Editor,
Kimberly Lavender's pro-choice appeal in Monday's Daily Lobo was an unfortunate and startling reminder that there are some people who really would like to perpetuate the scourge of abortion in America.
Like Ms. Lavender, they talk of a woman's right to choose, which is patently absurd inasmuch as the abortion license undermines and destroys the very basis of our human rights, namely our unique value and dignity as human persons. Either our rights are founded in our personhood and are therefore inalienable, or they are arbitrary and capricious creations, legal fictions imposed upon us whether we agree with them or not. I submit that our rights are indeed inalienable, and therefore a baby in the womb has just as much right to live as Ms. Lavender has.
As for her absurd argument that abortion is a legitimate right because 57 percent of New Mexicans favor it, I pose the following question: If 57 percent of New Mexicans thought that seizing all of Ms. Lavender's possessions and forcing her to work day and night in a labor camp was a good idea, would that make it right? Of course not! If every man and woman on earth favored abortion, it would still be wrong because it is the taking of an innocent human life. We do not abrogate the fundamental rights of others because they are inconvenient or unwanted.
Every baby is a little bundle of inconvenience. This is precisely the reason they must be protected from those who want to destroy them. And that's the crux of the whole matter. No matter how loudly Ms. Lavender and NARAL proclaim that a woman has the right to choose, we must always remember that they are talking about her choice either to end or to safeguard the life of an innocent human person.
That is why it is my civic duty, and the duty of all others who value the human person, to oppose Ms. Lavender and NARAL at every turn, until the day when the rights of those who cannot defend themselves are recognized.
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Jim Lyle
UNM student
