One of the greatest evils of the past two decades has been the corruption, abuse, and misuse of language. Words are being used to hide, distort, and deceive, rather than to express truth, goodness, and love. Euphemisms are used to mislead and shade reality. We hear about medical management of the elderly as a nice sounding phrase for killing old people. Infants, who do not meet mythical social or biological standards, are placed on low calorie diets to hide the reality of starving them to death. The ancient Greeks when concerned with remedies for diseases for curing, caring, healing used the word therapeutikos. Into our language have come two words: therapeutic abortion; a clear contradiction, for it is anything but healing, curing, caring for the pre-born child. Such phrases as: post contraceptive family planning, termination of pregnancy, emptying the uterus of its contents, removing the products of conception, and the totally insensitive, degrading, and disrespectful expression, dusting and cleaning, are meant to mislead and hide the reality that a human life is being taken and a pre-born child is being killed.
No Fair Play
From our living with one another and from the bonds that unite us, we know how important truth is in all our relationships. We know, too, that deception, mendacity, and dishonesty destroy and break down the very relationships that human communication is meant to foster. In the area of justice, we want to be treated and to deal with others according to the respect and dignity that is owed to that person. The very Kiwanian principles are fair dealing and the observance of the golden rule. In fact, truth and justice go hand in hand; where truth is concealed, inevitably justice is violated. The story of man’s inhumanity to man throughout the crowded pages of history is ample testimony to that fact. In the question of killing the unborn, what could be a greater injustice than taking innocent life; and it comes about because the truth of the presence of that life is being denied or concealed through the manipulation of language, of words. In a so-called therapeutic abortion, a complete travesty is being made of truth and justice, and this travesty is becoming more and more apparent in the rudderless course of much of contemporary life.
You are a group of people who have the power of exercising a very creative and positive influence within your community, an influence that can be brought to bear in upholding the dignity and worth of every human life. When the history of this community is written, let it not be said that the Kiwanis Club occupied only a footnote and was not a part of the main text in the struggle for life.
Call upon your political leaders to have the intestinal fortitude to face the abortion question head-on. To enact reasonable and just laws. Not that law will change the heart, but in the words of Martin Luther King, “Good laws will restrain the heartless.” In particular, request that the Department of the Attorney General, through the RCMP, immediately initiate a thorough investigation on the abortion practice of the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax where 80 percent of the abortions in the province are done. Recently, a letter was sent to the Medical Practitioners in Nova Scotia over the signature of the Head of the Department of Gynecology of that hospital indicating abortions are scheduled before committee approval. In other words, that an appointment for the killing of the baby is made even before the Abortion Committee meets. Paragraph two (2) indicates that some doctors are referring women for an abortion without prior examination; and the third statement of that letter presumes that an abortion request will be automatically approved by the Committee. If all of this is an application of the Criminal Code, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General, I would like to know what would constitute a violation in regard to Section 251 (4C). It appears to be more difficult for an Eskimo to get a permit to build an igloo than to get an abortion in some parts of this province.
Talk to Abortionists
I would challenge all of you to ask the abortionists within the area to practice not only within the confines of the law, but within the integrity called for by the “art” of medicine. The cornerstone of that healing art and the medical profession is in the words of the famous Protestant theologian Paul Ramsey based on the canon of loyalty between patient and doctor. Out of that loyalty flows an informed consent. Let the abortionist have the honesty to tell their patients that the fetal heart is beating at 21 days from the time of conception; that brain waves have been monitored at 43 days. Let their patients see through the wonders of microphotography the perfect development of a nine-week old fetus – all of this should be part of an informed consent required in the covenant of loyalty between patient and doctor. When the patient is fully informed, then she may make a wise and prudent choice for life. The medical community has never been enriched by deceiving, misleading, or not truly informing their patients. The dignity of women has never been enhanced nor their freedom realized when they cooperate in and seek the destruction of their own child.
If we keep all the important values that should characterize us as a humane and civil society, we cannot help but concur with Mother Theresa when she stated: “Abortion is a crime that kills not only the child, but the conscience of all involved.” Abortion, the tragedy of our time, is destroying the very fiber of our society. We all become more ruthless and heartless because of its presence within the community of man.
Finally, I would call upon all members of this august assembly to uphold light over darkness, integrity over deception, courage over timidity, truth over falsehood, love over hate, and life over death.
