Point Counterpoint in Florida

In October, 2008, in Homestead, Florida the world's most premature baby celebrated her 2nd birthday. Amilia Taylor was born at 21 weeks of gestation and weighed only 10 ounces. She is truly a miracle, but in a clinic outside of Miami, Florida, at 23 weeks of gestation another baby was born alive after an abortion gone wrong and was quickly exsanguinated and tossed into the trash even as she struggled for breath. Sycloria Williams went to a Miami clinic for a midtrimester abortion and after having laminaria stents placed in the cervix to dilate it, was given prostaglandin to induce contractions and sent to a clinic to await the delivery. When she rapidly progressed to deliver her baby, there were no qualified medical personnel in attendance. Her baby was liveborn and began to struggle to breathe. An unqualified attendant cut the cord and placed the baby into a plastic bag with the placenta and disposed of the body in the trash. The decomposing remains were discovered one week later. At autopsy, there was air in the infant's lungs, verifying that the infant had been breathing prior to death. While this unfortunate situation is murder, it serves to underscore the problem of abortion in the 21st century and the schizophrenic moral dilemma that it sets up.

Back in the day of Roe v. Wade, neither of these babies would have survived even with the best of medical care. Today, one woman's abortion is another's beloved child. If we can make it possible for babies of 21 to 23 weeks of gestation to survive, how is it that we can also condone the abortion/murder of fetuses at these same gestational ages?

As non-medical a source as Wikipedia contains the following information about the lower limit of fetal viability:

Viability

Human fetus, age unknown

The lower limit of viability is approximately five months gestational age, and usually later.^[35] According to The Developing Human:

Viability is defined as the ability of fetuses to survive in the extrauterine environment... There is no sharp limit of development, age, or weight at which a fetus automatically becomes viable or beyond which survival is assured, but experience has shown that it is rare for a baby to survive whose weight is less than 500 gm or whose fertilization age is less than 22 weeks. Even fetuses born between 26 and 28 weeks have difficulty surviving, mainly because the respiratory system and the central nervous system are not completely differentiated... If given expert postnatal care, some fetuses weighing less than 500 gm may survive; they are referred to as extremely low birth weight or immature infants.... Prematurity is one of the most common causes of morbidity and prenatal death.^[36]

During the past several decades, neonatal care has improved with advances in medical science, and therefore the limit of viability has have moved earlier.^[37] As of 2006, the two youngest children to survive premature birth are thought to be James Elgin Gill (born on 20 May 1987 in Ottawa, Canada, at 21 weeks and 5 days gestational age),^[38][39] and Amillia Taylor (born on 24 October 2006 in Miami, Florida, at 21 weeks and 6 days gestational age).^[40][41] Both children were born just under 20 weeks from fertilization, or a few days past the midpoint of an average full-term pregnancy. Despite their premature births, both developed into healthy children.

President Obama has said that one of his Presidential goals will be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which will effectively take away the restrictions to abortion in this country. Since he also was against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, scenes such as those involving Sycloria Williams' baby will be allowed to play out again and again without apparent repercussions. He has surrounded himself with advisors of like mind and his judicial nominees stand in lock step with him in this area.

We have given away the moral compass of our country in slow sequential concessions and baby steps so that now we are standing on the precipice and have no where else to go except to jump off to our own certain destruction....and we did it all by ourselves.

A Perfect Example of Why You Should Home School Your Children

This is so wrong on so many levels.
If this was my child I would NOT post it for all the world to see.
If this was at my child's school, I would be homeschooling her at the start of the next semester.
This is a perfect example of the indoctrination by the public school system (Thank you NEA) of our young children who innocently believe that adults are honorable and that what they say is right. You know that they are serving the PC Koolaid in the school lunch program!
So bring on the SCHOOL HOLIDAY PAGEANT so that we can all enjoy this WINTER FESTIVAL!!

We Say Merry Christmas!

Today I have the unusual luxury of a day off!! I have an agenda that is probably more jam-packed than what I would do at work--I will bake cookies, wrap presents for our adopted family so that they can be distributed next week, finally do my Christmas cards, do an insurance denial appeal report that is due tomorrow, and now writing this has risen to the top of my "To Do" List when it never was on it in the first place! So while my butter softens for the first batch of cookies, I want to share something that happened this morning.

While I had the luxury of sleeping in, my husband had an 8AM doctor's appointment so he was up at 5:30 so that he could get his AM exercise in before the appointment. Thus, I was up when it was still dark, too. At about 8:45 AM the phone rang and I assumed that it would be my husband with his report on what the doctor had to say, so I dashed to the phone and answered it only to hear the dreaded "May I speak to ...." that heralds a call from someone soliciting for something. We get a lot of these calls and more and more at this time of the year and in particular, THIS year.

This particular call turned out to be from the American Bible Society asking for money for Bibles for a mission project to the people of China. I will freely offer up for the sake of full disclosure that I have contributed to the American Bible Society in the past. So as the nice lady on the other side of the phone explained their need and how my potential donation would be used, I had already decided that I would give again and had mentally found a figure that I felt I could afford right now...one week before Christmas.

