Replace the blood-stained furniture and blankets, the roaming cats and filthy instruments of Dr. Kermit Gosnell's Philadelphia abortion clinic with bleached sheets, skilled nurses and sterilized equipment. Place the comfortably anesthetized newborn face-down on a proper operating table. Drape him neatly with a blue operating sheet that leaves exposed just the one square inch of nape where, with a skillful scissor snip, his life is ended. Is that better? No? Why not?
Answer: because it is illegal.
Hopefully the reader objects to the taking of innocent human life. Last month, 12 jurors in Philadelphia convicted Gosnell of murder. But wait a minute. Back up to the point when that same individual is still in utero (say, a day earlier). After the necessary medical manipulations he is delivered feet-first until the nape appears. Suddenly the doctor halts the delivery to perform the same procedure. Is that better? Do the inches between partial and full delivery really distinguish nonmurder from murder?
Maybe his state's law says so. His Creator takes a different view. God has been busily knitting according to Psalm 139:13. Who has been given authority to unravel that freshly woven fabric? Now back up a month, two months, three or four. At just 12 weeks' gestation, sharp, sterile medical instruments lethally invade the place where, since his conception, he had been warmly ensconced and just recently sucking his thumb. Is that better? What precious pregnant mothers and the individuals inside them need is real love, not sterile death.
Note: This was a letter that appeared in the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer on June 11. Reprinted with permission by John Birkett.