A recent article in the Vanderbilt Political Review criticized me by name for my rhetoric on abortion, calling me “aggressive in [my] beliefs” and claiming that I was scaring others from the pro-life movement. That criticism is so misguided and could not be further from the truth. In fact, if I did not frequently, strongly and boldly speak out against abortion, I would view myself as complicit in the greatest human rights violation of our lifetimes.
60 million Americans have been aborted in the 45 years since Roe v. Wade. That averages out to more than 1.3 million abortions per year, or 3,650 abortions every day. For perspective, 2,977 innocent people died in the attacks on September 11, 2001. So, over the last 45 years, we have seen the equivalent of another 9/11 occuring every day in this country in the form of abortion. The total of 60 million deaths is the equivalent of the entire undergraduate student body of Vanderbilt dying nearly 9000 times. Or, in other terms, it would be equivalent to the entire population of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Wisconsin all dying. The stakes on this issue are so high that it is a moral imperative to do everything possible to fight to end it once and for all.
If saying that 60 million Americans should have been legally protected from dying is extremist, then call me an extremist. If saying that it’s murder to end the life of a separate person, with his or her own DNA, is extremist, then call me an extremist. And, if saying that said murder is still murder regardless of the circumstances in which the baby’s life began is extremist, then call me an extremist again.
Of course, the pro-life movement needs to offer women resources. We do that through pregnancy resource centers, which help assist women in times of crisis pregnancies and give them real options that will respect both lives. Even supporters of abortion and opponents of giving women real choices recognize the power of crisis pregnancy centers, which they acknowledge outnumber abortion providers three-to-one. But, it is also necessary to show people the dark side of abortion, or even shock them with its horrors. That’s why I also believe there is a place for things like showing pictures of aborted babies or displaying a cross for every baby killed by abortion in this country this year. In the year I led Vanderbilt Students for Life, we were as visible as I have ever seen the group on this campus and demonstrated to actually show students facts about Planned Parenthood taken directly from their annual report. I know that fighting for life makes enemies, but it is my moral duty to fight until the day I die to see the end of abortion not only in the United States, but in the entire world.