ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1997 TAG: 9701200084
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN C. LEDOUX
THE DEBATE over abortion has essentially two main vocal camps: the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers. There is probably a third group, a silent group that wishes the whole issue would just fade away.
We seldom see any discussion of the economic impact of abortion - an impact that affects every single person in a very significant way.
If we had a viral disease that was killing almost 4,000 people every day, the alarm bells would be ringing throughout the land. Every resource available would be put to use to stop this terrible scourge.
Abortion is such a scourge. In the past 23 years, we have allowed the death of close to 40 million children. This is close to the population of Canada or the 40 largest cities in the United States. Almost 30 percent of the entire generation of those under 25 years of age have been eliminated.
To better understand the size of this problem, do the following: On your next visit to a large mall, count the number of people you see for one hour. If you can count about 140 different people in that hour, you will comprehend the number of children who die in abortion clinics in the United States every hour of the day and night.
If the moral argument against these killings does not move you, perhaps the impact on your pocketbook will. Consider the following facts:
The Social Security system faces bankruptcy because our population is aging and we have fewer younger workers to support those who are on Social Security. If those 40 million babies who have been aborted had lived, they would have paid about $10 trillion in taxes in their lifetimes. That is enough to pay our national debt twice over.
If those kids had lived, we would need 1 million more teachers, doctors, blue-collar workers, automobile makers, cereal producers, farmers, etc. It has been estimated that abortion has resulted in 19 million fewer jobs.
Now we face the risk of labor shortages and the inflationary impact of rising wages in the face of a continuing slump in consumer demand.
Recent surveys show that 65 percent of us support the right to choose. A few years back, a survey by the Boston Globe asked the right question, and that was: ``Do you support abortion as a method of birth control?'' The result was that 85 percent said no. Coupled with the fact from a Planned Parenthood survey, that 95 percent of abortions were for convenience or birth control, we must conclude that most of us do not condone abortion as it is practiced in this country.
A large majority are sickened by the barbaric method of partial-birth abortion where a baby's brains are sucked out when the child is only inches from delivery. Yet we have a president who did not have the courage to approve a ban on this procedure, a ban approved by a large congressional majority.
What can be done? We need an open national debate on the subject of abortion. What is the economic impact? What is the physical, emotional and psychological impact on women who have abortions?
Why are abortion clinics allowed to have lower standards for medical and sanitary conditions than hospitals? Why are there no inspections and standards for such clinics? Why does the media avoid fully reporting what goes on at abortion clinics?
A few weeks of stories and pictures of body parts in these killing fields would do more to stop abortion than all the debates we now have. We need informed-consent and parental-notification laws in Virginia, at the very least.
As the father of eight, the grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of two, I cannot comprehend how anyone who has ever held a newborn child in his or her arms can throw such a gift from God into a garbage can. Yet we do this 4,000 times every day of the year.
Take a walk in the mall and see how long it takes to count 140 people. This simple act could open your eyes to the enormity of a ``disease'' that kills more people than all other causes of death combined.
The Bible predicts that a nation that rejects God will be utterly laid waste. We are traveling that road.
John C. LeDoux, of Blacksburg, is a retired engineering professor.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB