Joe Allotta

Abortion is a more complicated issue than either side wants to admit. One side believes it’s murder, so how can you compromise? The other side believes it’s a basic right for women, and if it was illegal than there would be a lot more illegal abortions. Everybody that feels something strong about abortion use strong emotional stories to prove their point. Just because I don’t want everybody reading this to cry or fume I will refrain from emotional stories (not that I object to using them, it’s just not the purpose of this piece.)

I am incredibly sickened by Planned Parenthood and truly believe they are a rogue organization and the average person has no idea what goes on there. Just YouTube any of the undercover videos that expose how insidious they are. They get over $500 Million dollars a year from the U.S. taxpayers for abortion services. They push young women (including under-age minors) towards abortions, and they are not necessarily even looking out for what’s best for them. I know not all their counselors and employees are evil; but man, there seems to be a disproportionate number who are. This most recent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxwVuozMnU is particularly heinous with the callous selling of fetal organs for profit.

For my more liberal leaning friends, here are some horrifying things to wrestle with.  Black children are killed at an unbelievably disproportionate rate to white babies. Girls are killed at a higher rate due to gender selection, yes even here in America. In fact, 45% of married couples who had an abortion chose to do so based solely on the gender of the child. (What?!?!?) No need to hide my beliefs. I believe that even little tiny fetuses are just little tiny human beings. To abort them, seems like simple murder to me. Immediately I get questioned on the horrible instances of rape, incest, or life of the mother. Well, I like to use facts wherever possible. These are numbers from the CDC. “Actual percentage of U.S. abortions in “hard cases” are estimated as follows: in cases of rape, 0.3%; in cases of incest, 0.03%; in cases of risk to maternal life, 0.1%; in cases of risk to maternal health, 1%; and in cases of fetal health issues, 0.5%. About 98% of abortions in the United States are elective, including socio-economic reasons or for birth control.” So, you are asking me what I think should be done in less than 2% of the cases? Well I know what my wife would choose (with no influence from me), she would put her unborn baby’s life above her own, no matter how physically, emotionally, or psychologically damaging it was. As her loved one, that would be sooooo hard to endure. If I was a politician, would I ban that 2% from getting abortions? No, that’s too hard for me to make that call for other people, even when I believe it is a life they are killing. Thus I can’t be a politician because I have too tough a time compromising my morality. So what do we do with the 98% of abortions that are elected? Being just one-single person in this massive democratic-republic, I feel very small to get anything done individually. But I refuse to do nothing. This is what I will do:

1) I will talk positively about children

Kids are talked about as burdens and not blessings. I know 19 kids is a lot of kids for one family to have. But, the way society now talks about 5 children it might as well be 19. “You have 5 kids!!! Holy Cow, how are you doing it!!! Good luck!!!” When I hear of a pregnancy, I will always say, “That’s awesome! Kids are great! What a blessing.” (Parenting is hard, but kids are always great.)   I will say this if the couple already has 11 kids. I will say this if the couple is dirt poor. I will say this to a single mom who has no idea who the father is. Repeat after me, no matter the situation… babies are awesome… kids are great… they are a blessing. Our society demeans children let alone unborn ones. I will be part of the change to never talk negatively about children.

2) I will not be afraid to bring up the topic

Our society protects baby turtles, baby eagles, and baby pandas; but not baby humans. If NASA found a single-cell organism on Pluto, I bet every evolutionist I know would walk up to me and say “buh-yah” and then do the John Cena move in my face. I would agree that one cell is life. Why can’t we all agree that the complex life-form growing in a womb is life too? I want to protect baby turtles, eagles, pandas, and humans. I want to be on the side of life. I get accused of ignoring science all the time, but I usually just disagree with the interpretation of the scientist. But it is really, really, really hard to ignore the science concerning human embryos. They have a heartbeat at 2 weeks, their own blood-type at 3 weeks, brainwaves by 12 weeks, and experience pain by 18 weeks. And any woman can abort that 18-week old collection of cells in any state in the United States for any reason. That’s tough to justify scientifically. Everyone is left with just rhetoric then; and boy is it brutal out there, but I can’t lose the argument.

3) I will help any pregnant woman no matter how she got pregnant

Whether your husband died after you got pregnant or you slept with the entire football team, I will help you. Depending on what I am capable of doing, I am open to you staying at my home, helping you financially, connecting you with other people who can, or whatever else you might need. I absolutely support the work being done at Pregnancy Centers, but I also will not be dependant on them alone to do something I myself can do. If you walk in the doors of my church; myself, my wife, and I bet a few dozen more will come to help. I’d continue to help however I could after the child was born as well, in whatever way the mother needed. Again, I feel small and helpless to do much; I’m one person, who works two jobs, with a growing family myself, but that’s the point of church. I can do only a little, but together we can do a lot.

4) Adopt myself and promote the adoption of children

This is the big daddy. My wife and I have spoken of adoption before briefly, and we will continue to. I think the Lord will take us down this road some day and in some way. This is what I know. I refuse to allow the argument to exist that there are already too many kids in the system, why should there be more subjected to that. Let’s shoot straight. There is a huge demand for healthy/white/babies. To get one of them, there is a relatively long waiting list and a rather expensive procedure. Change any of those 3 words and you can adopt a baby quicker than you can get financing at Carmax. We need more loving Christian families to adopt older children. What a symbol of Christ’s adoption of us. We need more Christian families adopting black babies. You are right, if you are of the caucasian persuasion, your child probably won’t look like you. But making a decision based on the amount of melanin in a child’s skin seems like a pretty dumb reason. Finally, if God is calling you to adopt a child with either physical or mental handicaps, then there is eternal glory waiting for you. There are few callings as important as that one.

I just want to encourage everyone that you can make a difference. Maybe not in America as a whole; but you can make a difference in your family, in your church, and in your community. Keep talking, keep loving, keep helping.

P.s. If you have had an abortion in the past, know that there is always forgiveness with Jesus.  Know that there are also so many different types of counsellors out there that can help you in numerous ways.