MWR : Abortion concern

Last updated November 24.

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March 2, 2009 issue

Abortion concern

By Ethel K. Harder Reedley, Calif.

An open letter to President Obama: I am thankful God has placed you in this leadership role. Today I am writing about my concern for legalized abortion. As a follower of Christ’s living and teaching, I realize that all creation is sacred. I am a supporter of all mature, knowledgeable, intelligent persons having the privilege and right of free choice. In the case of unwanted pregnancies, that choice needs to come into play prior to conception. The participants must make the sane, responsible and conscious decision to take necessary precautions to avoid conception. That is the time of free choice.

Once a living, heart-thumping creature has begun to form, to abort is to kill a potential and literal human being. Mere man does not deserve to decide who lives and who cannot.

I favor funding for reproductive education and birth-control measures. I am opposed to abortion in all but the most urgent situations including rape, incest and serious threat to the life of the mother. Late-term abortions, so cruel, should never be allowed.

Comments

I side with you in your opposition to abortion. Unfortunately, I believe your letter's message is internally contradictory. You cannot support the proposition that "all creation is sacred" if you support abortion in "situations including rape, incest[,] and serious threat to the life of the mother."

Mennonites have historically been consistent in their appreciation of life and have categorically opposed things that destroy life: war, capital punishment, and abortion. I am concerned that our admirable consistent advocacy for life will erode if we do not categorically oppose abortion.

- Matt (feb 25 at 11:24 p.m.)
I wonder why some people who claim to be pacifists reject the concepts of just war or justified executions yet take a more flexible attitude toward killing the unborn. The pacifistic position on abortion has to be that we must never kill unborn children for any reason under any circumstances.

- Jerry C. Stanaway (feb 27 at 10:55 p.m.)

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