I have heard many arguments against the Pro-Life, Anti-Abortion cause.  But there is one argument (and it is the one I hear most frequently) that makes no sense to anyone that analyzes the reality of their surroundings.

The argument I hear most often is this: “It is the woman’s body, and you can’t tell her what to do.  She can do with it whatever she chooses, and no person and no government should be allowed to get in her way.” 

This statement just does not stand up to the scrutiny of reality.  We live in a country where there are hundreds of bodily and physical limitations imposed upon us by our government and our surroundings. 

I can’t legally smoke cigarettes before I’m 18.

I can’t legally consume alcohol until I’m 21. 

I can’t legally run a red light.

I can’t legally smoke in a bar in Indianapolis. 

I can’t legally kill myself. 

I can’t legally drive my car over the speed limit.

When is the last time you got pulled over by a Police Officer for going over the speed limit and said, “But officer, it is my car, and I can do whatever I want with it”? 

I have traveled quite a bit in the last few months, and I have noticed a new announcement over the intercom that goes something like this: “Please be respectful to all security personnel.  Any derogatory comments or looks that can be perceived as threatening will result in your immediate arrest.”  I have yet to hear someone yell back at the intercom and say, “But it’s my face!  I can make whatever looks I want to make!  I don’t care if you perceive it as threatening.  It is my body!  I can do whatever I want!”  Everybody just accepts this message with docility and continues hacking away on their Blackberries and iPhones.  Since I have neither of these instruments of modernity, I continue to stare out the window and wonder where the people are who say that I (or the government) can’t tell you what you can and cannot do with your body. 

Why can I tell you what you can and can’t do?  Because what you do impacts me.  Your second-hand smoke in the restaurant is choking my little sister.  Your speeding on the interstate is threatening the safety of everyone else.  Your pot-smoking habits are causing you to steal from my company so you can continue your addiction. 

A question remains: Does abortion impact everyone else, or is it an isolated incidence that impacts only the mother bearing the child?  You can do your own research on this one, but my research indicates that it impacts all of us.  In many cases, it causes lasting anguish for the mother.  It wounds and often divides families.  It depresses those who work in the abortion mills.  And more noticeably, it kills 4000 Americans every day. 

Did anyone who watched the tragedies of September 11^th say, “This does not impact me”?  Does anyone think that the 3,000 Americans who died on that day and all the subsequent reactions was a mere flippant event that has had no impact on their life?  This death toll sparked an international response with seismic after-shocks that are still rumbling underneath our very feet.  And yet, we have a September 11^th everyday as 4000 babies are aborted by a terrorist network so sly and so persistent that many have failed to even acknowledge its existence.  It is easy to attack an unjust tyrant in a foreign country who has caused irreparable harm to our country by bombing our cities and buildings.  It is very difficult to attack a tyrant that reigns in the darkness of our own hearts and minds by causing some of us to desire (and many of us to accept) the death of 4000 children every day. 

Martin Luther King Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, stated, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

We are all tied together.  We are all dependent on one another, so don’t tell me that I can’t tell you what to do, because we need each other.  We are all in the same boat, and I won’t permit you to recklessly shoot guns of your own choosing that will eventually sink our ship. 

After making these points, I usually get the following argument: “Well, abortion isn’t the only evil.  If you are so concerned about abortion, why are you not so concerned about the poor?  If abortion is such a problem, then why not also complain about and fix the other social evils out there?  If injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, then why are you not trying to fix all injustices instead of focusing just on abortion?”  But this is mistakenly equating “being concerned about” with “actively working to fix”.  I am concerned about all instances of injustice, but I admittedly do not actively work to fix all these concerns at once.  This is not a position of immorality or irrationality as much as it is a position of acceptance of my human limitations. 

Do people begrudge Abraham Lincoln because he did not speak enough about childhood poverty and focused excessively on slavery and the integrity of the Union?  Do people begrudge Martin Luther King Jr. because he spent more time marching to end segregation than he did for supporting improved healthcare?  Do people begrudge Mother Theresa for spending more time caring for Lepers than she did for Cancer patients?  A person is confined to his or her situation, and there are battles raging across the land for equality and a restoration of justice.  The cry of justice from those who have been treated unjustly has continued through the ages, and nothing I can do will stop it in the foreseeable future.  I can only tend to my little field and do the work that is appointed to me, and in my backyard, I hear the cry of 4000 Americans being killed every day.  And I don’t think we should sit idly watching.