The empathy gap
The abortion debate exhibits a conscipuous empathy gap. Congressman Chris Smith from New Jersey’s 4th district invoked the word in his speech at last Friday’s March for Life in Washington DC. He has made it a theme of his pro-life speeches going back to 2009:
“Can Senator Obama not see, appreciate or understand that the abortion culture that he and others so assiduously promote lacks all empathy for unborn children—be they Black, White, Latino or Asian—and is at best, profoundly misguided when it comes to mothers?
Why does dismembering a child with sharp knives, pulverizing a child with powerful suction devices or chemically poisoning a baby with any number of toxic chemicals, fail to elicit so much as a scintilla of empathy, moral outrage, mercy or compassion by America’s liberal elite?”
A simple definition for empathy is compassion. Its antonym is heartlessness.
Why are the elites of Big Abortion so comfortable at displaying their heartlessness towards the unborn? The empathy gap is especially troubling when it comes to the abortion rate for Down Syndrome persons.
Pro-life activist, Katie Shaw, who herself carries the extra chromosome that defines Down Syndrome, spoke at the March and addressed the issue:
“I am proud to be here today to march to show the world that people with a disability or not need a chance to show the world God’s plan for them. They need a chance to live their wonderful life outside the womb.”
Many people don’t know that there is a waiting list for people with Down syndrome to be adopted, and yet over 80 percent of babies with Down syndrome are not given the chance to be adopted. They are aborted and their equality ends.
It makes me very sad to think of all the friends I have that I might have lost if their parents did not believe equality starts in the womb. It makes me sadder to think of the friends I missed because they were aborted.”
Katie Shaw puts a face on the “choice” made by women who abort. This year’s March for Life presents an opportunity for us all to reflect on the impact abortion has had on our families and our communities.
As you listen to Ms. Shaw’s speech above, you quickly realize how much better off our world is with her in it.
Empathy is a virtue. It makes us more human, more fully alive. The violence of abortion does just the opposite.
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