Today marks the anniversary of the dawn of one of the darkest eras in American history. It was on this day 33 years ago that the Supreme Court arbitrarily — their words, not mine — decided that the taking of an unborn life conceived less than three months before was not just legal, but a right contained within the Constitution.
In an attempt to memorialize those lost due to that decision, thousands of pro-lifers will take part in the annual March for Life. They will be cold and faced with slurs and taunts, but they will proceed from the Washington Memorial to the Supreme Court nevertheless.
To be pro-life is to focus on the rights of the unborn child. Listen to a discussion among abortion supporters, and see how long it takes before anyone mentions what is growing inside a woman’s womb. There are entire classes at Cornell in which the abortion debate is one-sided, making an opinion shared by half the country seem utterly foreign.
Although there is no consensus on when a baby achieves consciousness or acquires the ability to feel pain, it’s amazing that we as a society do not err on the side of caution with our most precious resource. Stating that it is known “for sure” that the baby does not feel pain until it is five months along, Planned Parenthood’s website does not cite their information, leaving the impression that the evidence in my term paper is more important than knowing when a child is a child. It continues, saying that “it is possible that a fetus is unable to perceive pain at any time during pregnancy” but “if the ability to feel pain does develop before birth, it is likely to happen only after the 28th week.” The closest Planned Parenthood gets to this approach is noting that “in extremely rare cases, abortion causes death.”
It is simply a question of logic. If an egg is fertilized by a sperm, and is allowed to develop without artificial human impediment, the end result —barring an unfortunate miscarriage — will be a human being.
Regardless of when consciousness is achieved or the perception of pain begins, impeding the development of that baby will not cause it to reach the aforementioned stage, thus resulting in one less human walking — or in this case crawling — the earth. No one has the authority to assign an “arbitrary figure to viability,” a phrase that Justice Blackmun himself used in the majority opinion of Roe v. Wade, just as every child deserves the opportunity to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness regardless of circumstance.
If you happen to catch the march on the news, take note of the substantial number of woman protesters. At Cornell, two of the three officers of the Cornell Coalition for Life are female, as its last two presidents have been. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the pro-life movement is not one of sexist men seeking only to impose their will on women’s bodies, but includes a surprisingly large percentage of women who recognize that we as humans are more than just clumps of cells.
At a school where dissent is celebrated only if everyone agrees, outing oneself as a pro-lifer is a drastic step, often welcomed with less than open hearts and minds. While the Dean of Students reserved space for a pro-abortion group to counter-protest the Genocide Awareness Project, the same courtesy was not extended to pro-life advocates this year during the Day of Action for Abortion Rights. What a marketplace of ideas we have.
Amazingly, people who know that I am pro-life still ask why I press this issue. For help once again, I turn to Planned Parenthood’s own statistics, which state that there are 3,700 abortions in the United States a day. Taking that into account, it would take about five days and six hours, or an extended version of an orientation for all you newcomers, to abort a population comparable to the undergraduate and graduate population at Cornell.
Risking the possibility of taking millions of lives simply because we are not sure when life begins is at best foolish and at worst selfish. Much like abolitionists who refused to accept the Dred Scott decision, I cannot sit idly by as millions of Americans are not recognized as human.
In order to honor the silent minority, we need to reach out to their mothers as well. Organizations such as Birthright and Feminists for Life, the former located in Ithaca, completely focus on supporting women terrified and confused about their courses of action. Funds within the pro-life movement must be earmarked not only for education, but for safe houses and other places expectant mothers can go when they have nowhere else to turn. In addition, adoption needs to be brought to the forefront as a viable alternative that allows an unexpected circumstance to become a miracle for others. The lives saved as a result will be limitless, and show that our movement does care deeply about the mother as well.
Ezra Cornell set the tone for our school when he stated that he wanted to “found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” Unfortunately, this oft-repeated phrase seems to extend only to the groups with the loudest voices and the most socially accepted causes. Yes, today is one of the most crucial days in the history of America, so take a moment and listen to those fighting for humans armed only with a silent scream.
Megan Sweeney is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at mps65@cornell.edu. The 700 Level appears alternate Mondays.