Try to think of the most terrible, unjust horrors that have ever been committed against humanity, but that were totally legal at the time. Two thoughts that come to my mind are American slavery and the Holocaust. As we look back on these events, there is one thing we know for sure: no one would ever do that now and certainly not in America, "the land of the free," where oppression is a thing of the past...or would we?

The Holocaust and slavery have one thing in common that makes both such a horror in our minds. Both sprouted from the idea that members of a certain group of people are not really people; and that those in power can, therefore, use on them any malicious form of punishment they can dream up, regardless of whether anyone in that group has committed any sort of crime. Worse yet, neither of these victimized groups were allowed to have any say in the modifications of these laws that kept them down for so long. How terrible, we think now, thank God America isn't like that anymore, those ideas are all from the past. So how can this type of injustice possibly relate to the present?

Blacks have the vote in America. Women have the vote in America. The only American citizens who are disenfranchised are, of course, children under 18. Clearly, adults have the power in this country. Who are the ones being oppressed? Not teenagers. Not even children. Not toddlers or infants. It's those in the womb. Those new, little babies with beautifully unique souls and tiny, beating hearts are allowed to be murdered in this country. Who instigates those laws? Adults. Those who remember being babies, who remember having thoughts and dreams and lives before ever even seeing light, are 18 long years away from being able to have any say in changing this cruel law.

It's illegal to kill an adult. It's illegal to kill a child. Yet, killing a fetus is legal. Why? Because fetuses aren't people in the new millennium in America. Just like the blacks in 19th century America, who weren't really people. Just like the Jews during the Holocaust who weren't really people. Why, it makes perfect sense. Whether or not a person is a person has nothing to do with having been conceived, having a heartbeat, having a unique soul, or having hair on your head--no! But it has everything to do with where you are, how old you are, and what the latest belief about human qualifications is. If we can see you, you're a person. If we can't, you're not. Oh, how far we've come as a society! Am I not a person if I'm behind a closed door or under a blanket? If I become unable to communicate and too injured to walk, does this disqualify me as a person? And, if you had any doubt, would the answer be to go right ahead and kill?

But what about the parents? The parents bring new life into the world, through love, the moment their baby is conceived. (The baby is a baby from the moment it's conceived.) It's later that they sit back and decide that it's not quite the best time for them financially to have a baby--their credit card bills are a little out of hand. Or the baby will most likely turn out retarded, so it's certainly better off dead (because anyone would rather be dead and retarded than alive and retarded). The adults decide that the best way to go is to "end the pregnancy." They have rights, too, right? What if they don't want their baby? We'd better let them have it killed soon because, in only a few months, the baby they're allowed to murder now is going to become an actual person that can't legally be murdered in this country. Think of poor Hitler! He doesn't feel like having Jews in his country. Think of the white farmers of the Confederacy. After all, they need someone to pick their cotton for them!

Is it their choice to have the baby killed? Well, think of this: is suicide legal? No. If someone is not even allowed to make the decision to kill themselves, should they be able to make the decision to take the life of their own child? No. What if the baby is found out to be retarded after birth? Can they kill the baby then? No! So, should they have the option of killing the baby when there's only a chance he may become retarded soon? No. Parents make the choice the night that baby is conceived. After that, it's a living baby and there's no turning back. They've begun an independent life: a new human being.

The baby needs to stay inside it's mother for a while, of course. Inside it's mother. The baby's own flesh and blood. God's beautiful way to keep the baby safe during it's most precious months: keep the baby inside his mother. A mother loves her child unconditionally and forever. She will never let anything bad happen to her baby. Yet, somehow, it's been her perrogotive to end her own baby's life, before she's even seen the baby.

Now, think of a baby. Think of a baby's laughter, a baby's smile. Think of a helpless, crying baby that needs to be helped. Think of a baby being fed baby cereal. A baby eating Zwiebeck. A baby, wearing yellow, feety pajamas with bunny ears, lying in a crib with fresh, new sheets and a pacifier in his mouth. Think of a baby, dressed up for church, hat and all, giggling and chewing on a toy. Try to think of a feeling worse than knowing that a baby has been killed. On purpose. By his parents. Because he wasn't wanted. Because they "couldn't afford" him. This baby will never have a birth, or a life outside the womb, and will never even have a funeral. This baby has been given no respect and has been cheated out of his entire life. Tell me one way in which murdering this baby will help the world.

Oh, I know. We can use the dead baby to save other people from possible deaths. To save adults from maybe dying. Who decided that a baby could be killed to maybe aid in saving an adult's life? Adults. If it were up to the baby, everyone would live. They certainly would if it were up to me. If you were stranded somewhere with your own baby and you were both starving to death, would you resort to cannibalism and eat the baby to save yourself? In this society, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that was already allowed; even encouraged. It's the whole principle behind stem cell research! Babies die, adults get helped. Adults who have already had lives and who will already be missed if they die. You don't murder someone to prevent someone else's natural death!

It's pretty easy to think of abortion as nothing when they baby is hidden from your sight. It's pretty easy to think that a life can be prevented after it's begun, if there has not been enough time for accomplishments in that life. Oh, how far we have come! Let's take a closer look at how much we've improved since the days of slavery.

There are three people, from three different places and times, standing in front of you, doomed to terrible fates. There's a 20-year-old black man, doomed to be enslaved for the rest of his life. There's a 60-year-old Jewish woman, doomed to be burned for her beliefs. And there's a baby. A little baby American girl, still in the womb. She has not yet had the chance to see life, to breathe air, to see her mother's smiling face and know she's loved. She's never seen sunshine or heard the sound of music. She's not yet discovered her gifts and talents. But she's in there. She's living. She's putting all her trust in her mother as she begins to grow. She knows she's alive and that, one day, she will greet her very first day and know love and life and sunshine. She'll grow up and feel the wind and see the trees. She'll learn and grow and live. She'll see summer days and winter days, Christmases, spring flowers, and autumnal beauty. She'll make something important of herself someday and contribute to the world. She'll make friends and start a family of her own. When she dies, she will be missed. --And this baby is doomed to be aborted by those selfish adults who think of her as nothing more than a burden. The baby has no way to say how she feels and no way to know what's coming. The baby has not been given a chance. The three stand in front of you, but you can only save one. Who would it be?

Is it legal to enslave anyone in America? No. Is it legal to murder any adult at all in America, whether it's because of their faith or not? No. Is it legal to bring a human life into the world and then have it brutally destroyed because it's mother and father don't want it anymore? YES. I can march in Washington. I can donate to charities. I can talk to politicians. But I can not vote. I am under 18. And do you know who has even less of a voice in this world? The unborn. I need to be their voice, and it's my hope that you will be mine.

-Vivian Reed, 2003