to construct a viable defense not only to win the Moot Court Championship, but returning for another semester is contingent on winning since the mother of one of the students (herself a lawyer) is requiring that her son win the competition; otherwise she's not paying next semesters tuition. The young man initially opts to take the easy road and wants to fight for parental notification as a means of slowing down abortions within the United States; however, he eventually decides to offer an argument to overthrow Roe vs. Wade.
The argument he offers is within the ruling itself. Abortion kills what is alive within the woman, otherwise it wouldn't be killing. Of course the issue of viability comes into question and the original court ruling allowed this argument to determine the final outcome. If viability determines whether or not killing is justified, one only has to place themselves in a different environment (let's say Antarctica) without any protection from the elements and according to Roe vs. Wade, killing any human being because of the absence of viability is justified. Location is never a precursor in determining whether or not killing is justifiable against any who are unable to consistently and effectively demonstrate viability and neither does it define what is and is not human.
I think, like many other issues, we humans complicate matters more than what is ever warranted because we search so hard to provide a defense for what are selfishness desires. Roe vs. Wade is no exception. Could we just look at our cultural norms for an answer? Besides, our cultural norms were created by us who live within the culture. If we created these norms then there must be some logic in continuing to uphold them and pass them on to the generations to come. Right?
I only offer one cultural norm as a guide to directing our thinking regarding Roe vs. Wade when answering the question of whether or not the act of abortion is actually killing a living thing, specifically an unborn human child.
Have you ever had a friend, coworker, or family member tell you that they had just discovered they were pregnant? They decided to share this news with someone special. Not just any bystander, but you, a person they admire, appreciate, love, and or they trust. And sometimes, well let's just say the majority of the time, after the news is shared, someone suggests having a party, or going out to celebrate the good news. Everyone is excited and the news begins to travel fast and the next thing you know, friends are texting or calling each other, blogs are being written all for the purpose of sharing the news.
But wait a minute. Why would we as a civilized society create such a cultural norm to celebrate the news of hearing that something that was not alive at all has just been discovered in the uterus of a female friend, colleague, or coworker? Much less something that was alive and growing that wasn't human at all. How preposterous and insane!
You see we humans, by nature have been doing what's natural all along without realizing it. We've been celebrating the news of pregnancy because its news of a new life coming into existence. News of a new human life. Our desire to communicate expresses life itself. Even pregnant teens who never planned for pregnancy want to shout the news from the mountain top. The desire to share the news, communicate the news, and celebrate the news validates the existence of life. We as humans don't do those kinds of things that have become the norm in our culture because someone has discovered they have a dead non human "thing" growing inside of them.
Celebrate Life!
