Recently I read Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” for the first time. One passage caught my attention. Slave trader Haley is discussing how unpleasant it can be to separate a mother from her child, buying only one and leaving the other. If only there were some way to prevent mothers from getting so attached to their children, his job would be much easier and everyone would be happier. Really? And then it occurred to me that Haley’s wish had become reality in modern America.
Early abortion-producing chemicals, implants, and devices have made the womb inhospitable to new life. The tiny son or daughter, just conceived days before, enters her womb and dies. Parents are told such devices are contraceptives according to the FDA because some doctor’s group, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, redefined conception as implantation in 1965.
Now employers are told they will include these abortifacients in their employee health insurance plans or they will be fined out of business. Much like the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Obamacare’s Heath and Human Services mandate violates the consciences of those who abhor treating a human being like a thing.
Gerry Parmantier
Vancouver
