Posted on my Facebook, February 26, 2019.

I don’t make a habit of opining on political or moral topics on social media. I post about my kids; I post about the weather. I avoid controversy. That’s my nature.

Perhaps that makes me a coward. 

But, you know… I think about the tragic history of slavery in the United States. Slavery was a human rights violation that, incomprehensibly, was permitted by law for a time in our history. For slavery to be abolished, it took good people, courageous people to rise up and say the things that might cost them friendships or comfort or opportunities. Without good people, elected and otherwise, fighting the good fight against legalized injustice, an end to the horror of slavery would not have been forthcoming. 

Today, I have decided to post what is on my mind. Someday, I will stand before my Creator, and I will answer for my life, the decisions I made, and the efforts I made—or failed to make—to end the atrocities of our day. I would like to think that in another era, I’d have risen up and stood against slavery. But if I don’t do the same today, how can I be sure I’d have done so then?

The most important of human rights issues is before us. Someday, our children and grandchildren will look at history and shake their heads that we spent 40+ years sanctioning the “right” to take the life of innocent humans—much like we shake our heads today when we recall past regimes that wiped out whole groups of people because of race or religion, or enslaved people because of their skin color.

They say that history repeats itself. You’d think we’d have learned from past holocausts, past genocides. Yet we sit here and allow the same thing—in fact, much worse, by the numbers—to happen today. We read about the passage of New York’s Reproductive Health Care Act, we listen to the governor of Virginia speak of infanticide, and while some of us sigh, we don’t really do anything. I am speaking of myself here.

There is no situation in which a third-trimester abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. If the mother’s life is endangered, the baby can be delivered early, with very good survival odds. If the mother can’t raise the child, there are prospective parents waiting in long queues to adopt. The only reason to abort in such a situation is for convenience. And yet, New York’s Reproductive Act allows just such a late-term, even “last-minute” abortion. The Governor of Virginia would go even further. 

Consider this: The moment the child is born, killing him or her is, by definition, murder. Yet, just a moment earlier, while still within the mother, that child—that human life—can be snuffed out. 

How incredibly arbitrary. 

How incredibly barbaric.

And we call that decision to snuff out a human life “choice.” We sanitize that decision to end a life by using pleasant words with pleasant connotations, while all along we are parties to outright barbarism—either by our actions, or implicitly by our silent inaction.

We are not supposed to talk about this topic. It’s controversial. It might offend or understandably conjure up difficult memories for mothers who have chosen abortion. However, if we can’t talk about the tough issues, on social media and elsewhere, how can we ever effect change?

Life is hard. Circumstances can be tough. Understanding and support are essential. My heart goes out to those who have found themselves in difficult situations. But taking innocent life is never the answer to difficult situations. With love and compassion, we can do better for mothers and babies.

I hope today you will be inspired, as I have been, to break out of your comfort zone and address the holocaust of our day: the quiet killing of more than 61 million babies since 1973. If New York’s passage of the Reproductive Health Care Act a few weeks ago—allowing abortions up to the last moment before birth—doesn’t shake you to your core, perhaps nothing will. 

Or perhaps it will take Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s recent verbal endorsement of infanticide to provide that wake-up call. Indeed, Governor Northam promoted infanticide by extending the logic of late term abortion by a mere moment in time—to the moment when the baby exits the birth canal. And, forgive me for a moment while I ask, “And why shouldn’t he?” For if abortion is legal up until the moment of birth, so too should it be the moment after birth. Same child, same age, merely a different venue. And herein lies the slippery slope of abortion: Where do you draw the line? And so, we have first-trimester abortion, second-trimester abortion, now third-trimester abortion, and even discussion of legitimate infanticide. It was easy to see it would come to this, once we started down this path of killing innocent humans—something which can never be moral at any age.

And so this is a wake-up call, my friends. We need to stand for the innocent who cannot stand for themselves. If there was ever a time to stand up and be counted, this is it. Let us choose to be the Corrie ten Boom, the Harriet Tubman of our time. Let us “do the hard thing,” standing against the crowd if necessary, and standing for the preservation of innocent life.

I challenge everyone reading this post to stand on the right side of history, to no longer remain silent, to do your part to end the barbaric practice of killing our own, and to consider educating others or contributing to your favorite pro-life organization. (If you don’t have a favorite organization, I recommend TheTippingPoint.org, an organization that collects and distributes funds to all major pro-life organizations. For locals, I also recommend Our Lady of Hope Clinic, a medical clinic which respects the dignity of life at all stages and provides free medical care to the poor.)

My words are in no way meant to be a judgment of anyone who has had or has considered abortion. For those who have had an abortion, I extend my love, and I hope you can use your experience for good, guiding pregnant mothers to see other beautiful alternatives. It is my heartfelt belief, however, that, going forward, we can—and must—do much better for babies, pregnant mothers, and for humanity—by protecting, dignifying, and celebrating the smallest humans and the beautiful mothers who carry them. 

I was humbled recently, to meet Immaculée Ilibagiza, a courageous survivor of the Rwandan holocaust. She stated poignantly, “Genocide occurs because we fail to love.” Let that sink in for a moment. Whether genocide with machetes in a war-torn country in Africa or genocide under bright lights in sterile clinics where little human lives are snuffed out, the lesson is the same: In order to end the genocide, we must we must learn to love.

I post this with love and affection for all my facebook friends—including those who will disagree with me on this topic.