Culture

Celebrating the Death of the Innocent

Last week I noted a story in the Associated Press about a married mother of three who aborted her fourth child for financial reasons. The story was so sad and so manifestly tragic that I didn’t even have any commentary. It seemed self-evident that something was horribly wrong with this story . . . until today.

Bonnie Erbe has posted a short opinion essay at U. S. News and World Report arguing that “In a Recession, Abortions Are Not a Bad Choice.” Erbe complains that the aforementioned AP story portrayed the abortion decision as negative, and she contends that such abortions are actually the most moral thing to do. Here she is in her own words:

‘Yes, it’s sad that this unwed, pregnant mother of three had no money for bus fare. It’s terrible that her boyfriend lost his job. It is heart-wrenching that she fell to tears in the doctor’s office. But in the long run, can we not agree that an unwed couple’s decision not to bring a fourth child into the world when they are having trouble feeding themselves and three children is no tragedy? It’s actually a fact-based, rational decision that in the end benefits the three children they already have and society as well.

‘Feeding and raising children is expensive. Tuition may be free at public schools but there are still books, transportation, food, clothes, medical care and activities that add up—way up. One may assume this family of five is struggling just to maintain its basics: housing and food. Add one more child and those costs rise as income drops. It’s no tragedy: it’s a good decision. The decision benefits society in two ways. It allows the couple to focus more time, energy and resources on their three children, giving each child a better life and a better chance of growing up to contribute to society. It also lessens the chance the family will have to rely on scarce public resources (food stamps, TANF) to raise their children.’

Here is what happens when people start defining the good society in terms of how much money one has in his bank account. The love of money is indeed the root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). In Erbe’s case, it is unashamedly confessed as the basis for the legal killing of a whole class of innocent human beings. In fact, she celebrates killing these persons because their death is more cost-effective for our society than not killing them. This essay is just plain sickening, and it needs to be publically castigated for the morally bankrupt drivel that it is.

Unborn babies are human beings created in the image of Almighty God. To celebrate their deaths is unconscionable. If this kind of thinking is now a part of the American mainstream, then God help us.

6 Comments

  • Tyler

    Just a few rambling thoughts… Perhaps the take-away from this tragedy–and its justification from a columnist who no doubt does not know the persons involved–is a reminder of the stark brutality of existence without a cross-centered faith in God and a no-holds-barred community of belivers. Erbe is right about one thing–the couple’s decision was “fact-based and rational” if, and only if, Jesus’ bones are still in some unmarked grave. Only the righteous, say the Scriptures, are never forsaken and never left begging for bus fare.

    Yes, this death was a tragedy, but it began long before baby #4 was conceived. I wonder what role the church has or hasn’t played in the lives of this couple. Is it possible that they get our attention now because they’ve “sinned” as opposed to before when they were anonymous strangers? God only knows.

    We can read this story as one more sordid and tragic tale on the way to the obliteration of traditional values. Or we can humbly remind ourselves just what life and rationality look like without Easter Sunday. And we can pray–yes for Him to come and end all this, but also for Him to keep sending us out with hope to those who can only see “the facts.”

  • Joshua

    I can’t agree with them. I try so much to base my “good society” off the blessings God has given me. Sometimes its money, sometimes its not. I hate to say it, but when that isn’t your center focus, even for some Christian groups, then you find ways to justify that tragic decision.

Leave a Reply to JoshuaCancel reply