I think that the solicitor was actually surprised that I took the chance to give and didn't quibble about the suggested amount. When she had verified my address and name so that she could send me a the requisite information to mail a check (I do not make credit card charitable contributions over the phone), she concluded the conversation with "HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY."

My response to this was swift, strong, from my gut and even surprised me, but she was totally taken aback when I said, "Wait just a minute...I hope that YOU have a MERRY CHRISTMAS! If you are going to solicit for an organization that supplies the Word of God to people all over the world, there is NO reason to say anything but MERRY CHRISTMAS to anyone that you contact at this time of year! Be bold and stand strong in your faith."

After a brief pause to recover from my rant, she laughed softly, and almost with what I perceived as relief in her voice, she said, "You're right and I wish you and your family a most blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!. Thank you for correcting me."

I hope and pray that the American Bible Society is not asking their solicitors to be PC at Christmas, but frankly I cannot fathom that their donor list consists of people who do not espouse the Bible and its teachings, so why this would even be an issue is beyond me. And if you call someone who does not believe in the Christian teachings, you will have offended them long before you get to the Merry Christmas part at the end of the call and they will have likely hung up on you in the first place, so it isn't even an issue. So my most likely scenario is that this woman has been culturally lulled into drinking the PC Koolaid that makes you afraid to say Merry Christmas even to what should be a receptive audience. This is, indeed, sad. That Christians have become so spineless that we shrink from saying Merry Christmas during our own holiday even among like minded people says a lot about the strength and committment to our faith. Are we afraid to admit that we are Christians??? Are we bowing to the bullying of those who would try to erase every vestige of Christianity in our society??

II Timothy 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

So, I will continue to loudly proclaim "Merry Christmas!" when I put money in the Salvation Army kettles outside my local merchants. I only send out Christmas cards that actually use the word Christmas on the face and in the inside greeting. My return address labels on all of the bills and mail that I post during the month of December will be Christmas labels. My Christmas tree is decorated with ornaments of all kinds including several miniature Navitity scenes that all who visit can readily see. And I will continue to boldly and proudly celebrate my faith in his most wonderful time of the year. Now my butter should be softened so that I can start on my Christmas cookies, so....A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOURS! And may God bless you in the New Year!

While We Are Sleeping.....

I am a fan of contemporary Christian music and Casting Crowns is one of my very favorite groups. I blogged about one of their songs in the past. Their music and words strike deep at the heart of our world today and the need for us to make some significant adjustments in our lives. The song speaks for itself.

WWJD

I admit that I hang out on Twitter. This afternoon, this question was posed for discussion:

Just wondering: Does it matter to Christians whether a candidate is pro-life or pro-abortion? Would Jesus care or make it an issue? Why?

But this question does not lend itself to an answer that can fit into 140 characters. And the discussion that followed often expanded outside of the 140 character box or required multiple boxes to get the point across. I have been pondering this question since it was posted.

I am an unapologetic Pro-life Christian. For me, the Pro-Life position is very important in my choice of political candidates. I want a candidate that will protect the innocents in our country and look on each and every life as an individual with worth. I want a candidate that will not withhold comfort measures to a fetus that has been born alive after a failed abortion. I want a candidate that will not condone the creation of life in order to destroy it for the cells that can be harvested. I want a candidate that will actively look for alternatives to embryonic stem cells.

Today, thanks to our wonderful American medical system, we now put the lower limit of fetal salvage at 24 weeks of gestation. 24 weeks is also the upper limit for legal termination in many states. What happens in 24 hours to make a fetus disposable and the next day worthy of all out efforts to salvage that same life?

In 1973 when Roe v. Wade was crafted our obstetric technology was rudimentary compared to that of today. Ultrasound was in its clinical infancy and the ability to do prenatal genetic testing was still on the drawing board. It can possibly be said that ignorance of the events in early pregnancy made it possible for legalization of abortion on demand to exist, but today, we need to re-evaluate the wisdom of this in light of existing technology that enables us to save babies born remote from term. I want a candidate who is willing to re-examine this topic in light of modern technology.

Even the argument for termination to protect the life of the mother has fallen by the wayside. Today there are almost no situations where the life and health of the mother will be improved or spared by termination of a pregnancy even in the scenario of cancer and chemotherapy. The process of emptying the uterus either by laboring or by opening the uterus to deliver the fetus is no different in an abortion than it is at term, so there is nothing to be gained by not allowing the fetus to reach maturity before delivery. Today there are alternatives to abortion that make it possible for these innocent lives to be spared.

Would Jesus care or make it an issue?? I believe that Jesus would also be unapologetic in His position for life. He demonstrated this by healing the dregs of society, making special time to minister to little children, rejoicing over the prodigal son who squandered his life and then came home and finally making the ultimate sacrifice of His own life to save mankind. As one who placed such value on even the lives of the most outcast, there is no doubt in my mind that Jesus would also stand firmly for the unborn. He would make this an issue just as forcefully as he drove the money lenders out of the temple. And yet, there would also be forgiveness for the repentant and mercy for those who truly were sorry for the choices that they made.

Our society has become numb to the Slaughter of the Innocents that takes place every day all over America as a reflection of how amoral America has become. It is time that we seek a real solution to the problem of abortion in America and give the unborn their voice.