Dear Senator Obama,

I cannot sit idly by without comment after examining your stance on the killing of babies by abortion.  I want to explain my position and possibly give you reasons to change your opinion on this very important matter.

My wife, Stella, used to tell me, or anybody that would listen, that whenever Rhonda walked into the room, a smile would light up my face.  She was right.  Rhonda is our 2nd daughter, born on April 13th, 1960. How much do I love Rhonda?  Below is a rewriting of Proverbs: Chapter 8, that I wrote for her as part of a prayer ritual in asking God  for blessings on my children.  Each had their own scripture I would use, but this one was rewritten to reflect my love.

"I was there in the beginning, before God's deeds of old;
I was fashioned from eternity, before the world began.
I was with him before there were oceans.
When there were no springs abounding with water;
before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was with God.
Before He made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world.
And you were there with me,
holding my hand and trusting
as only a child is wont to do.
And as we walked with God,
you filled our hearts with delight day after day.
Together we were there, and watched as He set the heavens in place,
when He marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when He gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overlap His command,
and when He marked out the foundations of the earth.
And we rejoiced always in His presence.
Your smile caused joy to fill our hearts as God and I rejoiced in His creation,
delighting in your company, and we both loved you
together, from the beginning of the world."

Sentimental?  Maybe.  But Rhonda came into the world in a very special way.  Here's a peek at her diary:

Just one week after fertilization, Rhonda had turned into several hundred cells that the medical community calls a blastocyst.  She floated out of the narrow tube in which she moved and attached herself to the side of Stella's uterus.  After just one month, she became an embryo with three layers, each having a different mission.  The outside layer began creating skin, hair, brain and nerves.  The middle layer began building muscles, bones, a heart, kidneys, veins and reproductive organs.  The inside layer began making the lungs, stomach and intestines.  If we had been able to look at the uterus, we would have seen the beginnings of arms and legs.

At two months, Rhonda was officially recognized as a fetus.  She got her arms and legs, fingers and toes and a neck and ears, and every organ was in place.  She was a miracle in progress.  She began kicking and swimming and in a few days she would be turning her head and frowning when displeased.  Her head was much bigger that the rest of her body.

Anyway, thanks be to God, for at three months (much to my delight), her body grew to catch up with her head, and she grew fingernails, toenails and eyelids.

At six months, she weighed two to three pounds and measured from nine to ten inches from her head to her rear end.  And with proper care, she could have survived outside the uterus.

Stella (much to my dismay) had decided that she wanted to have the baby at home.  The doctor agreed to this and Rhonda continued to grow until she was ready to be born.  The labor pains began on the morning of April 13th, 1960 and continued for a couple of hours.  I called the doctor to inform him of the upcoming event and he told me to be sure to call him back when the pains became regular and closer together.  Stella and I timed her pains together and called the doctor at the appropriate time.  Rhonda decided not to wait.  I was bathing Stella's face with a wet towel when she told me to get ready.

"Get ready?  Wha, what are you talking about," I stuttered.  "The doctor is on his way, so you just hold on for a bit."  I continued to pat Stella's face with the towel until she began to push and here comes Rhonda, and boy, she was a mess!  I gave a little tug, caught her as she emerged and Rhonda cried out in annoyance at the abrupt change.  And I proudly held her up for Stella to see.

"It's a girl!" I gushed. I placed her on Stella's stomach and ran to get the warm towels which I had ready for the occasion.  Stella allowed me to wash the baby and I put a light blanket around her before again placing Rhonda on her mother's chest.  I was on my knees, one hand running fingers through Stella's hair and the other on Rhonda's posterior, patting her softly.  It was the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed and my heart was ablaze with joy and happiness.  Stella was much amused at my antics.  She told me how happy she was at my survival and we both had a good laugh.  As I began the major cleanup project, the doctor arrived.  Stella told him he should check me out first because her and the baby were doing fine.

As I remember those moments I turn to God in prayer and this is what ensues:

"God, as I write this letter, I can't help but think of the chapter in Proverbs that inspired me.  But it also raises a question.  I know that originally, those words in Chapter 8 were meant to represent Wisdom.  I changed it around to reflect the love for a child.  So did I change your intention, or did I get it right when I thought of you knowing us from the very beginning?"  You may think I am being presumptuous.

And then God spoke to me in my heart, as I hope he will speak to your heart.

"Son, you have to ask yourself if I am truly omniscient.  Is it possible that I knew the end before the beginning?  This is your decision to make, but think carefully about your decision.  If you decide I am omniscient, then you have to admit that I am in control, even to this day and unto the end of the world.  What do you have to say to that?"

"Father, I do believe in your omniscience, but I'm not sure what that is going to mean.  If that is the case, then you were aware of Rhonda's existence even before she was physically born."

"In your writing you said that we were all together before the beginning of time.  You said that we both rejoiced in Rhonda's presence at our side.  If Rhonda was present then, she was always present.  I watched even as your sperm fought to engage in the process of fertilization, and I rejoiced with each step of the process. You could not see inside the womb to see the fulfillment of that life, but I knew, and I could see both your and Stella's happiness at the birth of your daughter.  And I rejoiced with you."

