Feb 11, 2017 4 min read

America has lost its soul.

I started and stopped drafting this several times. I researched arguments on both sides of the abortion divide and recorded the statistics relevant to each argument.

I then reconsidered my approach.

I decided I did not need statistics or the well-refined arguments of each side. I threw all of the research out and started again from my heart.

It became clear that America has lost its soul when I read of the 1 million abortions occurring each year. I believed America was about protecting the innocent and giving a voice to those who don’t have one. American was about defending those who can’t defend themselves.

I see more compassion for dogs on the tear-stained television commercials asking for donations than for aborted children. America cannot claim the moral high ground when we kill our unborn.

What defense do the unborn have? What protest can they voice? They can’t vote, so politicians don’t care. They are the silent dead and the shame of this country. I can’t give credence to the argument that abortion is the right of every woman.

Let me put it another way: Is it the right of every woman to murder their unborn child because they are inconvenienced with an unwanted pregnancy? What about rape or incest? I might be able to understand rape or incest as a reason to abort a fetus. But abortion as birth control is another matter. And as far as rape and incest goes, with more than 1 million abortions being carried out each year in this country, only an estimated 1 percent, or 10,000, are the result of rape or incest.

In 2013, unmarried women in their 20s accounted for 85 percent of all abortions. The dirty little secret is that a woman and a man’s personal, immediate pleasure, due to their lack of self-control or respect for one another, can produce an unwanted pregnancy. The prospect of a having a child is a major inconvenience to their lifestyles. So, the result is killing the fetus rather than taking responsibility for their actions.

The most precious and miraculous event on this earth is the birth of a child, and women have been given that special gift from God with responsibility to carry, nourish, and give birth to new life. What event could be greater than this?

A recent news story reported on an abortion worker that assisted a doctor in a procedure. She described seeing the fetus struggle to avoid the doctors’ probe that would eventually suck the life from its body. I can’t get that image out of my mind. It makes me angry and sad at the same time. My spirit tells me to protect the defenseless and stop this inhumane practice. We are a nation with the blood of our children on our hands, and the stain of abortion will mark us unworthy to benefit from the grace of our God.

I have heard the arguments of those who oppose capital punishment. I, however, am for the death penalty. How can I be for capital punishment and against abortion? They are not equal. The unborn child is innocent of any wrongdoing, but the criminal has committed crimes against society and has forfeited his rights. What crime has an unborn child committed? The crime of being inconvenient to his or her parents?

We need to regain our moral regard for unborn, defenseless children. We need to respect the sanctity of the union of marriage and to keep our bodies pure. We need to restore the respect of our own bodies and the virtue of remaining chaste until marriage.

Not until we respect ourselves and each other can we respect the blessing of new life.

Flickinger is president of Tom Flickinger & Associates Inc., a management consulting firm.