Slavery versus Abortion

In my view both slavery and abortion are evil. Of course, many would contend that that only slavery is evil. I am of the impression that abortion may be worse than slavery for the following reasons:

Though brutal and inhumane, slavery was not genocidal but abortion is genocidal. After all, slaves were of no value dead. Since Roe v. Wade (1973) over 60 million babies have been aborted. That is the equivalence of nearly 20% of the US population today. That is right, one in five Americans do not exist because they were aborted. In the history of America, the number of abortions can be estimated at more than 100 million. And this does not include abortions using birth control contraceptives that act as abortifacients. Anywhere from 1.5% to 3% of fertile women obtain an abortion each year. Over the history of slavery in America there have been over 20 million slaves. At the end of the civil war, there were nearly a half million slaves in Virginia alone. At the first U.S. census in 1790 the number of slaves in the United States was approaching 700,000.

Abortion is final, bondage in slavery was not necessarily the final outcome. About 6 to 7% of slaves earned their freedom through emancipation by the owner, escaping, payment, or even favorable court rulings for being brought to free states for a considerable time period. And there is little corroboration of facts or statistics to suggest that ancestors of slaves living in the U.S. would have been any better off, as a whole, if slavery did not exist and they lived in their Native Africa. Even poor African-Americans are afforded welfare and other entitlement benefits that would hardly be available in most African nations. Although discrimination still exists, modern America views African-Americans as a protected class of citizens subject to preferential treatment for education and jobs.

Throughout the history of slavery many slaveowners saw it as a necessary evil, but did not agree with the practice. Justice Taney who handed down the controversial Dred Scott decision freed his slaves decades earlier. Most of the Virginia founders struggled with the issue of slavery. Madison, Washington, Jefferson, Mason, Randolph, Monroe, and Wythe all owned slaves but talked about institution as being “cruel” and how it “tramples on the rights of human nature”. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution drafted and signed by many of these same men never mentions slavery and were important documents that eventually led to the end of the practice of slavery. Southern courts routinely ruled in favor of slaves gaining their freedom when they were moved to free states or territories for a long period of time. Southern judges owned slaves, but they too realized the institution was a necessary evil. Abortion on the other hand has always been seen as being both moral and just because it is mistakenly considered a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Remember, slavery was also mistakenly seen as a Fundamental Right (property) under the Constitution in the Dred Scott decision (1857). Abortion rights advocates do not see the activity of abortion as being the least bit controversial. They do not see anything wrong with abortion being used as a tool for population control or for eugenics ideas and philosophies the movement was founded upon. The bottom line is it was not uncommon for slave owners to be morally and ethically conflicted whereas abortion advocates seem to have no moral conscience or ethical compass.

Slavery discriminated against African-Americans, but abortion also discriminate against African-Americans. African-Americans make up 13% of the population but make up 42% of the abortions. Abortions mostly discriminate against the poor who make up over 75% of all abortions.

Maybe abortion seems to be a better option than a lifetime in bondage. But the lives of slaves did not go for naught. The sacrifices made by slaves was just as important to US and World history as was the sacrifice of American soldiers fighting in not only the Civil War to free slaves, but any war to overcome the evils of Nazism, communism, or terrorism. Unfortunately, abortion was founded under the same ideals and principles of Nazism, socialism, and anarchism. It is sad that we never learn our lessons from history and hopefully some day we will come to the realization that the sacrifice of over a hundred million babies is enough genocide and we will finally put an end to the practice of abortion except under extreme circumstances (which compromise of less than 2% of all abortions).