Abortionism

Our country is founded on the idea that human rights belong unconditionally and inclusively to every individual. Oppressive systems are built on the unstated but firm belief that rights are granted or denied based on any criteria the powerful choose to recognize. This philosophy can be thought of as the central faith of an idolatrous cult which worships human reason as competent to choose criteria for excluding the powerless from membership in human community. The sects of this cult are defined by their criteria for excluding others from the protected community to which rights are granted. Thus, the Racist sect excludes people on the basis of ethnicity, the Creedists on the basis of religion, the Birthists on the basis of prenatal or postnatal status, etc.

Because this philosophy rationalizes the termination, limitation, cutting short or "aborting" of human rights, the term "Abortionism" characterizes both the cult and the philosophy that unites the various sects. Power is a major idol of the cult (see Orwell's *1984*), especially the power to choose whose lives or liberties may be terminated or "aborted". A Birthist Abortionite mantra neatly captures this idea with the question "Who decides?"

Will we ever learn to recognize and reject this cult and all its destructive choices?