By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
Nearly 50 years ago, a law was passed that has robbed us of countless songs, films, hugs, books, jokes, medical breakthroughs, kisses, building designs, artwork, athletes, teachers, mothers, fathers, and, of course, children. I am obviously speaking of possibly one of the worst Supreme Court rulings and the ensuing laws ever designed: Roe v. Wade, the ruling that didn’t just put the nose of the abortion-on-demand camel under the tent, it was more like it let a herd of camels move in and then they summarily ruined the tent. The stench has been indescribable as it pertains to the harm done to any society that feels that it’s okay to kill its own innocent souls. At the least, it is unsustainable; at the most, it is an evil in a class of its own.
Prior to the passing of Roe, I was a native of one of the first states to pass an abortion-on-demand law. Prior to the passing of the Washington State law, I had been told by a “benefactor” that if I ever were to become pregnant, I could opt to be flown out of the country to have a “safe-and-legal abortion.” This was offered to me while I was a teenager who was not yet old enough to drive, and it would have been done without the knowledge of my parents. This is one of countless examples how our moral fabric has nearly unraveled, having a wicked impact on relationships that doesn’t even have anything directly to do with the barbarous act itself. I am grateful that I never had to face the possibility, and my heart goes out to those who did and do.
This week the all-time “leak” occurred when it became plain that the Supreme Court of the United States is taking serious aim at the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade, and it is a move that is long overdue. Let us remember that we are not the first culture to sacrifice our children. Israel, when they were backslidden, offered their children to Moloch. The Spartans would take their unwanted babies up into the hills to die of exposure; the thought being that if they lived it was only because the gods had a reason to supernaturally preserve their lives. Christians would watch the parents come back empty handed, sneak up into the hills, rescue the babies, and raise them as their own.
During WWII, non-Jews would do the same and hide and care for newborns who would have perished in the camps. No, this is not the first time that cultures have become so twisted, and returning the decision as to whether or not you have a federally protected right to kill your pre-born child to the individual states will not stop abortion. But at least the era of government-sanctioned slaughter will come to an end.
I talk often of how much Iraq changed my life, and one of the dearest things that happened to me was the highly improbable opportunity to become friends via internet with Norma McCorvey, the woman who was the Roe that was used and abused as the “poster child” of “The “Row.” Here is how that happened: she sent a copy of her autobiography entitled Won By Love to our MWR library located in Saddam Hussein’s former hunting lodge. I read it, was deeply impacted, and sent a thank you to her publisher who forwarded my thanks to Norma. She emailed me, and we became the modern-day equivalent of “pen pals.” All these years later I can still remember her email address and share it freely with you because she has since passed on. It was Godsgirl777@yahoo.com. For a while, she emailed me several times a week, and let me know she was praying for me and us. She called me Ali Lou after she told me she had a nickname as a child that was Norma Lou. So, our emails would say in the subject bar: “To Ali Lou from Norma Lou,” and vice versa.
The honor that I felt of being someone who could share belonging to the God of second chances with someone who had no problem understanding the need for extravagant grace is a treasure. And I would like to think that she is looking down, hoping that we will take that second chance and put Roe behind us forever, even though it is causing and shall cause a row of epic proportions.
April 19, 2024
