Poverty and success aren’t exclusive
Too often these days, I hear the outright rhetoric or the assumption that those from poor backgrounds are pretty much out of luck to ever achieve success. Kids born in less-than-ideal circumstances will probably never get out of poverty and never have a chance to succeed. The assumption seems to be that kids born in these circumstances will end up as drug users, as drug pushers or worse.
The government doesn’t help when they do away with programs to lift up instead of simply hand out money. I’ve seen the result, kids growing with little direction, no foundation and many believing the government owes them a living.
Nevertheless, I totally disagree with the simplistic solution—abortion. Why abort perfectly healthy babies? After all, what chance do they have in life? Why not do the compassionate thing and kill these precious children. Do those with these so-called solutions think those who struggle to put food on the table care less about their children than the more affluent? That idea really is despicable.
But is there something else they don’t want to acknowledge? Truth.
She was black the result of rape. Her mother was thirteen and lived in poverty. She raised this child as best she knew how. At thirteen this child of rape married for the first time. The future looked hopeless. Would this child have been better off not born?
How about the mother of several children? She had very little. There was no father in the picture. She had to depend on sometimes three low paying jobs just to provide food and a place to live in an unsafe neighborhood that didn’t encourage legitimate enterprise, education, safety, or even long life. Would these children have been better off sliced into pieces by the sharp knife of an abortionist?
What about the young woman born into slavery. She had several older siblings. At seven, she was sent away to be the caretaker of a baby. Can you imagine? She fought the dog for scraps of food. When she ran away she was beaten so badly, when returned to her mother, there was little hope of survival. Her mother nursed her back to health, but it happened several more times. She was put to work outside with the men when it became evident she wasn’t fit to be household slave.
As a teen, she tried to block slavers from getting to a runaway slave. Someone threw a heavy weight at her, hitting her in the head. After her recovery, she suffered periods when she’d totally blackout. Her future looked bleak. Maybe she would have been better off dying before birth. Some would claim that’s exactly what should have happened to all three of these pathetic cases.
However, would we, our culture, and our nation be better off without them? You tell me.
How about the black woman born of rape? Some would claim she should not have been allowed to live. She would only end up a burden to her mother and the state. Yet this woman began singing and became a sensation. She broke down barriers for her race. First one with her own television show. First to have a starring role in a Broadway musical.
Her career spans singing, Broadway, movies and television—including singing on the radio during WW II for USO camp shows. She advocated for actor’s rights. She was second of her race to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first of her race and gender to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy. In her later years, she toured with Billy Graham. She was known for the song “Stormy Weather” and “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” Would you have wanted Ethel Waters to be aborted?
His mother, raised in a series of foster homes, had a third-grade education. She was raised surrounded by poverty, abuse and despair. At thirteen she married a man fifteen years older who treated her like a little China doll—until they had kids. Eventually this woman left her husband, taking with her their two sons 10 and 8.
She had little education and few resources but worked hard often at up to three low-paying jobs at a time. Her faith sustained her as she sought to raise her sons with integrity and honor. She pushed them to fulfill their potential. Her motto was: Learn to do your best and God will do the rest.
Both sons did well. However, the youngest son not only graduated from high school but also from Yale University. He became a doctor and an internationally known surgeon who created new techniques for separating conjoined twins and other techniques now used around the world. He has written several books.
From 2017 to 2021 he served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. His awards included The Ford Theatre Lincoln Medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Springam Medal. How many lives would have been lost had his mother had been aborted or had aborted this highly acclaimed surgeon--Ben Carson?
How about the slave? She also was a woman of faith and yearned for freedom, but not only for herself. This woman grew up and began leading other slaves out of the South through the Underground Railroad. In those days, it wasn’t enough to lead her “passengers’ to the free North. A terrible law had been passed that allowed slavers to come North to reclaim runaway slaves. No. She had to lead them all the way to Canada.
She could have stayed safe and free, but she had a burden to save others, She carried a gun and, once part of her latest group, no one was allowed to turn back. To do so endangered everyone. She was so successful a ridiculous price was put on her head. She kept going South and bringing slaves to freedom. During the Civil War she became a nurse and spy.
Later she helped many of those who came to her door for assistance. She advocated for women’s rights. She also founded a home for the elderly. She was called “Moses” because she led her “passengers” out of slavery to freedom. Who was this amazing woman? Harriet Tubman. What if she’d been aborted? How many would have remained slaves? How much poorer in so many ways our country would be without her courage, confidence and faith.
Those who advocate for death instead of life, who advocate for not only the right to abort, but the right to pressure others to do the same, sometimes claim aborting a child is compassionate. Such belief leaves out the truth that preborn children are human children. They feel pain at a very young age inside the womb. They recognize music and the voice of their mother.
This philosophy also leaves out the most important factors—reality and the human factor. It leaves out family, faith, friends and opportunities. How many kids from wealthy families are totally useless in the real world because they think they are all that? Maybe they should have been aborted?
Truth is, neither poverty nor wealth begins to codify the human spirit. Trying to define it is like wind through the fingers. It doesn’t take much research to discover a great many of those who’ve achieved great things and who reached out to lift up others came from less than stellar backgrounds.
Potential cannot be grasped or defined. God created each human as unique and special. The Judeo-Christian God is one of love and purpose. Abortion is the destruction of that special creation. We don’t have that right to desire or cause the death of His little ones—whatever their race or circumstance. I refuse to march to the drumbeat of death when I can dance toward hope and light and life. It makes all the difference.
© 2024 Carolyn R Scheidies
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Sonya Carson: HistorysWomen.com