We can do better

Over the past week we have seen examples from both sides of the abortion issue demonstrating that extremes are often irrational. First, a member of the Missouri state legislature used the term ‘consensual rape’ (the epitome of an oxy-moron) during a debate regarding a new anti-abortion law. He later admitted he misspoke and apologized. Click here. Later in the week, a pro-abortion site resurrected a ‘study’ from 2015 which claimed that 95% of women who have abortions experience no regret. What they failed to point out was that 68% of the women asked to participate in the study refused, for whatever reason, but I can’t imagine that it was because they were feeling good about their decision. Click here.

Why are we so inclined to speak ‘out of our minds’ or even lie when it comes to something with so much at stake for everyone involved? My guess is passion, and in these two cases, misguided passion. One definition of passion calls it a strong and barely controllable emotion. (For sure.) Now as we all know, passion can be a great thing, and in many cases, it guides our lives to do great things. But once our passion becomes irrational, it becomes a bad thing. It becomes something that no longer serves any good purpose, leading us away from a good cause and towards something that looks more like self-gratification. (‘I can’t bear the thought of me being wrong, so I’ll just grasp onto anything, true or not, to support my position.’)  No need to bring up sports, politics or religion here, right? And the true test of when our passion has gone off the rails is when you absolutely refuse to consider the other side’s position. When regardless of the thoughtfulness of the argument, you will not listen, and you immediately put up the wall and counterattack. It’s at this point we need to step back and realize that nothing ever gets better when we refuse to listen, refuse to consider an alternate reality. We need to remember that no one is ever 100% wrong or 100% right. (Well, Christ is pretty much on target, but then again, He is the Son of God. 😊)

So, what are we going to do here? Are we going to continue to bang our heads, lower ourselves to name calling and misrepresenting the truth? Are we going to continue to have these generational changes in the tide, where for 50 years abortion is OK, and then it’s not OK? And all along literally millions of lives are lost, relationships tossed, and hearts broken? Nobody truly believes in their heart that the best solution for an unintended pregnancy is to simply terminate it. No one marches in the street for the right to have a living being pulled from a mother’s womb. I’m pretty sure that if provided with an acceptable alternative that doesn’t end the life of the child, we would all be thrilled. (And, although this is not an advertisement for adoption, it is one solution.) I’m not sure what the ultimate solution would be that would respond to the needs of all parties, but I do know that we as a civilization can do better than terminating a life – any life – and think we are done with the problem.

As I said, passion can be a wonderful thing. Can you imagine what we can do if we turn all of this amazing passion and resources on both sides to finding a humane solution that considers all of the circumstances, without knee-jerk party line reactions? If we started with a premise to put unconditional love and acceptance for one another as our goal how would that change the world?  We have been able to achieve so much in just the last century when it comes to health care and yet absolutely no innovation when it comes to the number one cause of death for babies in the womb. We can do better if only we would be willing to listen, consider and take our focus off of being on the winning team. Who’s willing to discuss this like adults? How about a Pro-Solution movement?

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