Comment sent to Andrew Bolt's Online Forum

"Hi Andrew, I read your article "We Execute the Innocents" last night and was moved to tears. I just finished reading your forum and wanted to say a few words. Like Chris K I was in my teens, before I became a Christian, when I understood that the abortion debate had nothing to do with religion, but a lot to do with faith. Every advancement that medical science has made demonstrates that a human baby is a human baby, regardless of how many weeks it has been alive since conception. How else can pure science explain when "life" begins if not at conception? It is the religious that imbue humanity with souls and spirits seprate to their physical being, but science would have us believe that we are nothing BUT a "clump of cells" arranged rather cleverly, if by accident or random mutation, to look as we do now.

The only difference between us and a 3 day old foetus is time, nutrition and oxygen. Where does "science" get the idea that it can dictate precisely when life begins if NOT at conception? Is it a matter of faith? Or perhaps it is a matter of "out of sight, out of mind"? Yet the miracle of modern science shows us pictures of life beginning at it's most early stages. I guess it's a matter of things not looking human? It's hard to see the "baby" in a picture of a 3 day old foetus - a blob or something icky that is indisctinct and formless. But surely animals don't look human either yet all political vegetarians and vegans would have us believe that animal life is also sacrosanct, not to be killed for food or clothing. So where do we find the morality of science telling us that we are all nothing but a bunch of cells, but those of us with the benefit of a bit more time on our hands have more right to life than those of us just beginning the process of cell division?

It's not about the life beginning is it? I mean it's not like we can remember what life was like when we were only four cells big. It is about my life now. It's about a faith in the science that cannot really tell me when life begins but can dictate with absolute clarity and moral superiority when it can be ended, as long as the mother chooses, and it's done in a safe sterile environment with no risk of harm to anyone 'human-looking'. No wonder the outrage at late-term abortions. "But, but it looks like a baby, it cries like a baby, it bleeds and breaks and dies like a baby!" I have always wanted to have a t-shirt made in parody of the tag-line from the Alien movies, but with a twist - "Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. In the womb, no-one can hear you scream". Perhaps that is too much truth to be conveyed in such a glib, pop culture way. If such a t-shirt already exists someone let me know, I'll buy a few.

But in the end it doesn't matter what I think - it's all relative isn't it? As you so clearly articulated in your earlier article about Nguyen, we live in a consequence free, amoral society. I choose to believe that life begins before conception ('Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart' Jer 1:5) and continues long after death, I have my faith to sustain that belief, which also dictates the moral principles (and consequences) under which my life is governed. The scientists, feminists and pro-choicers must have some kind of faith that tells them it's ok to murder the unborn simply because the mother chooses to, because there seems to be no pure science to support it. In an amoral world, the contradictions and hypocrisy you describe are not only typical, they are the required mental gymnastics of people who want to live according to their own morality (or lack thereof) but are cursed with consciences that whisper the morality of the one who created them.

Thank you Andrew for daring to discuss this topic from the point of view of the innocents. Unlike these ramblings, you are one of a few beacons of coherent thought in the Australian media."

(Comment edited for spelling mistakes and hyperlinks added but otherwise as it was sent, will update if it is published with any comments). I mean it's not very well written and it's all over the place but the topic of abortion just gets me steamed. It makes no sense no matter how you look at it! Grrr.

UPDATE: It was published and "Andrew replies: Thanks very much indeed, Janine." Now will have to wait and see if comments arise from the forum participants. I guess we'll see how many bother to wade through my ridiculously long comment! Someone else was much more pithy and eloquent:

From: Damien Carson
Comment: Re: "We Execute the Innocents" (30 Nov) - how do you express
horrified silence in an online forum? Words fail me.
Andrew replies: Thanks, Damien.