Babies more important than stray cats

In Austin, Texas, a downtown billboard screams, “If We Take Her Life, We’re The Ones Who Have Strayed. No Kill. Not Now. Not Ever.” The billboard features a gigantic photograph of an adult cat. The Austin chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sponsors that billboard.

In San Francisco, the SPCA has purchased 12 apartments that are air conditioned, have sky lights, soft rugs and tasteful furniture for stray animals. After some debate, the SPCA also decided to allow homeless people to come to stay with the dogs or cats … because they didn’t want the animals to be lonely. However, the humans can’t spend the night and can’t use the showers.

Last week, I was surprised to see a city of Austin truck with a “Save a Life” bumper sticker. I thought, now that’s a bold city employee, given that socialists have taken control of Austin’s municipal government. When I pulled even with the truck, however, I was disappointed to see that the bumper sticker was on the back of an animal control truck. The life the driver wanted to save was the life of a stray animal. In Austin, our City Council has pledged to end the killing of all stray animals in Austin by 2003 while continuing to use city tax funds for the killing of human babies.

Last spring, the organization called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said that civilization would not survive unless Americans stopped catching and eating fish. They stated that since fish had vertebrae and brains, they could feel pain. If they could feel pain, we shouldn’t kill them, but PETA has not taken the same position on abortion. In fact, many animal rights activists also support human abortion.

There is something terribly wrong with this picture. Why are so many Americans more concerned about preventing cruelty to animals than protecting baby humans in their mother’s wombs? Why don’t Americans realize that “a woman’s right to choose” really means “a mother’s right to kill her baby”? Why do we get upset when two or three children are shot in schools and ignore the 150 babies whom abortion murders every hour of the day? What am I missing here?

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why there is any debate about the abortion issue. Since each of us started in our mother’s wombs, it seems logical that baby killing would be mighty unpopular. In fact, every society in the world treats those who kill babies (who have been born) and children as the most despicable of criminals. However, when we look at abortion, suddenly everything changes … for some people.

When Jessica Smith drowned her baby boys in a South Carolina lake, Newsweek’s cover screamed, “How Could She?” When terrorists blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Newsweek’s riveting picture of Baby Baugh caused America to cry again. When human trash killed a Chicago welfare mother so they could rip her baby from her womb, we asked how this could happen in a civilized world. When a former scout leader gunned down fifteen children in Scotland, we realized that our capacity for shock and outrage was unlimited.

Yet when we hear that 4,400 babies are snatched from their mother’s wombs and killed in America each day, most Americans turn their backs on this carnage.

How long would any government last if they allowed criminals to murder 4,400 children every day? How would the world react if eleven 747s filled with babies crashed and burned every day? Isn’t it ironic that most of the people who want an International Criminal Court to pursue ethnic cleansing and genocide also support genocide against babies in their mother’s wombs?

The “pro abortion” lobby wants us to believe that when a woman gets pregnant, she is carrying a fetus, not a baby. They also want us to believe that this “fetus” doesn’t become human until the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy.

Have you ever been invited to a fetus shower? We go to baby showers to celebrate the imminent birth of a new human. No one says “I’m expecting a fetus,” they say “I’m expecting a baby.” Doctors, midwives and scientists have proven that prenatal care is crucial to maximizing the health of newborn babies. We even have proof that babies learn to read faster after they are born if their parents talk to them while they are still in the mother’s womb.

I believe that most Americans are pro life and will join us in protecting baby humans if we listen carefully to their concerns. If we truly cherish life, we must also cherish the life of the mother. In Louisiana, LSU’s hospital allows an abortion when there is a 50% or greater chance that pregnancy may kill the mother. Louisiana State Senator Woody Jenkins, a leader in the pro life movement, even proposed to allow abortion as an option for rape or incest WHEN the victim had reported the criminal act to the police within seven days. These exceptions responded to legitimate concerns of thoughtful Americans. Nevertheless, even with these exceptions, 95 percent of the abortions would no longer be legal.

That leads us to the other major issue. If we truly cherish life, we must also guarantee that we will take care of the millions of children who will be born if the laws change. On this issue, the pro life movement has far to go.

Too often, protesters have demonized women facing a difficult decision rather than opening their homes and wallets to the baby humans in these women’s wombs. To be sure, such wonderful organizations like Care Net and LifeCare Pregnancy Services are making a big difference in many women’s lives. However, they do not have enough money, they do not have enough volunteers and they do not have enough couples who are willing to stand with pregnant women and guarantee that their children will have safe and loving homes.

We cannot demand that a mother bring her baby to term and then turn our backs on her. Being a mother is a lifetime commitment. If we truly care about life, we must make a lifetime commitment to the millions of additional babies that we want born.

The SPCA is spending its money to save stray cats. Are we ready to do even more to save baby humans? We want pregnant women to be mothers for life. Are we willing to be adoptive parents for life? Until pregnant women who are thinking about an abortion know that loving adults will adopt every one of their babies, we will continue to live in a world where saving stray cats is more important than saving baby humans.