Tragedy or Business as Usual?

by Anita Flynn

“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” 

― Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin

Joseph Stalin’s quote aptly reflects the ongoing abortion culture. A single child’s abortion is indeed a tragedy. And the ensuing aftereffects on the child’s mother (and perhaps, father) are also tragic. Each decision to abort a baby girl or boy has its own story, its own reasons, its own heartache and its own consequences. If we could read every mother’s heart as she wrestles with this decision, we would be paralyzed by the gut wrenching desperation, sadness or in some instances, callousness that paves the way to this irreversible choice.

However, we do not study these deaths one-by-one to see the cause and effect. We do not make a follow up appointment with the child’s mother to see how her life has been impacted by the most final of actions. Instead, as the body count piles up year after year, decade after decade, we come to the point where we need to voice the statistics out loud so that they can sink into our consciousness and not just be a number on a spreadsheet.

Relatively recent statistics from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) report that from 2005 thru 2012 there were 6,299,187 abortions in 47 states and the District of Columbia (California, Maryland and New Hampshire do not report this data to the CDC). In only eight years, at least six million two hundred ninety-nine thousand one hundred eighty- seven lives were ended in the name of “women’s healthcare”. Should one child die from being left in a sweltering hot car we take to the Facebook digital waves to shake our heads, chastise the adults who did not make this child’s safety a priority and offer our prayers for the tiny soul who relied on those around her to keep her safe. But thousands of children die day after day and we shrug our shoulders saying it’s none of our business and who are we to judge because it is within the law. We as a country are exercising our freedom to choose; a freedom that our forefathers fought for and for which our armed forces died.

Unfortunately, these 6,299,187 and all those aborted through the years should be included in the casualties of war but alas, they are not. They are not considered because they have no voice. They cannot protest on Capitol Hill nor send letters to their congressmen to plead for new legislation. Their hearts and spirit remain anonymous. They had no choice.

Abortion, while it may be a legal personal choice for the mother, is still a deeply disturbing act. For later second trimester abortions (which are in the minority, but occur nonetheless) Planned Parenthood advises that a mother may need a shot through her abdomen to ensure the baby’s heart stops. Medical instruments and a suction machine will “gently” do the rest. And we wonder where the violence in our streets and within and between nations originates?

Proponents of each side of the pro-life vs. women’s healthcare issue believe they are right and it is difficult to convince someone to change a well-honed ideology. But let us not ever forget that these are not statistics that are being aborted; each one is a child who is vital and growing…until one day she is not. And regardless of the reason or who made the decision, her “healthcare” was deemed not a priority.

Anita Flynn resides in Philadelphia, PA and has written for Demand Media (Business & Finance) and Examiner.com 


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