'Abortion is a racist, genocidal act'

“Abortion is a racist, genocidal act”. This view was expressed by Dr Alveda King, niece of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, at an event in Washington recently. Her aim is to end modern day claims that her famous uncle was in any way pro-abortion.

As most of you would be aware, abortion is very much part and parcel of the new South Africa. On Saturday, for example, the Northern Cape police bust a racket that has been carrying out abortions at the rate of ten a day for the princely sum of around R750 each.

The genocidal nature of abortion would depend upon a number of factors, not least of which is the religious beliefs surrounding the status of the foetus being “removed”. In terms of the majority of mainstream religions, this act would be considered unacceptable as it comprises the ending of a life given to the parents by God.

In addition, we would need to factor in man-made laws relating to the date on which it is still appropriate to abort, the psychological impact on the parties and a variety of social and political issues normally salient to individual countries. Compare, for example, the policies of China against Pakistan.

Racism, in the opinion of Dr King, arises from the historical proportion of abortions taking place within the black communities as opposed to others.

Whether Dr King is wrong or right, millions upon millions of pregnancies are being terminated.

Society styles those who support the right to life of these unborn foetuses as “pro-life”, while “pro-choice” is the right of the pregnant mother to decide whether or not to terminate.

This is euphamism in my opinion, for the reckless abandon with which abortion is now being carried on in most parts of the world — and which reflects very poorly on our basic humanity. Human beings are, in the main, becoming numb to an issue whereby millions of their fellow creatures are being wiped off the planet.

While I lay no claim to being an authority on this subject, I am a member of the species (no faxes or posts debating this point will be entertained) who is finding it difficult to believe how callous we have become. It’s just an every day occurrence, life goes on, like some form of belated contraception.

Regardless of whether you believe in abortion or not I invite you to read this article by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.

In 1486 Pico della Mirandola, a leading light of the Italian Renaissance, penned The Dignity of Man, one of the masterpieces of Renaissance humanism.

Sacks describes this as follows: “In it he argued that the human person was the centrepiece of creation, the only being other than God himself who was endowed with freedom. This is how he imagines God addressing the first human: ‘We have placed you at the world’s centre so that you may survey everything else in the world. We have made you neither of heavenly nor of earthly stuff, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with free choice and dignity, you may fashion yourself into whatever form you choose. To you is granted the power of degrading yourself into the lower forms of life, the beasts, and to you is granted the power, contained in your intellect and judgement, to be reborn into the higher forms, the divine.'”

In 1997, about 500 years later, a quite different statement about the nature and dignity of humankind appeared. Published in 1997 by members of the International Academy of Humanism, its signatories included distinguished scientists, philosophers and novelists. The subject at hand was the permissibility or otherwise of research into human cloning. The signatories all supported such research, and explained why.

“As far as the scientific enterprise can determine, Homo sapiens is a member of the animal kingdom. Human capabilities appear to differ in degree, not in kind, from those found among the higher animals. Humankind’s rich repertoire of thoughts, feelings, aspirations and hopes seems to arise from electrochemical brain processes, not from an immaterial soul that operates in ways no instrument can discover.”

In other words, nearly 500 years ago, mankind living in a world in which technology made it very difficult to transfer ideas, were able to appreciate the value of human life more than modern day humanity.

With all our technology, moralising, superior knowledge and the rest, we have only succeeded in reducing our worth and thereby that of our species. Whether you are religious or not, this is unfortunately a basic truth.

The more we create the means to see ourselves the less we like what we see — that is why genocide in terms of abortion or the Holocaust, Rwanda and the rest are soon forgotten or brushed aside.

Abortion is not racist but it is a sad reflection of the depths to which our self-image has plummeted.

Mankind is becoming more and more embarrassed by patriotism, religion and anything considered traditional. Modern man glorifies in being rational not emotional, informed not instructed, a cluster of rights with very little obligations — the aggregate of which has resulted in self-hatred of himself and humanity as a species.