Should We Call Them Bullies?

Article by

Donor Officer

Nobody condones bullying, right? Websites and radio and television public service announcements rightfully condemn bullying and encourage everyone to speak up for vulnerable children.

My children’s schools have guidelines about what bullying is and who is protected from it:

Bullying against a student, by either an individual or a group, is prohibited. . . . This includes, but is not limited to, prohibited conduct directed toward any student or students, including those based on a person’s actual or perceived race, ethnicity, color, creed, religion, national origin, immigration status, sex, marital status, familial status, socio-economic status, physical appearance, sexual orientation, including gender identity and expression, academic status related to student performance, disability or status with regard to public assistance, age or any additional characteristics.

But add just one element — the developmental stage of the child — and none of those above categories of protection mean anything.

  • “sex” — a few states have attempted to address sex-selective abortions, but generally doctors are free to kill an unborn girl simply because she’s a girl, or a boy simply because he’s a boy.

  • “a person’s actual or perceived race, ethnicity or color” — Protecting Black Life reviewed 2010 Census data and found “that Planned Parenthood is targeting minority neighborhoods. It has located 79% of its 165 surgical abortion facilities within walking distance of African American or Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods.” According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, more black babies were aborted in New York City in 2012 than were born alive. More than three times as many black children were aborted there than non-Hispanic white children.

  • “disability” — Depending on the study, abortion rates range from 61% to 93% for children identified with Down syndrome in the United States. In the UK, a diagnosis of spina bifida resulted in 72% of unborn children being aborted.

  • “socio-economic status” — 73% of U.S. women in a Guttmacher Institute study reported that “can’t afford a baby now” contributed to their decision to have an abortion.

Bullying is a cruel, often violent practice where a more powerful person or group of people takes advantage of a vulnerable person.

Abortion is a cruel, barbaric, always violent practice where an entire industry has risen up to destroy the lives of the most vulnerable people on the planet — targeting the very groups of people that anti-bullying laws are designed to protect.

Some years ago Abort73.com asked this question: “Would abortion bother us more if they used guns?”

Maybe we should ask the question, Would abortion bother us more if we called abortionists bullies?

(@johnpknight) is a Donor Officer at Desiring God. He is married to Dianne, and together they parent their four children: Paul, Hannah, Daniel, and Johnny. Paul lives with multiple disabilities including blindness, autism, cognitive impairments, and a seizure disorder. John writes on disability, the Bible, and the church at The Works of God.