During last night's 100-day press conference, when President Obama was asked about methods of torture used to interrogate suspected terrorists, he eloquently referred back to Winston Churchill, saying that when a country starts taking "short cuts" and resorting to things that go against its ideals, "over time, that corrodes what's best in a people."
"It corrodes the character of a country," the president said, adding that the path the country must take to uphold its high ideals might sometimes be harder than the path of least resistance. "Part of what makes us, I think, still a beacon to the world is that we are willing to hold true to our ideals, even when it's hard, not just when it's easy."
How true that is. Pro-lifers have been trying to explain that reality to the people of this country, to the world, for more than three decades. We have hammered home the notion that once any person has less dignity than another, we all have less dignity. Once we lose respect for one group of people and their God-given rights, it becomes easier to deny rights to other groups of people. When our nation decided that unborn children do not have the same right to life as the rest of us, we turned our back on our ideals and so began the corrosion of our collective character.
We have seen the tragic results of what happens when one life is considered less important than another. It's unfortunate that the president can recognize that fact when it comes to terror suspects and prisoners of war but not when it comes to his own countrymen still in the womb. President Obama said in his press conference last night that he believes that the abortion decision is best left in the hands of women, who he believes struggle with what they choose to do. Well, we would hope that women struggle with the decision to end a child's life, but the reality is that with each passing year people seem to become more and more desensitized to the plight of the unborn. Why? For the exact reasons the president stated: Over time, bad but easy choices corrode what's best in a people.
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