"Well, God, you certainly do some good work," I said, thinking of all my children.  But since I am writing this open letter to Obama, what should I tell him about you being aware of the death of a fetus?"

"Fetus?  That is just a word used in your society to replace the word "baby" so as to legitimize its killing.  And I am aware of its death.  I knew the baby's potential and I mourn its death.  And I mourn each of the over a million dead babies each year.  I mourn for the children and I mourn for the mothers for the consequences they have brought on themselves.  Tell him this. When a person has an abortion, they diminish their capacity to love.  When a person commits an abortion, they not only take the life of an innocent child, but also diminish their own lives.  And while I love them no less, I cannot but acknowledge their crime and sin in killing one of my own children.  Every decision a person makes either moves them closer to me or further from me.  The decision to abort an unborn child definitely puts distance between us.  It is the most selfish act of all, and it costs the innocent life of a child."

Senator Obama, you and others that agree with your position, must consider these revelations in your decision to support abortions.  Maybe some facts can shed some light on your position and help change your mind.

Abortion - Definition of:  A popular method of birth control.  It's what you do after sex when you don't use a condom.  A more accepted version of the definition might be, "The termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus. (Fetus being a word often used to describe human offspring before birth.)

There is nothing new about abortion.  It has been used throughout history.  Ancient societies, like Assyria, had the same punishment for abortion as for murder.  Many of the ancient Greeks agreed that abortion was wrong and compared the embryo with the future child.  Aristotle disagreed, saying that he thought abortion should be used for population control.  And today, the controversy still continues.

It wasn't until 1969 that abortion laws would begin to change in the United States.  A twenty-one year old, Norma McCorvey of Dallas, Texas led the charge.  She already had one daughter, but was now pregnant again, and she did not want the child.  Due to an 1857 state law, Texas didn't allow abortions unless the mother's life was in danger.  Since McCorvey was perfectly healthy, she didn't qualify, so she did the next best thing.  She contacted an attorney to make arrangements to give up the child for adoption after its birth.  The lawyer listened to the story and then asked her to meet with some other lawyers on the matter.  Those lawyers were Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, two young (in their twenties) female attorneys that wanted to change the abortion laws in Texas and had been looking for pregnant women to help with their filing of a formal complaint against the state law.  McCorvey agreed - and the rest is history.  The complaint resulted us the legalization of abortion in every state in the United States and the case, known as Roe V. Wade, became a household name and for the first time in history, the Supreme Court had overturned a state's abortion law.  Since 1973, the year the Supreme Court made the decision, abortions have risen to horrific numbers.

At the time of Roe V. Wade, it is estimated that 12% of abortions performed in the US were repeat abortions.  By 1983, that number had risen to 38.5%.  In 1987 there were about 643,500 repeat abortions, with 53,250 having a fourth abortion.  17,500 were having their fifth abortion, 4,400 their sixth abortion, and another 4,400 having their seventh or more.  Makes you wonder if having abortions is addictive.  And those statistics have continued to grow and multiply as abortion took its place as a historical right in the view of our courts and judges.

Since 1973 there have been fifty-six million, twenty three thousand, one hundred and ninety-one abortions, based on the numbers reported to the Alan Guttmacher Institute last year.  There will be in excess of 1,500,000 abortions this year.  This breaks down to over 3600 a day.  In fact, one in every few seconds.  And hundreds of thousands will be second and third trimester abortions.

Why?  Well, about 21% say they just don't want the responsibility while another 21% can't afford a baby.  About 16% are concerned about how the baby might change their life.  Another 12% have a "relationship problem."  Eleven percent feels that they are not mature enough and eight percent acknowledge that they have all the children they want.  Four to five percent are listed as "other" causes or reasons.  Now for the hard cases.  The mother's health is the reason given for about 3%; that babies might have a health problem accounts for another 3% and rape or incest follows with 1%.

There you have it.  In 1963 Planned Parenthood said that, "An abortion kills the life of the baby after it has begun."  In 1999 things changed.  As the leader in the abortion business, responsible for over 182,000 annual abortions, Planned Parenthood revenues from abortions were estimated at $57,781,864.00.  Yep, abortion is big business and is now recognized as an industry, and as a convenient way to dispose of an unwanted pregnancy.  It is so popular that nearly half of all women under the age of forty-five in the country will have an abortion at some time.

Senator Obama, you might be interested in knowing that today, Planned Parenthood identifies its core clients as young women, low-income women, and women of color.  Since 1973, 13.8 million black, Hispanic and other minority babies have been aborted in the US.  In our history, immigrants, minorities and the poor have been treated as social outcasts and blamed for all sorts of social ills, but Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood argues that, "All our problems are the result of over breeding among the working class."  She must have been reading Aristotle again.  And now the organization is moving to the suburbs to furnish their expertise to the middle and upper classes.

Senator Obama, you and others like you are to blame.  You have embraced the culture of death and destruction.  I sincerely hope you will repent of your sins and begin to follow the teachings of the man you profess to follow.  Jesus Christ. 

Sincerely,

Vance Redden