OPPapers.com

Abortion

With recent advances in prenatal screening, many unborn babies found to have Down syndrome are aborted. Society is proceeding down a slippery slope to the use of abortion to get rid of "imperfect" babies. The legalization of abortion has helped create a society that regards death as an acceptable solution to life's problems.

Here's something to remember the next time the name of Joycelyn Elders, former surgeon general and lightning rod, is affixed to another honor roll, hall of fame or list of endorsements for a candidate or condom: Why not add some memorable quotation from her body of wit and wisdom, some gem of philosophy to go with her official portrait? Much like the brief quotes that used to appear under the pictures of graduating seniors in any respectable high school annual.

But which quotation? The good doctor has said so many things one can't forget (as much as you might like to) that it would be hard to choose just the right one. Yet one of her observations does stand out in memory--like a bright, shining beacon that illuminates the dark road ahead.

The statement was made a couple of years ago--even before partial-birth abortions were being touted at the country's medical schools, even before appellate courts were opening the doors to euthanasia, and perhaps even before Dr. Kevorkian was being hailed as a savior who only wanted to ease our suffering--even if the side effects might include death. The statement came during her testimony before the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, as Dr. Elders was saying, once again, that "abortion has had an important, and positive, public-health effect."

How's that? Well, the good doctor explained, "the number of Down syndrome infants in Washington state in 1976 was 64 percent lower than it would have been without legal abortion."

Isn't it wonderful to have brought down the rate of Down syndrome births by so dramatic a margin? Gosh, how could the state of Washington have achieved so striking...