song for theme #44A: The Sanctity and Dignity of Life

“Momma, Love Me” by Stephen P. Cook

Sung to the tune of “Landslide” by Stevie Nicks / Fleetwood Mac

To life’s creative impulse I let go

What began with love should I let grow?

A man and woman and vital spark

Divine light shining there in the dark¹

The dark [echo]

This life inside me I can’t put down

Not yet a beating heart, not a sound²

But I’m hearing a new borne baby cry

Momma, love me, don’t ask why³

Ask why [echo]

Does the world need this mouth to feed?

Should I honor you or pull this weed?⁴

Should I respect your fledgling human rights?⁵

Or ignore my conscience and end the fight?⁶

The fight [echo]

Reasons to end this life or let it be

Saddled with a child I won’t be free

But you down there with no hand to wave⁷

I can’t choose for you an early grave⁸

Early grave [echo]

This life inside me I can’t put down

Not yet a beating heart, not a sound

But I’m hearing a new borne baby cry

Momma, love me, don’t ask why

Ask why [echo]

This life inside me I can’t put down

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1—This and the previous line suggest a belief in vitalism (theme #5B) and that new life requires God providing a divine spark or

     blowing the "breath of life" into inanimate matter.  Those holding such beliefs would be less likely to end unwanted pregnancy

     with abortion in comparison to those valuing scientific materialism (theme #5A) and believing that molecular biologists will

     soon succeed in creating life in the lab.

2—The heart of a developing human embryo (fetus) typically starts beating around twenty-one days after conception but is not

      audible to a doctor listening with a stethoscope until week twenty-one or so of pregnancy.

3—The maternal love most mothers feel is unconditional love.

4—A 1980s Sesame Street program with a segment about explaining the need to thin cramped marigolds in a garden by noting that

     they need nutrients, water, light, and space to grow properly—just like children—brought complaints from Pro Lifers. They

     suggested that the marigolds be transplanted, not killed.

5—Human rights are held to include the right to life and liberty—but a key question relevant to the Pro Life/Pro Choice issue is

      when do those rights begin?  The former argue that life and the rights associated with it begin at the moment of conception.

6—With conscience being a sense of what is morally right or wrong, if conscientious behavior dictates an unwanted fetus be

      allowed to live but actual behavior results in abortion, the huge gulf between these behaviors not surprisingly can produce lots

      of guilt and great feelings of remorse. 

7—Developing fetuses have tiny hands that can curl fingers to make a fist by sometime around weeks #10 to #12 of pregnancy.

8—She has a choice.  If abortion was illegal, she’d also be agonizing over risking jail, bleeding to death after a botched job, etc.   

Comment: this theme may have value as emotional armor.  As the song suggests with reference to “conscience,” it can provide a defense against feelings of guilt.  (See also comment for theme #32.)  While the strong (generally joyous) emotions that surround the birth of a baby are both expected and often on public display, strong private emotions (sometimes anguished guilt) can surround the intentional death of a fetus. (Also see comment for theme #44B.)