Are you doing the right thing or avoiding the issue?

As of 2018, public support for legal abortion remains as high as it’s been in two decades of polling. And even though 58 percent of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, eight out of 10 of us still believe it should be illegal in the third trimester.

So, when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law this month a bill that goes way beyond Roe v. Wade and made abortion a “fundamental right” up to the day of birth, it came as a great surprise. Even though New York is a “blue” state and pro-life, Democrats are essentially political “unicorns” these days.

In fact, less than 10 percent of Democrat voters would even consider voting for any candidate that is not pro-choice – regardless of their party. Conversely, Republicans are more open-minded. They are four times as likely to consider voting for a candidate that is not pro-life.

Nevertheless, this new law in New York removes virtually all limitations on abortion that the Supreme Court has permitted (in the past), such as waiting periods, parental involvement laws and bans on partial-birth abortion. Instead, the new law devastatingly trivializes the value of life by even allowing non-physicians to perform abortions – on demand.

You see, virtually any licensed “health care practitioner” can now smother the life of a child, so long as they are acting in “good faith,” whatever that may mean now, in the context of executing a baby.

And just to be clear, taking the life of an unborn baby in New York is sanctioned not only when the mother’s life or health is at risk, but even in those instances where the baby may be thought to be too much for the mother to deal with financially, emotionally or otherwise (perhaps if a baby may be born with a disability, for example).

Despite the nearly 900,000 babies killed last year by abortion and the grand fanfare of Gov. Cuomo lighting up One World Trade Center in all pink to celebrate his signing of the bill, I believe this new law is out of step with the American public.

How did we get to this point? Good question. I think, in part, it’s because too many of us are increasingly agnostic, or apathetic, about doing what is “right” for fear of being considered politically incorrect, insensitive or otherwise offending another.

But the Bible teaches us that a “sin of omission” is a failure to do something one can and ought to do. James 4:17 reads, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” Proverbs 3:27 says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”

Even so, millions have simply chosen to opt out of the debate altogether. Many say, “Who am I to presume what is right for another woman?” Others argue they “cannot make the decision for someone else” and say they don’t want to feel like they are “forcing their beliefs” on others.

Well, whichever way you nuance it, you either oppose legal protection for life or you don’t. With the New York state law just passed, and as this debate continues over the sanctity of the unborn life, it comes down to this: You are either standing for life – or you’re an accomplice – allowing the scourge of abortion to continue claiming the lives of millions of babies.

Is that too strong? Are we not accomplices?

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Edmund Burke wrote famously, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

This means we can’t take the attitude of “to each his own.” Or look the other way on the importance of fathers in the lives of their children. Or remain silent on supporting the institution of marriage. The bottom line to the pathological indifference of killing the unborn is that we can no longer afford to just “know” the right things to do, but fail to do them.

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman, attorney and author of “Bright Spots, Big Country, What Makes America Great.” He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in The Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @louisravallone or by e-mail at louisavallone@mac.com, and on American Ground Radio at 101.7FM and 710 AM, weeknights from 6 - 7 p.m., and streaming live on keelnews.com.