Ed Emery: Pray for the unborn and that America will abandon the culture of death

(From Sen. Ed Emery, R-Lamar)

The issue of abortion has burst back into the forefront of politics. The shedding of innocent blood in America is accepted and protected. It’s as if it has become a profit center for Planned Parenthood.

The recent grim remembrance of the anniversary of Roe v Wade served to remind us of the inestimable value of life and the tragedy of killing the preborn.

Just weeks ago was Holocaust Remembrance Day – we celebrated Irena Sendler, who was responsible for the rescue of 2,500 Jewish children and babies from Poland and almost certain annihilation. We celebrate Sir Nicholas Winton, who used trains to rescue 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia and likely execution during World War II. 

Now, only 75 years later, New York legislators cheered the decision to exterminate the unborn right up to the time of birth. Isn’t that framing mischief by a law? The governor of Virginia is even willing to condemn human babies to death after birth.

Only four things change from the time of conception to adulthood: size, level of development, environment and degree of dependency – nothing else. 

With all the “protected classes” in America, why have pre-born babies not made the list? They have no choice, and are the most at risk when you consider that it’s been estimated that 65 million have been “terminated” in the womb. 

Of those, approximately 38 percent have been African American, 25 percent Hispanic, 23 percent other non-Hispanic and 14 percent white non-Hispanic. This imbalance is not surprising given Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s expressed views on race: “We don’t want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population . . .” she wrote in a Dec. 10, 1939 letter to Clarence Gamble.

We have to ask ourselves in this country, what is the unborn if not human? What makes humans valuable? How can two humans create something that is not human, but will become human? 

Advances in medical science and the study of DNA have settled most of these questions, but there are still some who cling to the culture of death and defend abortion. 

A simple illustration often used for understanding conception is the historic Polaroid camera: when does the picture become a picture? From the point of exposure, nothing is added or taken away while, in just minutes, the film becomes a photo because everything was there.

Bills have been filed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives this year to protect life pre-birth – some from the point that the infant is sensitive to pain, and others from the point of a detectable heartbeat. 

You may think neither is sufficient, but at least both recognize the value of human life and our duty to protect it. These tiny lives are, without question, the most innocent and vulnerable. All of us have watched enough TV to know that when checking for life, you check for a pulse – a heartbeat. If the lack of a heartbeat is the sign of death, what thoughtful person can deny that its presence is proof of life?

You can find the text of these bills on the Missouri Senate website: www.senate.mo.gov. Senators Koenig and Onder both have bills that protect lives. I hope you will pray for the unborn, and that America will abandon the culture of death that has invaded our culture. Please pray for your legislature, for these bills and for America. 

The future of Missouri and pre-born Missourians is in our hands.