Jessa Duggar has spent her fair share of time in the spotlight of late. As one of the “19 Kids and Counting,” she and her siblings have been under the microscope for years already. Her sister Jill's very recent engagement and quick wedding were followed just eight weeks later with a pregnancy announcement, leading some to speculate as to whether or not the wedding was rushed for a specific reason.
As it turns out, the reality star probably was a “good girl,” she simply chose to announce her pregnancy much earlier than the traditional “end of the first trimester.”
In the last week, following an Instagram post and her comments at the Values Voter Summit, Jessa made headlines again – this time for comparing the systematic slaughter of the unborn with the systematic slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust.
“It trivializes the lives lost under Hitler's power,” people said. “It's not the same.”
Well, maybe not exactly. But the comparison is there.
Hitler and the Nazis designated scapegoats in the Jews, gypsies, and others they painted as “inferior.” In America today, in some cases it is a class of fetus that is designated as “inferior” as well. Unborn babies are screened in utero for birth defects or conditions that would make them “less perfect,” and then parents are counseled by doctors and nurses – in some cases even told that it would be better for a baby to die than to be delivered and loved even for only a few moments.
But a great deal more often than that, women individually choose to designate their own offspring as “inferior” on the basis of failed birth control, finances or other measure of convenience.
The Holocaust in Europe was the unforgivable slaughter of a group of people based on religion and arrogance. The Holocaust in America, equally unforgivable, is one of arrogance as well – the belief that a mother's standard of living and even her quality of life and convenience outweigh the rights of the life she had a hand in creating. But what sets it apart is that the Holocaust in America is one of individual choices, and each child's death is facilitated by one or both of his or her own parents.
What does that have to do with Jill's early pregnancy announcement? Acknowledging and celebrating a pregnancy at such an early stage – specifically before the first trimester has ended – is a recognition that a new life has already begun. In America, most abortions are performed on women who are still within the first trimester, and many of them justify their actions by claiming that the fetus is somehow “not alive” prior to viability.
By announcing her pregnancy before it is socially acceptable to do so, Jill is subtly forcing people to look at a fetus in the first trimester as a life that should be celebrated. When Jessa then likens the voluntary termination of similar life to the Holocaust, it tests the strength of the cognitive dissonance to which the public has been accustomed. That, in a nutshell, is their offense.
