Abortion and the risk that its normalization poses to a democratic society

Some people believe that democracy consists of voting for rulers every four years, but there is much more to it.

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A democracy also implies judicial independence and the protection of individual rights. This is why democratic countries have established constitutions or fundamental laws to guarantee the rights inherent to human beings. These rights include freedom of expression, freedom of religion, the right to assembly, freedom of thought, freedom of education, and freedom of association, among others.

The most basic of all fundamental rights is the right to life. Without it, all other rights are threatened. In a society where life itself is threatened, the existence of democracy is also threatened. Of course, like all other fundamental rights, the right to life is associated with human dignity, with our condition as human beings. It is not a condition acquired by the whim of rulers or by a mere political agreement. It is a condition linked to life from its very beginning.

Science has demonstrated that human life begins at the moment of conception, which is when a human being acquires a genetic identity distinct from that of its parents, an identity it will retain until the moment of its death. The moment of birth does not represent a substantial change in a human being: it is not at that moment that we begin to be human, but rather it is the moment when we go from growing in the mother's womb to growing outside of it. After birth, a baby continues to depend on its mother (or on the adults who care for it, in the event of the mother's death).

Some people hold the abhorrent view that it is legitimate to kill any human being at the beginning of their life, at the mere wish of their mother, establishing this relationship of dependency as sufficient reason to impose a death sentence on an innocent human being simply for not being wanted. This is a type of sentence that the laws of the vast majority of democratic countries have abolished, even for the most dangerous criminals, because the death penalty is irreversible: if applied in error, there is no way to bring the condemned person back to life. It is alarming to see that a guarantee offered to those convicted of the worst crimes, the legal principle of "in dubio pro reo," is not granted to human beings who have not even had the opportunity to commit any wrongdoing.

It is especially serious to observe that abortion advocates have systematically resorted to lies by claiming that a fetus is not a human being and does not even deserve to be considered a living being, something that science demonstrates is categorically false. On the basis of this lie, laws have been created that classify abortion as a right, applying a death penalty without trial or sentence against the most innocent and defenseless. In this way, the most basic of human rights is being systematically violated, the right that is the pillar upon which all other rights and freedoms associated with our human condition are based.

Some people believe that in a democratic society something like this can happen without consequences. That's not true. As we've been seeing for years, the same societies that have legislated against the rights of unborn babies are now placing other rights under siege, such as religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of education, and private property. It was predictable. The massive violation of the right to life that the legalization of abortion implies has opened Pandora's box of authoritarianism.

In 1994, Saint Teresa of Calcutta warned in a historic speech in Washington, D.C.: "Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion." Currently, and with the consent of many, the normalization of abortion has been the starting point of a slippery slope that threatens other fundamental rights and, consequently, the very survival of democracy.

Therefore, defending life against the atrocity of induced abortion is not only opposing a cruel and unjust act that imposes the death penalty on innocent and defenseless human beings: it is also a democratic cause, because any free society is threatened from the moment killing innocents is considered legitimate. This is something we must keep in mind every day, but especially today, as we commemorate the Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem.

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Image: Me & Folly Cartoons.