Letter to the Editor – Child Abuse and Abortion
You might be aware that April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a month which gives the pro-life movement the opportunity to discuss abortion in a somewhat unique context. Tomorrow, Salem News will run my attached letter to the editor in print and on-line. The text is below.
I hope that the readers’ main takeaway will be Ohio Right to Life’s consistency: that we oppose all forms of aggression against all innocent life—born and unborn. Hopefully, it will inspire readers to adopt the same consistency.
As always, thank you for your consideration, and I welcome your feedback!
My best,
Katie
Katherine McCann
Public Relations Manager
Ohio Right to Life
88 East Broad Street, Suite 620
Columbus, Ohio 43215
614/547-0099, ext. 304
Right to Life opposes all forms of aggression against life
To the editor:
Your recent editorial, “Battle continues against child abuse,” gave a
compassionate defense to the victims of child abuse. Some might say that
you “gave a voice to the voiceless” by encouraging communities to protect
some of the most vulnerable children in America.
As you said, “Children can’t make the call, so somebody has got to do
it.” But I’m afraid that our nation is failing to make this call in more ways
than one. Unfortunately, this is because Americans still disagree over
who is considered “human.”
Interestingly, the Administration of Children and Families (an arm of
Health and Human Services) included “the unborn” in its 2012Maltreatment
Report, where it analyzes child abuse across the United States. I
find this inclusion interesting because so many Americans contest the
personhood of the unborn. This report considers the abuse of unborn
children, but does not account for the harm brought by abortion.
According to numbers from the Guttmacher Institute, if the report did
consider abortion, an additional one million lives would be counted in
the “Physical Abuse” category.
Your editorial noted that 70 percent of children who die from child
abuse are under 4. I would add that 25,473 pre-born children in Ohio lost
their lives to the abuse of abortion in 2012.
Some might not think of abortion as “child abuse,” and indeed, many
actually go so far as to call it a “right,” despite the long-proven fact that
the developing child in the mother’s womb is a distinct person with
unique DNA.
In analyzing child abuse, what we really need is consistency. Neglecting
or refusing to include abortion as a form of abuse (and, in fact, murder)
is inconsistent. It is neither fair nor rational to say that hurting (or
for that matter, murdering) an unborn child in one circumstance is abuse
and, in another circumstance, is a right.
At Ohio Right to Life, we aim for consistency in opposing all forms of
aggression against innocent human beings, born and unborn. As a nation,
the U.S. should do the same.
KATHERINE McCANN,
Public relations manager,
Ohio Right to Life,
Columbus
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