Aborted justice

Contrary to Ms. Tuschak's recent column, CSBT never intended its white crosses to be a "holier-than-thou barrage of moral judgment" suggesting "that premarital sex can be eliminated from society" by "guilt tripping." Apparently others took offense as well and attempted to justify their theft of a local church's property by concocting some sort of moral equivalency between an unpreventable natural disaster in Haiti, horrible though it is, and the intentional slaughter of fifty million innocent children on America's altar of sexual degeneracy.

Sadly, these vandals' cowardly censorship cheapens their own worthy cause; betrays the tolerance they profess to promote; degrades the dignity of our public discourse; and sets a dangerous precedent of destroying displays that differ from our own opinions, thereby undermining all good-faith expectations of free expression on Furman's campus. All student organizations should condemn their example.

Ms. Tuschak's article goes on to callously dismiss sincere pro-life convictions as "succumbing blindly" to "emotionally charged rhetoric," and basically frames the issue as one of sexual freedoms and overpopulation. She fails to acknowledge that many rational and reasoning students on this campus view abortion as the single greatest issue of equality, nondiscrimination and social justice facing humanity today.

Most people wouldn't have a problem with abortion if it were merely a sexual rights issue, but neither science nor common sense is silent on the humanity of the unborn. Advances in technology - such as the 3-D ultrasound - have given us windows into the womb that reveal unborn children as living, breathing, feeling and totally unique human beings.
Moreover, had your mother chosen to have her uterus "cleaned," you, a former fetus, would not be reading this article right now. No degree of dependency, handicap or being wanted makes your right to life more or less fundamental.

When considering this issue, we must focus on the rights of the smallest, most vulnerable members of our society. No matter how much we may rationalize it, abortion is never compassionate for anyone involved, and focusing on the humanity of the child and the dignity of the mother is always more effective at saving babies than blowing foghorns in front of clinics. Single mothers facing an unplanned pregnancy need loving shelter and support, not shame and shock tactics.

Social justice advocate Mother Teresa reminds us that "Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign.