Common sense is the victim of discrimination

We have reached a consensus in the western world that discrimination is a bad thing. Obviously we misuse the word, but in general we mean treating one person differently to another due to their gender, race, religion or disability. Actually, so confused have we become concerning the meaning of “discrimination” that we clumsily exploit it to advance various radical sexual and political agendas. Still, at heart there is agreement that to prejudge negatively is wrong.

So wrong that it is illegal in Canada, Britain and much of the developed world. Someone can be fined or even imprisoned for discrimination. What, then, should be the penalty for discriminating to such a gruesome excess that you kill someone who is different? Something extremely severe, one would have thought. But not so, as I was reminded when reading of my home country’s attitude towards disability and handicap, even of a mild and minor nature.

In 2010 in the United Kingdom there were 2,290 abortions due to what is euphemistically known as “fetal medical problems,” and since 2002, a staggering 26 unborn babies have been aborted because there were fears that they might suffer from a cleft palate. Last year, 482 of the babies killed were Down’s syndrome, and a further 181 died because they had a club foot.

That these figures were made public is in itself staggering, because for years now the abortion movement has used every legal and political means possible to prevent their exposure, and when we consider these numbers we can understand why. It is wrong to kill an unborn child for any reason at all, but because there is a fear that the baby — your baby — may have a cleft palate! Sometimes reason, justice and passion simply cry out to be heard.

Even for someone who lacks any empathy for a powerless little person in the womb, surely they can see the horror of ending a life merely because once born that child may need pretty straightforward and completely safe surgery? Thing is, they almost certainly do see this. But if they allow humanity to be awarded to the unborn, they know they open the dirty doors of abortion to the light of reality: it’s a human being.

So while killing for a cleft palate or murdering for a club foot may seem draconian, the fetus is only tissue anyway, and the choice to behave selfishly is far more significant than the inherent horror of slaughtering the even mildly handicapped. The same applies to the hundreds of thousands of babies killed in the womb every year because they are little girls. This gender massacre takes place because archaic misogyny has mingled with modern abortion technology. Beyond gender is race. Abortion is encouraged by the wealthy, white west in Africa and Asia, and even in the inner cities of the United States.

So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that babies are killed for being slightly different from the rest of the population. A cleft palate or a profound handicap present equally easy challenges in an amoral world where the self is everything. As for Down’s children, the utter darkness of killing people who bring us truth, trust and love is a sin for which this culture we may never be able to atone.

If we saw a mother beating little Johnny or Susan because they walked slowly due to a club foot, or spoke with a slight defect because of a cleft palate, we would be incredulous. The police would be called, social workers would intervene, newspapers would pounce. Yet when these children are not beaten but killed we respond with indifference, yet defend like tigers the public funding of abortion.

Discrimination can, yes, be a very bad thing indeed. It seems to depend on who does the discriminating and who is discriminated against and what we as a nation believe to be worthy of our anger and criticism.

To reject the idea of same-sex marriage is considered by many to be about the worst discrimination in modern Canada; to kill a child for its gender, disability or anything else for that matter is considered not only acceptable but a sacred right.

Dear God, discriminate us back to common sense.