Abortion Activists Exploit Zika Crisis: They Want to Kill Babies But We Should Kill Mosquitoes

Opinion   |   Brad Mattes   |   Feb 3, 2016   |   6:11PM   |   Washington, DC

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a global health emergency.

The pro-abortion United Nations now has a new and effective tool in its arsenal to push and coerce women and pro-life nations to accept abortion on demand.

This aggressive approach is moving forward even though some say they lack solid science behind their actions.

Zika is a virus spread by mosquitoes. Most people exposed to it have no symptoms or only mild ones: fever, rash, muscle aches, joint aches and conjunctivitis—what we commonly call pinkeye.

A couple of years ago some cases were linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome, which causes paralysis. The Centers for Disease Control suggests it might also lead to hearing and vision problems.

But mostly it may endanger the health of babies in the womb.

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Where pregnant women have been infected, doctors have seen a rise in babies born with microcephaly, a neurological disorder. The baby’s head stops growing in the womb or after birth, so the head is smaller than normal. Babies who are affected often have mental disabilities, including seizures and developmental delays.

The current outbreak has surfaced mostly in Central and South America and the Caribbean, and it’s spreading fast there. In Brazil, the number of cases has passed 3,000 and continues to climb, according to the country’s health minister, Marcelo Castro. Health officials in Rio de Janeiro say they’re recording two new cases every hour, though not all are confirmed.

This past Monday, because of the apparent risk of birth defect, WHO made its global emergency declaration and they’ve begun fumigation. WHO was criticized for its slow response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014. This time they’ve jumped faster, despite what one news report called “a lack of definitive evidence” that the virus causes the birth defect.  Even WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan cautioned that the link between Zika and microcephaly is “strongly suspected” but not scientifically proven.

Here’s why I’m writing about Zika today:

WHO is an agency of the United Nations. The UN has long pushed pro-life countries to legalize abortion on demand, and most of the countries affected by Zika are strongly pro-life. Predictably, people whose go-to answer for a problem pregnancy is always abortion are now pressuring those countries to allow it.

My heart goes out to women who not only fear for their unborn children but also now face such pressure.

Late last month, National Public Radio correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro described the law in Brazil: “There are only three cases in which [abortion] is allowed here – rape, danger to the mother and a rare disorder where the child is unlikely to survive outside the womb. The pro-abortion movement hasn’t been able to get much traction on the issue, and they’re hoping the debate around the suspected cases of Zika-related microcephaly will change that.” (emphasis mine)

No one doubts that the situation is frightening. And poor women are by far the most affected. But instead of pressuring governments to control the mosquito population in poor areas—a key factor in defeating yellow fever in the late 1800s—pro-abortion activists want to control the baby population instead. They’re using this tragic situation to shove a pro-abortion opportunistic foot in the door. They’re using suspected cases to get the “traction” they so desperately need to move their abortion agenda forward.

Surely our knowledge of science has advanced since the late 1800s.

Scientists believe they can have a Zika vaccine by the end of this year. They’re hoping the various government agencies will allow its use in emergency situations even before it has undergone the usual long testing. Six cases have been confirmed in Texas along its border with Mexico, and in America FDA approval can take as long as 12 years.

I urge you to pray for the scientists who are chasing the vaccine. Pray for expectant mothers who fear for their children. Pray for the health of those children. And pray that governments will find ways to kill the mosquitoes instead of the babies.

LifeNews.com Note: Bradley Mattes is the executive director of Life Issues Institute.

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