Back in the day, a woman pregnant out of wedlock got sent “to her sister’s.” Being pregnant and not married was considered disgraceful and wrong. It was a strike against you.

The babies were born but given up for adoption, abandoned at churches or orphanages or raised by someone else. The child was a socially awkward item, an inconvenience or a mistake that could ruin a life or a reputation because of  a single indiscretion or moment of weakness.

It was never called a threat to the mother’s health.

Later, technology enabled the elimination of the threat to reputations and futures and, wonderfully, it could be done before anyone knew the woman was pregnant. The new-fangled “get-out-of-jail-free” card was called “abortion” and people traveled across state lines and visited back alley abortion providers to avoid damage to their futures and to re-acquire their reputations.

Enter strike two. Now, not only did women have to confess to having “fallen,” but in addition, everyone understood exactly what happened at the doctor’s office; two people went in but only one came out. We could save our reputations but the cost was doubling our guilt.

Abortion kills people. And who wants to justify killing someone because they are an embarrassment? Necessity being the mother of invention, an acceptable justification for the horror visited on the most defenseless among us was found in an appeal to a woman’s health.

Strike three. A woman made bad choices, chose death for another over dishonor for herself and could escape consequences by claiming it was necessary for her health. Is it any wonder there are documented emotional and spiritual traumas associated with abortion?

But the tactic worked. We all knew the truth was otherwise, but we allowed the struggling their self deceptive rationale. Pregnancy was always understood to carry risk, as do most actions, but never so much that it was to be avoided. Despite any “danger,” couples still intentionally got pregnant.

Still, for the majority of the 40 years since Roe v Wade the mantra has been “for the health of the mother!” Only recently has the narrative changed. Of late, the emphasis has switched to rights, specifically, reproductive rights. The pretense of concern for women’s health is discarded. Under the veneer, the truth that was always there is found. It’s a matter of  convenience for the adult woman with no thought to the woman in the womb.

I thought it would take longer for the next logical, yet horrific, step. I really do hate it when I’m wrong.

Today, no less august a body than the US House of Representatives voted there did not need to be a danger to the mother’s physical or mental health. There need be no danger of a child born into poverty or with a disability which might impact its quality of life. The murder of a human being was justified simply because the mother learned she was carrying a girl when what she really wanted was a boy. This ain’t your mother’s abortion, girl! Abortion is just another sex-selection tool.

LifeNews.com reports,

With a 246-168 vote, the bill did not obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to pass. Republicans voted for the bill [the ban] on a 226-7 margin while Democrats opposed banning sex-selection abortions on 161-20 vote margin.

Tennessee conservatives like Marsha Blackburn stood for Life and common sense. Unsurprisingly, President Obama sided with Democrats.

This is the ultimate in selfish “to each according to his need” philosophy and principle put into policy and legislative form. May God have mercy on us …

Cross-posted from Blue Collar Muse.