top of page

#LivesOverLaws

Now that Roe has been overturned at the federal level the fight for honoring life falls on the individual states. There will now be at least 50 different voices on the issue of whether or not a life begins at conception, eight weeks with the heartbeat, 15 weeks, 22 weeks or moments before birth. Clearly, we still have a long way to go to protect life from the womb to the tomb.


Florida, my current home, has already reported 33, 382 abortions as of early June, 2022 according to an article from WFLA.com news. The Washington Post made the point that even though the same party has held the governors seat as well as control of the Florida state legislature the state is seen as an "abortion destination" by other southern states because of its relatively lax abortion restrictions. In fact, a recent ban on abortions after 15 weeks was recently struck down by a federal judge for an indeterminant time. Planned Parenthood says it will cease abortions after 15 weeks to better serve its clients for now. The schizophrenic response from states who will either try to maintain abortions at all costs (even through the last trimester) or outlaw the majority of abortions (especially those beyond 6 weeks) will now be evident with court actions after lawsuits after constitutuional amendments after.... ("How major abortion laws compare state by state: Map | The Fuller Project" https://fullerproject.org/story/how-major-abortion-laws-compare-state-by-state-map/)

But none of this changes the value of a human life.


If our professed ethos that believes that lives taken by guns or lethal injection are tragic then it stands to reason that lives taken by abortion are equally tragic. But until we can all agree that killing a child should be the hardest thing to accomplish in the United States we will continue to split hairs about whose life is more valuable. (see this beautifully scripted short film by LiveAction entitiled "Meet Baby Olivia" at https://babyolivia.liveaction.org/). Where does the Mom and the baby fall in all of this? It will depend on where they live. Many states where abortion will continue to be supported also have fairly robust Medicaid programs to support low income Moms. Many other states, where abortion will be highly restricted do not necessarily have the Medicaid allocations to properly support low income Mothers. And then there are states like Ohio that are in the middle lanes. Why is it that the greatest nation in the world feels so divided along the wrong lines?