unborn unnamed undocumented uncounted
unburied – and dead
American immigration
restrictions support population control measures overseas. The exact number of abortions overseas that
are linked to America’s refusal to welcome immigrants is hard to determine. But it’s possible that anti-immigration
pro-lifers who are working hard to save about a million babies from abortion
annually here are accidentally helping to trap and kill far more than a million
annually overseas.
HOPE! Every
pro-lifer who has spent time outside an abortion clinic is keenly aware that
most of what we offer to women who feel trapped is hope. We offer medical help, legal help, housing,
whatever is necessary; and the offers are real and testable. But women who listen to us and turn around
usually don’t take the concrete help we offer.
What they hear from us that matters is, “By God’s grace, this is
possible. I can handle this.” They don’t
need money or housing (usually); they need prayer and love – and hope.
DESPAIR. Women
overseas facing poverty and pregnancies may consider fleeing, looking for help
in Europe or America. If the doors of
wealthy nations are shut tight, that may be the last straw; that may be the
detail that tips a woman into deadly despair.
How often does this happen? Who
knows? Can we separate and measure all the
ingredients of despair among poverty-stricken pregnant women overseas,
precisely? What’s clear is that emigration is often an act of desperation. And if you thwart an act of desperation, vulnerable
people suffer deeply. And when pregnant
women despair, babies die.
When Jews were fleeing from Nazi rule, a shipload of refugees
sailed out of Hamburg, crossed the Atlantic, came within sight of Miami, and
then bounced off America’s immigration restrictions. The refugees returned to Germany, and died. The Holocaust Museum in Washington has a list
of the passengers on the St Louis who saw the lights of Miami, then went back
across the ocean to be exterminated. How
many others knew ahead of time that they weren’t welcome, and didn’t even
try? No stats exist. It’s hard to measure precisely, but it’s not
honest to deny the reality: immigration
restrictions kill.
When the Golden Venture went aground on Long Island in 1993,
286 refugees from China spilled out.
Some were women fleeing from forced abortion. President Reagan and Rep Chris Smith led the
fight to protect refugees from forced abortion – but it was a fight. And it still is. But somehow, many pro-lifers have forgotten
what Reagan understood: our immigration
restrictions here support depopulation efforts elsewhere.
How many pregnant women try to enter the country illegally –
desperately? And how many pregnant women
don’t try? If they don’t even try to
cross our border, is that a “success”?
This isn’t rocket
science. Inhospitality kills babies, and
oppresses women. Pro-lifers shouldn’t do
that.