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Christmas 2012 is now a memory. Presents opened, some returned, decorations stored, time to move forward into 2013. The Lathrops Christmas memory is one of an unplanned surprise. Arriving three weeks early, a grandson made an unscheduled appearance in Wallowa County on Christmas Eve. The birth of this precious life turned our Christmas plans upside down.

We place a high value on life, this American culture in which we reside. Its hard to understand those backward cultures where superstitions dictate a child be sacrificed for the good of the whole. Places where twins born are a bad omen; one will be left outside the village to be eaten by wild animals. Or where a baby, months old, has teeth come in bottom first, and therefore, for the welfare of the village, is placed in the jungle where the entire community will hear its cries until it is no more.

Yes, life for Americans is precious. Or is it? In less than two weeks our nation celebrates 40 years of legalized death of the pre-born. On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court, using legalese, made the same argument as did candidate Obama in 2008.

Determining when life begins was above their pay grade. Citing the 14th amendment, All persons born or naturalized in the United States. are citizens, the court ruled the unborn are not persons as defined by law. This 1868 amendment was designed to give blacks equal rights. But by so ruling, the unborn were robbed of the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness provided by our Declaration of Independence.

Justice Blackmun, writing the majority opinion, noted we need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins since others cant agree on what is a most sensitive and difficult question. One wonders if access to todays technology, such as ultrasound, which allows viewing of a baby inside its mothers womb, would have aided the justices in answering this question.

Over 56 million American beating hearts have been stopped since 1973. Additionally, there have been significant, as well as unintended consequences. The road traveled is littered with millions of woman who regret their decision; an untold number of women suffer from Post Abortion Stress Syndrome (PASS) which includes experiencing guilt, anxiety, numbness, flashbacks, depression and thoughts of suicide. There are others who experienced severe complications and even died. Now, recent research is showing the skyrocketing rates of breast cancer have a link to abortion.

Today, there are concerted attacks on the on those who, as a matter of conscience, refuse to participate at any level in the abortion process. Vanderbilt University forced those applying to its nursing program to waive the right to object to participating in the abortion procedure. A New Jersey hospital attempted to force nurses to aid in abortions or lose their jobs. Fortunately, the courts sided with the right of conscience in both cases. Last March, however, the Obama administration through HHS Kathleen Sebelius began making moves to eliminate the protection of conscience for medical providers refusing to perform or assist in abortion.

Its quite easy for us recognize its wrong (yet legal) for China to execute political or religious prisoners to harvest their organs, for Saudi Arabia to behead those convicted of adultery, or for Germany to have exterminated 6 millions Jews. Like the issues of organ harvesting, beheading and ethnic extermination, the abortion issue is more than a political one. And resolving it will not occur on the political front.

Days before Christmas, our country was shocked by the killing of 20 young children in Connecticut. National grieving replaced all Christmas plans. Many grieve in this same way for the taking of unborn lives and look to the day when the scales fall from our nations eyes and we recognize what we have done. Then, acknowledging that legal does equate with right, we can change abortion to adoption.

Until then: Lchaim to life.

Annette Lathrop is a local rancher and an officer for Wallowa County Republicans.