A Thought from Nearing Home by Billy Graham

"I can only hope in my senior state that I am building bridges for those following behind me as I encourage them on the roads they travel...Are we paving the way for those who follow in our footsteps?  Perhaps we should even ask ourselves, 'Are our footsteps worth following?'  The answer is yes if we are following the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ and our bridges are built on the solid rock of His foundations."

Billy Graham, Nearing Home, pp. 130-131, 2011

Response to a letter from Senator Durbin

March 8, 2013

 

Dear Ms. Gisburne:

 

Thank you for contacting me about abortion (post - Effects of Abortion on Society, February 13, 2013). I appreciate hearing from you.

 

While abortion is an issue that has tended to divide Americans, I believe we can acknowledge women’s rights and still work together to reduce the number of abortions. I believe abortion should be safe and legal, consistent with Roe v. Wade. A decision this personal is best left to a woman, her family, her doctor, and her conscience. Late-term abortions, including so-called partial birth abortions, should be strictly limited to cases where the life of the mother is in danger or she faces a medically certified risk of grievous physical injury.

 

At the same time, we can do more to diminish the frequency of abortion. We must make family planning services and age-appropriate sex education more available. This will help couples avoid the unplanned pregnancies that often lead to abortion. I support the federal family planning program, which provides more than five million women with a wide range of services designed to improve maternal and infant health, lower the incidence of unintended pregnancy, and prevent abortions. This program has a proven record of success. I oppose gag rules that would prevent women from receiving full information about their pregnancy options.

 

In addition, we must go beyond contraception. We need to support pregnant women when they find themselves in a difficult situation by working to ensure that they have access to health care, before and after the baby is born. Providing programs that teach parenting skills, nutrition assistance, income support, and caring adoption alternatives is critical to family planning.

We should also address the underlying conditions that can affect a couple’s response to an unplanned pregnancy. Minimum wage increases, affordable health care, expanded child care options, and improved educational assistance can make it easier for a couple to welcome a child into the family.

I also favor tax breaks to help families afford adoptions, and I have cosponsored legislation, subsequently enacted into law, that extended and increased the tax credit for adoption expenses.

 

Thank you again for sharing your views with me. Please feel free to stay in touch.

Sincerely,

 

Richard J. Durbin

United States Senator

RJD/ab

 

Senator Durbin:

 

Abortion is wrong. Nothing can be said to ever make it right.

 

Abortion is wrong. Your position, as you continually state in your letters, is pap and sounds more ludicrous every time I read it. It shows a lack of a sense of right and wrong. It is as if you were taken to the dome of the Capitol and shown the power you could have if you subjugated your principles to the Democratic platform, no matter how it conflicted with morality.

 

Abortion is wrong. “While abortion is an issue that has tended to divide Americans, I believe we can acknowledge women’s rights and still work together to reduce the number of abortions.” Women’s rights is a misnomer. I am a woman. I have been one for 62 years. My rights end where they harm someone else. Abortion kills, therefore abortion cannot be a “right”. Nothing is being done, especially by the Democratic party to reduce the number of abortions. In fact, the position of the party today is to push for more abortions through increased access, funding, and decreased regulations, both on the federal and state levels.

 

Abortion is wrong. “I believe abortion should be safe and legal, consistent with Roe v. Wade.” Neither rulings of the Supreme Court, legislation of Congress, nor a position in the Democratic platform will ever make it right. Abortion laws were founded on lies and is continues to be protected not for the good of women but for the bottom line of the industry. The rights of a human being to life ought not be subject to the decisions of another, even the woman who is carrying that life in her womb.

 

Abortion is wrong. “A decision this personal is best left to a woman, her family, her doctor, and her conscience.” By regurgitating the lies of the abortion industry, as taken on by the Democratic party, you are harming women by letting them believe that abortion is “an acceptable method of birth control”. By regurgitating the lies of the abortion industry, as taken on by the Democratic party, you have helped condemn millions of human beings to brutal deaths. By regurgitating the lies of the abortion industry, as taken on by the Democratic party, you are ultimately violating the my rights since the standards of personhood in abortion ‘rights’ could be applied to anyone with just an alteration of parameters. Do not think that this has not already happened.

 

Abortion is wrong. “At the same time, we can do more to diminish the frequency of abortion.” ... “I oppose gag rules that would prevent women from receiving full information about their pregnancy options.” What world are you living in? Planned Parenthood continuously lobbies against any law which would force them to give any information which could dissuade a woman from going through with an abortion. Ultrasounds, information on fetal development, alternative options, etc. all could cause a woman to not abort, which in turn means loss of revenue for the abortion clinic. The new health mandate requires companies to pay for contraception and ‘abortion’ pills, against the conscience of the owner. I learned back in the 1960’s that the ‘pill’ could cause an abortion, by preventing the embryo from implanting. Where have you been?

 

Abortion is wrong. “We need to support pregnant women when they find themselves in a difficult situation by working to ensure that they have access to health care, before and after the baby is born.” In spite of the efforts, of mainly churches, to advertise services, women turn to Planned Parenthood when they are faced with a ‘difficult situation’. Why? Planned Parenthood’s visibility, guaranteed now by its connection to the White House. Even the federal family planning program is invisible. I tried a search for clinics in Chicago with no results. The only way to ensure that money for health care is truly used for health care is to separate all abortion services from health care. Planned Parenthood does not encourage alternatives to abortion, just look at the numbers. Women have stated that Planned Parenthood has told them that they are NOT a social service. No amount of social services can make abortion right. No amount of social services can aid someone who is already dead.

 

Abortion is wrong. “We should also address the underlying conditions that can affect a couple’s response to an unplanned pregnancy.” I agree.

 

Abortion is wrong. Nothing can be said to ever make it right.  You ought to be doing everything you are able to do to eliminate abortion.  In accepting abortion as a rightful law of the country, you are NOT doing everything you could in your position of power.  "It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped," Hubert H. Humphrey

 

Abortion is wrong.  You are a scandal to the Catholic Church.  'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40.  In the end, those millions of humans whom you allowed to be brutally destroyed will stand as witnesses.

 

Mary Ann Gisburne

 

"We are not some casual or meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary." Pope Benedict XVI, April 24, 2003

 

 

After-birth abortion - a.k.a. infanticide

"...all the individuals who are not in the condition of attributing any value to their own existence are not persons. Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life."   from After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?

Abortion, euthanasia, and now after-birth abortion a.k.a. infanticide.  And so it continues, the journey to have only perfect people in the world.  Who is next?  Where does it end?  Why does this one article matter?  An article leads to discussion.  The discussion leads to people thinking the argument is reasonable.  Thinking that it is reasonable leads to acceptance.  Think not?  Look at the road to the acceptance of abortion and, in many places, euthanasia.  What will become the qualification that determines anyone of us is a non-person and ought not continue to live?

Infanticide is currently legal in the Netherlands, and practiced in many countries like China, India and North Korea.

"We are not some casual or meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary." Pope Benedict XVI 

http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2012/03/01/medethics-2011-100411.full