A great evil and its consequences

Just a little thinking today, sparked by a homeschool lesson.

After I wrote yesterday's post, Faith and I got down to business and finished up her schoolwork for the day, which included a history lesson. I am using Our Pioneers and Patriots this year, as just a part of her history curriculum, and it is one of my favorite history texts for young people (although I have probably said that about all of Fr. Furlong's history texts).

Faith is currently learning about Colonial times and, in our reading, we came across the subject of slavery. From the text:

 "The bringing of slaves to Virginia was a great evil. Later, this evil caused great sorrow not only to slaves and plantation owners but to the nation."

That second sentence gave me pause. Clearly the great sorrow was the Civil War. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I find the period of the Civil War to be the most frightening period of this country's history. Yes, it was a fascinating period to historians and such, and it has been glamorized to some degree by movie makers. But when you think about the reality of the Civil War, it is chilling. Americans killed Americans by the hundreds of thousands. Imagine your husbands, sons, and brothers fighting a war against husbands, sons and brothers from a neighboring state. War today is not limited to cannons, rifles, and bayonets. It's a gruesome thought.

But then realize how great an evil abortion is -- infinitely more evil than slavery. Slaves were treated inhumanely, but they were permitted to live and breathe and love one another. And eventually many of them were free -- those who lived to see "the end."

The number of slaves prior to the Civil War is estimated by the American Civil War Census Data to be almost 4 million. The number of babies aborted in the United States (according to NRL) since 1973 is over 53 million. The numbers of babies killed by abortion is 13 times the number of slaves who were kept. Our country went to war over slavery (there were some other issues, but most of them came down to the issue of slavery as well), and I wonder when the war will come over abortion.

I wonder if it's possible to abolish abortion without a war. Just as southerners justified the use of slaves, believing it to be right,  pro-choicers will never admit that abortion is wrong. Over 53 million women have aborted their infants in this country. If even half of the fathers were a party to it, then almost 80 million people have a vested interested in keeping abortion legal, if only to justify their own actions. Add to that even one parent for half of those women and the number goes over 100 million. Then add those who are parties because their job depends upon it. And then add in those who support the right to abort because their ideology depends upon it. It's not hard to see how half of Americans today believe that abortion should continue to be a right afforded to those who are presently alive.

Sorry to be a downer on a Friday evening, but I've been thinking hard on this subject. Maybe you find this to be extreme thinking, bit I think it's horrifying to imagine what could happen.