Is worldwide abortion a holocaust?

The word “holocaust” has clearly come to signify the genocide against the Jews and their supporters at the hands of Nazi Germany in WWII. The word is Hebraic, with a meaning related to making a sacrifice through fire. So I’m reluctant to use the word to imply genocide against the pre-born. This respects everyone.

I do consider abortion a kind of genocide because a specific group, the pre-born, are described as being subhuman or non-human, for the purposes of destroying them. Because the mother (and often the father) are complicit in the child’s destruction, it “orphans” the child and strikes with a particular viciousness at the idea of family, and the ideal that God calls us to in this regard. Clearly it’s Satanic mockery of God’s plan of salvation towards us as His children, becoming part of His family.

I’m not unsympathetic to the plight of the unborn, but we need to clearly define what is state-imposed destruction, and what is state sanctioned, but then personally chosen on an individual basis. We need to use those differences to explain why people need to change from the heart and not simply because the state has imposed laws.

What is fundamentally different between these two calamities is the decision point of those given the power (the mothers alone) and the consequences they bear. The Jews as a people were being destroyed by a state – Nazi Germany. But Germany, as a state, was only halted through violence, so those who lived by the sword also died by the sword – Nazi Germany fell. The German people suffered as a side effect of their political and moral ignorance.

In the case of abortion genocide, the mother, for all practical purposes, decides – and yes pressure and coercion have their influence – however, the mother also has risk and suffers the consequences for having made that decision. In effect, the mother puts herself into a kind of “concentration camp”. That’s a vastly different situation – incredibly wrong, horrible consequences, but not the same situation as the Germans who imposed their political sovereignty. We don’t do either case a favor by framing them as similar when they really aren’t the same when it comes to the decisionmaker’s consequences.

Sidewalk counselors, and those who regret abortion and speak out about it – such as Annie Banno over at After Abortion understand the persecution, and perhaps have come to a place of healing, but they really can’t be compared in the same way to Irena Sendler, for reasons I gave previously.

One of my favorite Scripture passages is what our Lord read in the synagogue from Isaiah 61:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor [NIV Lk 4:18-19]

The captivity of sin which leads to the despair of abortion, and the death of the child is something from which freedom needs to be proclaimed and embraced. The truth needs to be revealed – massively, and completely, but we can’t be false in how this comes about.

If the contentious issue on this matter is one of value judgement, then that is where the focus should be: why it is a value judgement to begin with? Which brings us solidly back to the pointed question – “what are the unborn? – are they human like us?”

This is far more fertile ground for discussing our condition, than drawing parallels that paint others who are blind to the truth as demons.

Perspective abortion, genocide, holocaust

Jill Stanek posted a story about a true Polish hero, Irena Sendler who was instrumental in saving nearly 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. A truly amazing story and a beautiful woman.

At the end of her post, Jill made a comparison between this woman and activists within the pro-life movement:

Such a beautiful woman and story. Someday many in the pro-life movement, like sidewalk counselors outside abortion mills, will be similarly honored.

The comments section soon blazed.

I’m hoping here to add a perspective that adds some light, and a lot less heat.

In 1991 I walked the ground of the Warsaw Ghetto area for six weeks. Among the dilapidated remaining buildings, complete with bullet holes and other signs of combat, I saw continued anti-semitism, particularly against the synagogue where I was conducting computer training.

One summer, when I was 12, I saw enough of the concentration camps through B&W footage at a local college to know I didn’t want to visit those camps when co-workers invited me to join them in 1991. Those who had visited the camps woke from horrible nightmares for weeks after.

Jill’s post is a fallacious equivocation – a comparison between these two situations – the nightmare of the Warsaw Ghetto/Holocaust, and the genocide of the unborn.

They aren’t the same. And we shouldn’t paint them as such.

One could draw many comparisons, but the differences are primarily in the overwhelming despair and state imposition of the Holocaust and the distributive nature of the decisions made by millions of women for the genocide of the unborn. Each genocide has an incidious nature, but Jill’s efforts, the amazing numbers of PRCs, the efforts of so many pro-life proponents in a land where people still have freedom to choose (with caveats), speaks to the light that shines brilliantly, whereas Europe was immensely dark at that time.

What makes Irena so special was her duty to save lives, at the continual extreme and imminent danger of losing her own.

While sidewalk counselors may be exposed to extreme hatred and potential violence, our rule of law still protects their rights as citizens, when all hope of such protection was missing in Poland at that time.

Perspective abortion, holocaust, Irena Sendler, pro-life