Pro-life. No apologies.

As I often do, I'll start this blog with a few disclaimers.

1- I am pro-life. Like, 100%, unwavering, completely and totally in every circumstance, pro-life.
2- I am not opening this up for debate, nor am I looking for you to tell me why I am close-minded or idealistic by being so staunchly pro-life.
3- I do not judge people who have had abortions, nor do I judge people who are pro-choice. Judging means that I put myself in a place to think I am better than you and gives me the governing power to decipher why you believe what you believe. Your beliefs are between you and God, and I do not give myself the false power that comes with thinking I am better than you, more righteous than you, or a better parent than you because I chose life for my babies.

4- I am fed up with hypocrisy.

Today, my fire all started with this article. This is not a debate on surrogacy, nor will I weigh in my personal thoughts or feelings on the topic of surrogacy. What I WILL weigh in on is this.

Shame, shame, shame on us. We've now put a price tag on a human life. And it was a measly $10,000.

You know what? I'm sick of hearing that this kind of "thought" is the government's doing. The fact that we are now stepping over into a Hitler style era of "Survival of the Fittest" is not a Democratic Party problem. It's not a legislative problem. It's not a Supreme Court problem. Not a school system problem. The "problem," my friends, is that WE, the PEOPLE have failed to see the value of a human life. The "problem" is that we have put ourselves in a place of God-likeness and have given ourselves the power to pass or fail a human's existence based off of what we see. Let's not forget that a people once gave a man power to decide the fate of human lives, and 6 million people who didn't meet his stamp of approval were annihilated.

The "problem" is that we have failed at morality. And it starts at home.

I am clearly a mother. The moment sperm met egg in my womb, I became a mother. And my moral obligation to my children was mandated as more than just the obvious charge to carry those babies to term and give them their right to live. My moral obligation also was mandated to be to teach them valuable and critical life lessons from infancy. Back to the fact that I am fed up with hypocrisy.

I am fed up with a hypocritical society that tells me a cat's life or the life of HER unborn "babies" are more protected than the life of a child who was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome in the womb. I am fed up with the word "fetus", plain and simple. I'm a person, always been a person, and will forever be known as a PERSON. Not a fetus. (Oh, but I get it. Saying, "Let's terminate the fetus" sounds a heck of a alot easier to swallow than, "Let's slaughter your unborn baby.") I am fed up with hypocrisy that grants more privileges, rights, and freedoms to predators who commit heinous crimes against children than actual children themselves. I am fed up with hypocrisy that lends more praise to the beauty of a tree than the beauty of a child born with no limbs or a cleft palate. I am fed up with hypocrisy that justifies two convictions of vehicular manslaughter to a drunk driver that kills a mother and her unborn child, yet would protect her rights to destroy the child if she were on her way to an abortion clinic to "get rid of it". I am fed up with hypocrisy that screams and chants equal rights for all races, genders, and sexual orientations yet remains mutely quiet when it is asked to speak up for a child who literally has no rights at all and is given no right to be born.

Clearly, I am old school. I still believe in keeping my babies with me until kindergarten as much as possible. I love the thought of the man being the primary breadwinner and the wife taking care of the home. I think men should do yard work and house maintenance and women should keep her family fed, clean, and laughing. I understand alot of my peers don't feel this way, and I can't tell you how OK I am with that. In fact, as much as I disagree with today's gender neutral roles in our families (if God wanted our roles the same, we would have been created sexually neutral), I "get" why today's roles are the way they are. But moms, dads... there are some truths that transcend time. There are issues of morality, justice, and righteousness that matter not what decade we find ourselves in, and that should not be held subject to our economic or cultural climates, but should in fact turn the tide for the economy and the culture. What about THOSE things? What have we taught our children about the sanctity of LIFE? What have we taught them about human DIGNITY and WORTH? What about the principles of speaking up, and speaking LOUDLY when injustice is being done? What about being the voice of the victims and the powerless? What about speaking kindly about other people in front of our children, so they see we value the lives of even those we don't get along with?

I know, I know, I know. There are the arguments that it's unfair to bring a child into extreme poverty. The arguments that rape took a mother's power from her and she shouldn't have to bear a child who is a by-product of that crime. The arguments that say a child born with little brain function and no legs will have a terrible quality of life and shouldn't have to live one day of it. The arguments that say, "It's easy for you to advocate life when your children are healthy and your marriage is healthy and you haven't had to live one day of my story." The arguments that sometimes abortion is an act of mercy for all involved. If there's one thing ministry has taught me in the last twenty years, it's that someone, somewhere has lived a story very similar to yours and has overcome the odds. I can show you several parents who were advised to abort after an ultrasound showed grave danger for the baby, the mother, or both. I can let them tell you themselves how eternally grateful they are for the precious lives they were entrusted with-- how every burden they've borne with those special little ones have only deepened their love for them and for their Creator. I can show you a mom who was told to abort her baby girl because of a very dangerous birth situation that could kill them both. That girl is a teenager who is more than well today. A single mom who is so happy that her special needs child who was conceived in rape has stood as a testimony to her of the goodness of a merciful God.

Here's what all of them have taught me.

Life isn't convenient. It isn't always planned, isn't always orderly. Sometimes it hurts so bad you don't think you'll be able to take another breath, and then the very next breath could offer laughter from your toes. Sometimes you map out your life only to turn around and see you had it upside down the whole time. Children have a way of ripping the carpet out from under your feet and making you fall flat on your rear end. Then they spit up on you, blow a diaper out, get an ear infection, and change up their sleep habits a few times while you're down on that floor. Sometimes, they aren't born with all the parts we hoped they'd have. Sometimes their faces don't look like we hoped and their brains don't function like we planned. Sometimes they have to fight for their lives through machines and tubes and wires.

They shouldn't have to fight for their lives before air even touches their faces.

It's a sad world when a mother's wishes can supercede a child's needs. When she can decide whether or not it's "convenient" to bring her child forth.

And what does it say about us when we opt out because we aren't satisfied with the "quality" of the life we've created? My warning to you is this. Before you discount the life of a baby who will be born with a facial disfigurement or a brain impairment, you better be sure the powers that be are happy with your eye color and ethnicity. After all. History does repeat itself. In fact, it already has.

Eight times over since 1973.