Mean People Suck Brains

A group of children stood on the Capitol steps last week, their sign hoisted for all to see. The message on the sign provided a child's-eye view of partial-birth abortion. It read: "Mean People Suck Brains." The children were among thousands of others that day who were asking their representatives to override President Clinton's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a measure that would outlaw an abortion method tantamount to infanticide. The very description of partial-birth abortion is not for those with weak stomachs. The abortionist partially delivers a live baby, feet first, until all but the baby's head is exposed. The abortionist then stabs the baby in the base of the skull and uses a catheter to suck out the baby's brains. The baby's skull collapses, and the abortionist finishes delivering the dead baby. It's a horrifying, sickening procedure that's performed exclusively on late-term babies. To their credit, our lawmakers tried to outlaw it. Last November, the House of Representatives passed a bill banning partial-birth abortion by a huge margin. A month later the Senate passed an amended version of the House bill by a vote of 54 to 44. In March the House passed the Senate version of the bill by a veto-proof margin. Even staunchly pro-choice lawmakers were so sickened by this abortion method that for the first time in their careers they cast a pro-life vote. But then President Clinton, under tremendous pressure from the abortion lobby, vetoed the bill. Pro-life leaders say the override vote may come within the next few days. The Senate is currently about a dozen votes short of an override. The House vote is too close to call. Those of us who love our country must do all we can to get this veto override passed. The kids demonstrating at the Capitol last week are right. We do live in a society governed by mean--that is, lawless--people. A regime unwilling to extend the most basic protection to the most vulnerable of our citizens--unborn children--cannot demand the allegiance of Christians or, indeed, of any people of conscience. If this veto is not overridden, Christians, with fear and trembling, will have to consider the option of civil disobedience, just as Christians did a hundred years ago when slavery was the great moral issue of the day. We cannot simply sit back and do nothing, because to do nothing implies that there is nothing the state can do that will cause us to question our allegiance to our country. We must help our lawmakers understand that if they aren't willing to ban a procedure that kills healthy babies in the very act of being born, then we can no longer claim to be a civilized society. And then Christians will be forced to choose between obeying an uncivil law--or prayerfully considering civil disobedience.

09/17/96