A Statement Regarding Abortion
Warning: This article may not be easy for some people to read.
I try to avoid wading into politically hot issues on this website, for one reason: My focus is on teaching Christian Formation and reaching hearts, not on trying to get congress to fix the country. But this is one issue that Christians ought to understand very clearly, and unfortunately, many do not. I cannot remain silent about it. In fact, the bias and relative silence of the media on this issue is nothing short of criminal.
Now before I say anything more, let me be very clear about one thing: Women are victims of abortion just as babies are victims of abortion. Women are being lied to, and seriously wounded emotionally, spiritually and physically by the abortion industry. By the thousands. Many, if not most women who seek abortions are scared, lacking the support and resources they need in order to deal with their fears. And the aftermath of this experience is often very traumatic for many years to follow. I have no ax to grind with those who were deceived by the lies and thought an abortion would solve their problems.
My problem is with the collective decision by our lawmakers and media providers to obscure and perpetuate one of the greatest violations of human rights ever conceived. Abortion was never a woman’s rights issue. It was never a reproductive rights issue. It is a civil rights issue (and clearly a moral issue, but that should have been obvious from the start). The question before us is not whether a woman has absolute rights over her own body. No right is absolute. All of our rights are weighed against other sensible considerations. No one has absolute rights to do whatever they want where their choices effect another person. A woman has the human right and legal right to decide when and how to engage in activities that may result in the conception of a baby. However, once another human being is in the picture, her rights need to be renegotiated. But rather than do the sensible thing and talk about the civil rights of the unborn, framing this as a civil rights issue, our government and virtually all of the controlling media outlets conspired to call it something else, as if no baby was involved at all.
The results have been catastrophic. Since 1973 in the U.S., abortion has been allowed for any reason or no reason at all. Young teens have been legally escorted by school nurses to abortion clinics without their parent’s knowledge. Never mind that the nurse cannot dispense an aspirin without parental consent. Contrary to popular belief, in most states since 1973 it has been legal to abort a baby right up to the moment of birth. It seems that if a baby manages to be born it has human rights under our constitution. But if you can kill it before it takes its first breath, the baby has no right to life at all. There is no way to justify that with any kind of logic. But no matter, abortion rules. Over the years, most of the states that passed laws setting limits on abortion landed in Federal courts where the laws were struck down as “arbitrary.” Then someone came up with a hideous procedure called “Partial-Birth Abortion” to handle late-term abortions. I cannot describe it here, but suffice it to say that if you did this on your dog, you would probably be arrested for cruelty to animals. Yet it proved almost impossible to put an end to this procedure. It took many years, tremendous funds, and many political battles to pass laws, only to have them overturned in our courts. Finally, a bill was introduced in 1995 in congress that passed both houses. It was vetoed by President Clinton. It was not until 2003 that the U.S. outlawed this egregious procedure. Many powerful people (whose names you know quite well) fought against this bill. To me, their position is unconscionable. If they cannot discern such an obvious violation of life, they should not take part in public debates or hold public offices.
What brought all this up today was an article in Atlantic magazine. It would appear that the media is so afraid of addressing this politically hot issue, or more likely, is so married to the idea of absolute abortion rights, that they have totally gone over to the dark side. They are either incapable of any discernment in the matter at all, or they have chosen deliberately to collude with Evil. The link below is to the Atlantic article about a “doctor” who has been openly performing infanticide for many years (not to mention his many other illegal actions), while whistle-blowers were ignored and government agencies who had sufficient reason to investigate looked the other way. If you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip the article. My point is that this should be front-page news in every form of media, discussed by every news network. But because no one wants to infringe on the absolute right to abortion, they won’t even discuss what is probably the most horrible human rights violation in our country.
Yes, I understand that this is an isolated case, and does not represent the abortion industry as a whole. However, it does represent the attitude of the media. Just last week congress was holding hearings regarding a proposed bill that would require medical assistance to be given to babies who survive abortions (which does actually happen). An abortion provider was asked what she thought should happen when such a baby is struggling to survive. The provider’s response was that the decision of what to do should be left to the woman and her doctor! In any other context, that would be considered criminal negligence. But not here.
I have not even touched on the moral issues. The abortion industry is a travesty of civil rights alone. I could go on. Books have been written about the insidious nature of this black industry and the pain it has caused women (and men) all over the world. I just want to state here as clearly as I can, abortion as we know it today is an evil beyond description. Morally, it ranks with the infanticide practiced by the Canaanites which God said was one of most horrible things the human race had ever thought up. I cannot imagine what kind of judgment awaits those who have fought militantly to prevent any reasonable restraint on this vile practice.
One last word. Please remember that God’s grace is far greater than our worst nightmares. Any woman who has had an abortion can be totally forgiven. Freely. God very much wants to cleanse us from all that we have been part of in our life. And that also goes for men who have encouraged their girl-friend or wife to undergo this procedure, as well as parents who thought they could protect their daughter this way. God is good even when we have done our worst. Please seek Him and learn of His heart for you.