Our culture's attitudes about abortion and child protection are worse than schizophrenic; they are wickedly arbitrary.
Consider the Oregon couple who will likely go to jail for "criminal mistreatment" of their daughter because they failed to have her treated by a doctor for a neck cyst that impeded her breathing and eating. The couple discounted the cyst as a family trait and believed their 15-month old girl merely had a bad cold. Furthermore, they belong to a church which discounts medical treatment, depending instead on prayer and faith healing.
The little girl died. And the evidence suggests a simple antibiotic would have saved her.
That this couple was tragically misinformed about the positive relationship of Christianity to the medical arts and sciences is clear. They acted foolishly and, whatever their motives (the jury concluded they were a "loving couple" who certainly meant no harm to their daughter), they were properly prosecuted.
But what of those couples who stroll into abortion clinics every day -- couples who purposely seek the death of their children by paying an abortionist "hit man" to do the barbaric deed?
The District Attorney who prosecuted the Oregon couple was "saddened and disappointed" by the trial verdict because he had sought a conviction for manslaughter. He said afterward, "We continue to believe that the facts are clear in this case" and added that his office "will continue to aggressively enforce the laws that require parents to protect their children regardless of their religious faith."
Laws that require parents to protect their children? Which laws?
There is the crux of the madness. For there are laws in America that require a parent to protect his or her child from harm. And yet, at the same time, there are laws allowing, even enabling a parent to have his or her child brutally killed by an abortionist.
I can only say it again. Our culture's attitudes about abortion and child protection are worse than schizophrenic; they are wickedly arbitrary.
