Abortion is still murder

By Richard Ho Lung

There is no doubt that abortion is murder. There is no doubt that abortionists tell lies. There is no doubt that it does tremendous harm to women.

There is also no doubt that discipline is an enemy to our age. The only matter that is promoted as requiring discipline is making money.

As for moral discipline and self-control, that is not prized in our modern or postmodern world.

Even religion has taken a fatal blow because of the deregulation of morality. Whereas religion calls for discipline, discipline does not sell. A world of open appetite sells goods, and nothing appeals more to the world than the flesh market.

Politicians do not recommend discipline, and, unfortunately the Church, amid present-day liberalism, no longer seeks or desires an ascetic life of self-control and discipline. Unfortunately, the Church is overly concerned with being unpopular, which affects the collection plate.

The argument given by Lisa Hanna, minister of youth, for reviewing Jamaica's abortion, is that there are too many children born out of wedlock among the poor who will become gunmen, and therefore Jamaica should legalise abortion.

The position she has taken is that the murder of a child in the mother's womb, or maybe after that, as suggested by the partial-birth abortionists, should be legal, because maybe that child might be a criminal.

Our home, Holy Innocents, on Heroes Circle, provides for women in distress who are pregnant or have been violated. It is run by 12 Catholic nuns. They minister to women and their children. This is an alternative to abortion in Jamaica. It is without charge.

The god of inconvenience

Some 50 million babies have been destroyed in the United States alone in the last 20 years, and many other millions in places like China, Japan and European countries. Many are from middle-class homes (even among the rich), many are teenagers, even married women, and, of course, poor ghetto people.

Is it as easy as that? There is recreational sex. The baby is unwanted. Therefore, kill the child because it is inconvenient.

There must be discipline. Ms Hanna should call for discipline. Discipline of the appetite. Discipline among men, women, teenagers. Undisciplined sex leads to unwanted pregnancies, but unwanted children are not to be destroyed. They are not guilty of any crime.

Jamaica suffers from indiscipline and lack of self-control - the politicians, the rich, the poor. We cannot continue as we are. The only source of discipline is the Church, and even that is eroding because of liberalism, and the constant attack on the Church by the media, and the Church's own failures.

Lisa Hanna is minister of youth and should be for the youth, yet she is attacking the very youngest of our citizens - the child in the womb. Missionaries of the Poor stands for life and the poorest of people. Her apparent lack of concern for the poorest and the most helpless is in direct contradiction to Missionaries of the Poor and all good Christians who have not become weak-kneed in the populist onslaught against all morality and, in particular, Christianity.

The unborn have rights

Lisa Hanna has espoused views that portray her as against life, especially the life of the poor, the future of our island, and that of the world. Moreover, to be for abortion is to be against God.

Poor babies in the womb have a right to life. The Lord has said, "Thou shall not kill."

I charge Jamaicans, it is best we stick to the testimony of the Lord than the beliefs of Lisa Hanna or any medical doctor. The Lord tells us in Deuteronomy 30:19-20: "I have set before you life and death, blessing or curse; therefore, choose life that you and your descendants may live."

Even children born out of sexual indiscipline are innocent. They have a right to life and should not be punished for the crimes of their parents.

I know that Jamaica is being pressured into legalising abortion. But we cannot accept blood money from the IMF, USAID, the EU, the World Bank, or the United Nations agencies to alleviate our problems of poverty. Wrong is wrong, murder is murder, and we don't want blood money on our heads as a nation.

We must not rationalise Ms Hanna. The child in the womb is not excess tissue. It is a child. I hope that you don't open the doors to eugenics and genocide. Once it was Jews, then black people. Will it now be children in the womb?

Father Richard Ho Lung is founder and superior general of the Missionaries of the Poor. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.