A TALE OF TWO BABIES

A TALE OF TWO BABIES...

On March 21, 2013 in Brunswick, Georgia, baby Antonio Santiago was shot in the face and killed in his stroller while on a walk near his home with his mother. Shock and outrage have resulted over this heartbreaking murder, along with public promises of justice for Baby Santiago. Two juveniles have been charged and arrested, as the investigation into this attempted armed robbery turned homicide continues.  This horrific event reminded me of another that happened right here in Virginia in 2006.

On the morning of February 23, 2006, Suffolk police received a shocking phone call. Tammy Skinner reported that she had been shot in the abdomen by a stranger and pushed from her car. As the investigation evolved, the ugly truth came out. Tammy had shot herself in order to kill her daughter who was due to be born that very day. When all the dust settled, Tammy was convicted only of filing a false police report and was fined $750 to cover the cost of the investigation.  Had she only told the truth about shooting her full term daughter herself, she would have been guilty of nothing in the eyes of the law.  Had she shot her daughter, referred to only as "Baby Skinner" twenty four hours later, she would have been just as guilty of murder as the killers of Baby Santiago. 

There is a lot of talk right now about "equal rights" and "civil rights" regarding the issue of gay marriage. There are other issues that deserve the same thoughtful debate.  Do we believe that our rights are endowed by our Creator, or that they come from the government? Inequality results when one group or class is recognized or enabled at the expense of another.  This is why slavery, although legal at the time, could not stand in a just society. No person can consider another person to be their property. Regardless of the law, did Tammy Skinner really have a "right" to shoot her daughter? Baby Girl Skinner and millions just like her now have no voice and no legal standing since Roe V. Wade. We have allowed our most basic human right, LIFE, to be denied to the most vulnerable members of society. The rights of the mother are deemed to trump the rights of the child, just like the rights of the plantation owner used to trump the rights of the slave.  We look back on the era of slavery with disgust.  I believe we will one day look back on the era of abortion with the same disdain.