Is a bug more important than a person?

By Tom Quiner

Poweshiek skipperling: Protected by the law

Human fetus: not protected by the law

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has added a moth-like butterfly, the Poweshiek skipperling, as a candidate to the federal endangered species list.

You can be fined and potentially imprisoned if you kill this bug.

If you end the life of a boy or girl in a woman’s womb via abortion, you will not be fined. You will not be imprisoned. You may even get the abortion paid for by tax payers.

This is not a moral issue to a great many people. It should be, but unfortunately, it is not.

What the same people who turn a blind eye to abortion don’t realize is that abortion is also a grave economic issue, especially in a state like Iowa.

Why is it an economic issue, especially in Iowa? Because our population is one of the oldest in the country. Because our birth rate has fallen below replacement level. Because we need more taxpayers to pay for our government services and to take care of this aging population.

In 1980, Iowa’s population was a little bit more than 2.9 million.  Today it is only 3 million. We have one of the slowest population growth rates in the country. About twenty percent of our population is 60 years of age or older. And the percentage is growing.

Iowa ranks 7th in terms of population sixty and older; 5th in terms of population sixty-five and older; 4th in terms of population 75 and older; and 3rd in terms of population 85 and older.

Iowa is one of 35 states with a birth rate below replacement level.

We need more new births, not less, to care for our aging population.

Iowa is going to shrivel up and die without more people. Aren’t our preborn people deserving of as much legal protection as a bug?

2 Comments

  1. joesix on November 29, 2011 at 1:22 am

    With a population of now 7 billion, humanity is nowhere near being on the endangered species list. Instead of trying to add more people we don’t have the resources to care for, maybe we need to focus on providing all of our current children with quality education and healthcare?



  2. juwannadoright on December 2, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    I agree with your premise that abortion is “wrong”. Although I am a person of faith, that statement doesn’t stem from my religious beliefs – but rather from the rule of law in the United States of America.

    Most Americans were raised within the Judaeo-Christian tradition. According to Jewish law, a child is not a person until he or she can take a breath outside his mother’s womb. Most traditional Christians believe that the child is a person at the moment of conception. Clearly there is a difference of opinion on this.

    But there is no dispute that under our laws, “a person is innocent until proven guilty.” Given the fact that no one is sure – I would defer to our law and assume that the child, even while in his mother’s womb is a person – hence my position on this issue.

    Because I was raised and subscribe to that tradition, I believe we have the responsibility to be good stewards of all that we have received. And that includes the moth that has been placed on the endangered species list.

    Until we learn to respect life in all its forms, we will continue to kill each other in wars, disdainfully stomp out insects and perform abortions.