Freedom.
We all know what it is, right?
No, not in all likelihood.
This being the 4th of July, the Day we celebrate our freedom as a country, I thought I would visit this topic, especially on the topic of abortion. Are we free to choose abortion?
Many think freedom is the ability to do whatever one wills.
After all, that appears to be the loving thing to do. To put restrictions on another person’s actions seems to be unloving, mean, or discriminatory.
Take, for instance, the Catholic Church forbidding abortion, calling it a grave sin, worthy of eternal damnation.
To some, this seems like a hateful stance.
How can the Church tell another person not to do something? Didn’t Jesus say to love thy neighbor? Isn’t it hypocritical of Catholics to tell someone else they cannot do as they desire? Isn’t that taking away their freedom?
DOING WHATEVER ONE WANTS IS NOT FREEDOM, IT IS LICENSE
Doing whatever one wants, without thought of consequence to one’s self or others remains a dangerous action. We are all called to live within community. Our actions carry weight and affect other people.
It is a destructive attitude to take to think that whenever one does not get one’s way, one is being unfairly treated. A worship of self destroys one’s ability to love and to be loved.
Doing anything one desires is license. That is, it is an exceptional freedom that ignores the significance of one’s actions. This is not freedom.
THEN WHAT IS FREEDOM?
Freedom is the ability to choose the good.
Or in other words,“the power to determine action without restraint.”
If something external causes us to choose something we would not choose otherwise, then that is when we have lost our freedom.
In the example of abortion, women do not freely choose to kill their unborn children.
The irony is that women feel they have no other choice but to abort. They have a natural desire to care for and nurture their children, but circumstances in their lives, seemingly to them, prevent them from doing as they desire.
Maybe her boyfriend threatens to leave, if she has this baby. Perhaps her parents are threatening to kick her out of the house. It could be she has no job, and seemingly no way to afford this child.
Whatever it is, there is something outside her that she feels cannot be overcome. That something is what is restricting her freedom to do what she naturally wants to do, as a woman, as a mother.
Therefore, the mantra that abortion is a woman’s “right to choose” is a lie.
No one freely chooses abortion.
And isn’t this what Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby tell us, anyway?
Don’t they paint themselves as the compassionate ones? Don’t they tell us they are the ones who truly understand the burdens these women go through?
Don’t they claim to desire for no one to get an abortion?
Yet, when is the last time you ever heard of a woman leave Planned Parenthood with a box of diapers? Does your local abortion mill also find housing for their clients?
No, because for the abortion lobby, killing the baby is always the solution.
Forget fixing her real issues. Forget counseling her for the abuse she suffers. Forget finding her a place a job so she can pay her bills. Don’t worry about providing for her needs.
What she needs is an abortion. Each and every time.
Why fix those circumstances that brought her to the abortion clinic? I mean, thanks to those, the clinic collects about $500 or so to “remove” her “problem.”
Besides, if the circumstances are not fixed, maybe they’ll lead her back to the clinic for another payday.
The baby is not the problem! The baby may very well be the way out. Now mom has someone else to fight for and extra motivation to end the cycle.
Abortion is not the way to free women! It remains the way to enslave them.
SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS’ DEFINITION OF FREEDOM
Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the most brilliant men to ever live, and Universal Doctor of the Catholic Church, has the following to say about freedom. I will share the quote, then break it down.
“…when someone is forced by some agent, so that he is not able to do the contrary. This is called ‘necessity of coercion.’
“Now this necessity of coercion is altogether repugnant to the will. For we call that violent which is against the inclination of a thing.
“But the very movement of the will is an inclination to something. Therefore, as a thing is called natural because it is according to the inclination of nature, so a thing is called voluntary because it is according to the inclination of the will.
”Therefore, just as it is impossible for a thing to be at the same time violent and natural, so it is impossible for a thing to be absolutely coerced or violent, and voluntary.” (STh I-II, q. 82, A. 1, co., emphasis added)
In short, he is saying that by nature we have inclinations and the inclinations are our free wills. We will that which is within our nature to do. Therefore, for an action to be truly voluntary, it must be done not by coercion or as a way to bring violence upon ourselves.
I hope my summary helps, I know this is a bit heavy.
The point is that we desire that which is good for us. For us to choose to do something that harms us defies our nature and our will.
Since abortion harms women, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally, it is repugnant to our very human nature.
IN CLOSING
Abortion obviously kills a human life every time, and by definition. Murder defies our human nature as well.
So, no matter how you slice it, abortion is unnatural and does not set anyone free.
Let us thank God for our many freedoms—especially for the ability to choose the good.
Happy 4th of July!
YOUR TURN
So, what do you think?
Did you know this was the definition for freedom?
What do you make of Saint Thomas Aquinas there?
And what are your thoughts on women not actually be free to choose abortion?
I invite you to sound off below.
Click here for another natural law argument by Saint Thomas Aquinas.
