I have always felt compassion for Neil Steinberg, columnist for the Chicago Sun Times, because, as I once told him, “You’re always wrong, especially in matters of religion and pro-life.”
Steinberg’s Article Mocks Pro-Lifers
This judgment recently proved true in a Steinberg article featuring a large “Stop Abortion Now” sign.
It turned out to be another mockery of pro-life. While the picture was authentic, that’s about all that was.
The story is that some years ago, Neil had viewed a month-old dead baby at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. He described the baby in detail, and decries the abandonment of babies in trash cans.
So do we.
Late-term Aborted Babies Look Like That Too
And his description of the dead baby in Dr. Robert Stein’s morgue could easily be applied to thousands of late term aborted babies pro-lifers have found in trash cans. Not every baby we defend is as small as the dot at the end of this sentence, as Steinberg suggests.
But the baby Steinberg viewed 20 years ago was born, and to Steinberg that makes all the difference in the world: his world.
It probably never occurred to him that even the Great Steinberg was once a dot the size of the period at the end of this sentence, as were Lincoln, Washington and Julius Caesar. That’s the way we all begin, humbling as it may be.
The dot is alive, and the dot is somebody, not something.
Basic Education On Fetal Development
In only a matter of days he will have a heartbeat and brain waves. At 9 weeks he can suck his thumb and swallow amniotic fluid. By 11 to 12 weeks he can turn over, make a fist, and open his mouth.
Not bad for a dot.
Yet Steinberg attacks pro-lifers for marching and fighting for the lives of dots no bigger than “the size of a period at the end of this sentence.”
The problem with Neil is that his grasp of biology is about the size of the dot at the end of this sentence. And the pity of it that it will probably stay that size, unless he does something about it. Which is unlikely.
But we’ll keep marching for the dot that keeps growing, we’ll take care of the dot when it’s born, and we’ll say a prayer for Neil that he’ll someday get it all worked out.
