Occasionally, something rudely awakens our culture to the fact that we have grown accustomed to the callous treatment of human life. Recently, FOX News reported one such story.
According to FOX: “An 87-year-old woman died at a Bakersfield, Calif., retirement home after a nurse at the facility shockingly refused to give her CPR. The nurse called 9-11 when the woman collapsed and was barely breathing. The dispatcher, Tracey Halvorson, asked the nurse to start CPR until paramedics arrived, but the nurse told her there was some sort of rule at the nursing home that prevented her from doing so.”
The interactions between the dispatcher and the nurse on the other end of the line reminded me of how anti-abortion activists feel when attempting to reach abortion supporters and apathetic pro-lifers.
“You’re going to let this lady die?” asks Halverson desperately.
The nurse responds with repulsive calm: “Well, that’s why we are calling 9-11.”
Halverson then pleads with the nurse, attempting to appeal to her humanity: “We can’t wait! As a human being, I don’t…you know, is there anybody there that is willing to help this lady and not let her die?”
There is an awkward pause. Then the nurse replies, “Not at this time.”
That’s right. In a retirement home filled with trained professionals, there was nobody present that valued this woman enough to give her simple chest compressions. Such a small thing, to accomplish something so enormously important—the preservation of a human life. But no. Anyone out there willing to save a life? “Not at this time.”
And day in, day out, year after year, this is what pro-life advocates hear from many apathetic churches and Christian institutions. We ask them, plead with them: “There are such simple things you can do to save a human life. Babies are being butchered every day in Canada. Is anyone willing to help?”
And often, we get the same response: “Not at this time.”
Keep in mind: There is no such thing as neutral. That nurse may not have actively killed the 87-year old woman she refused to help. But she didn’t do what she could. And we judge her for that.
If you’re a pro-lifer or a Christian and you’re reading this, consider your response to this societal injustice we face very carefully. When you are asked to defend your pre-born neighbor, what is your response?