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Several decades ago, while in high school, I was elected State Vice-President of the International Relations League. The Board met four times a year and one of our main responsibilities was to plan the agenda for the State Convention held each Spring. We chose several topics and were supposed to familiarize ourselves with one as we each were expected to lead a discussion group on that particular subject. We talked about what would be on the agenda and what we should discuss. Two of the topics I remember were: The Palestinian Refugee Crisis and Youth in Asia.

I was more familiar with the Palestinian problem and chose that one to prepare for. A few months went by and the date arrived for the Convention. I packed my suitcase and left for a city about three hours from where I lived. I got to the University campus, checked into my room, and went to the first day’s meeting. I received my Syllabus and sat in the front row of the auditorium with the rest of the Board. 

You can imagine my shock when I opened the Syllabus and looked at the Agenda. The topic “Youth in Asia” was nowhere to be found; the topic was actually Euthanasia. I thought I knew what was going to be discussed; I actually did not. I was as far off on that particular subject as I could be. At the time of the meeting, I had not heard the word many times, let alone understood the real meaning of the subject. It just goes to show you how wrong you can be about something you believe to be true.

Last week, I heard a prominent politician say that people in his political party were NOT for infanticide. And yet, partial-birth abortion and late term abortion are actually affirmed as a woman’s right by most of the feminist leaders in his party. Sometimes, we only think we know what is going on in our particular sphere. Unfortunately, many times we do not. We are as far away from the truth as we can possibly be. 

“Youth in Asia.”  Anyone want to lead the discussion?

Josef Mengele, Nazi SS physician, was notorious for his work at the camp at Auschwitz. He was an ardent believer in Nazi Racial Theory and Eugenics. He was interested in twins, identical or fraternal, and did experiments on Jewish and Roma children in the camps. He was especially interested in eye color and many children were maimed or killed in order for him to complete his experiments on them. Was he the only doctor at these death camps doing this kind of work? No, he was just the most infamous and was known as the “Angel of Death” at Auschwitz.

When we think of the Nazi SS and their death camps, we are outraged. We just had Holocaust Remembrance Day and we mourn the six million Jews who were murdered at the camps. But they were not the only ones that were scheduled for extermination. Fourteen million people were murdered by the SS: Jews, Romas, the old, infirm, disabled, mentally ill, and those physically or mentally handicapped were also scheduled for death in order to help establish a pure race.

Outrage and sadness, that is what these kinds of policies evoke in most people. That happened in WWII. It is over, we will never have to face that kind of inhumanity again, or will we?

Last night on the news, I heard about a policy just signed into law in New York. Abortions will be legal up to the time of birth. Any child deemed unwanted, unnecessary, mentally or physically unfit can be killed at the moment of birth if that is what the mother wants. 

Is this law an aberration? No, it is the latest in a series of laws that some states are trying to adopt. I heard the Virginia governor, a pediatric neurologist no less, advocating for the passage of this same law in his state. He explained rationally how the baby will be killed right before birth and if the mother changes her mind when the baby is delivered, they will try to revive it.

These policies are Mengelian, plain and simple. Americans are divided on their stance for abortion, but seventy-one percent of us are against late-term abortion. If we don’t want these laws to stand, what can we do?

1. Use our Voice: Just like those in Nazi Germany who stood against the SS and their inhumane practices, we must use our voice to stand up against these laws.

2. Use our Hands: We can write to our State Senators and Representatives to not allow these kinds of laws to be passed in our states. If we live in a state where this law has been passed, we can ask our Representatives to rescind the law allowing these practices.

3. Use our Checkbooks: We can donate to organizations that will work to have these laws taken off the books. My husband and I will donate to The American Center for Law and Justice and encourage their work on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.

We must know that even though we are just one person, if we stand together, we can change what is happening in our legislatures. I, for one, will stand up against this form of evil. Will you stand with me?

“Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31: 8-9