ABORTION HAS SET THE STAGE FOR INFANTICIDE OF THE NEWBORN
Over the last few months or so, it seems we can`t open our daily papers
without reading about some hideous stories concerning extreme abuse of the
newborn or small children, some leading to horrifying cases of infanticides.
Most everyone must be familiar by now with the story of the young mother who
gave birth and then left her baby to die during a prom dance. What`s makes
this particular case so gruesome is the casualness with which the mother
executed this horrendous crime.
According to a friend, 18-year-old Melissa Drexler paused in front of the
mirror in the bathroom to touch up her makeup before rejoining her date on
the dance floor - this after having tossed her 6½-pound baby boy into a
trash bin next to the bloodstained
stall in the restroom where she had given birth.
It is hard to believe, but much was said to depend on whether it could be
determined that the baby died before the umbilical cord was cut, as it could
then be argued that the baby was still "a part" of his mother and,
therefore, she could not be subjected to
any sort of legal prosecution. She was, however, in fact charged with
murder, when an autopsy revealed her newborn was strangled.
Similar cases of post-natal infanticide are being reported with increasing
frequency in Canada. New Brunswick has not been spared these inconceivable
acts of lethal child abuse. The past October trial, covering two-year-old
Jacqueline Brewer`s lonely
death of dehydration and starvation in a crib in her parents`s, apartment in
Saint John, N.B., attests to the increasing frequency everywhere of
infanticides of the newborn.
We ask ourselves in bewilderment who could have taught Melissa Drexler, and
others she imitated, to regard her newborn as disposable trash? Many
factors are no doubt involved. But the one explanation, which surely must
surpass all others, is
government-sponsored abortion on demand. Like countless thousands of her
peers, this unfortunate teenager has grown up in a society that does not
stress deferral of gratification, and it`s not her fault that the baby
arrived during the prom, for
Pete`s sake! She has come of age in a society where condom-dispensing
schools teach what amounts to the plumbing of sex for pleasure-seeking
adolescents.
Also like countless thousands of other young adults, she has probably spent
much of her leisure time watching movies and television programs not
designed to suggest that sexuality has morally complex dimensions and
serious consequences. If she is like the thousands of other young adults,
she has pumped into her ears endless hours of the obscene, dehumanizing
lyrics of popular rock music... Marilyn Manson style. And she certainly has
grown up in a social environment saturated with government and academic
leaders` approbation of, and collaboration with, the political program of
reducing abortion to a mere "choice," like choosing to smoke a
cigarette...only not nearly that serious.
This example of barbaric behaviour at a dance is being termed a tragedy
calling for compassion all around. What misplaced wishy-washy emotional
thinking this is. One talks of a tornado or an earthquake as a tragedy.
What this young woman did can only be described as an act of pure
wickedness, and a society that is incapable of anger about it has to be
viewed as simply decadent.
Melissa Drexler`s macabre prom night activities epitomize the growing number
of infanticides perpetrated on the newborn. As monstrous as they must be
considered, they might have the beneficial effect of transforming the vague
unrest over these vicious acts into a general public recognition that
today`s abortion culture, with its casual creation and destruction of life,
is nothing if not demonic.
Thaddée Renault
Pro-Life Program