In junior high English, I learned about oxymorons.
Oxymoron: “a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect.”
So when I stumbled upon this article posted on the United Nations News Centre, my junior high English training kicked in, and my old vocabulary word oxymoron presented itself in my mind.
The only time the phrase “human rights” and abortion should be included in the same sentence is in the context of abortion as a violation of human rights. Otherwise it’s oxymoronic. Otherwise it’s not only oxymoronic, but it is a lie.
Our society and culture has taught us to be lovers and seekers of our own truth. But does not that phrase also skirt the line of self-contradiction?
Our own truth? If it is ours and no one else’s, it is not truth. It’s not. If it is ours and no one else’s, it is preference. Human preference is not worthy of being called the truth, simply because it is not the truth.
The Church teaches us to be lovers and seekers of the truth. This truth is our Savior Jesus Christ, who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
I am not against abortion as a matter of preference. I am against abortion because I am a lover of the truth. I am against abortion because I can say that it is wrong with a fiery conviction that the Holy Spirit has graced me with. The natural law that God has written on each of our hearts compels us to appreciate and defend the dignity of human life. That’s not rhetoric. That’s truth.
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