Preloader

A few years ago, shortly into my career as an executive director of two pregnancy resource centers, I had lunch with an old friend who is not a believer. As we discussed what my new job entailed, she shared with me her own views regarding abortion. 

She said that before abortion was legalized, women had been forbidden to decide for themselves whether they wanted to carry babies that they wished they had not been impregnated with. This was a decision they were entitled to since it involved their very own bodies. Their bodies were affected, but not the involved fathers. The laws that kept women in this bondage were created by old men politicians, who were notorious for taking sexual advantage over their much younger mistresses and regarding all women as sexual objects.

When I hear viewpoints like these, I wonder at the lack of logic and the ignorance regarding morality.  Biblical passages flood my mind, (for which I thank God), reminding me that sin is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), we are born with a self-centered nature that caters foremost to our desires (Judges 21:25), and that sin hardens our hearts so that we not only do not know truth when we hear it, but we deny that it is truth and fight against it (Ephesians 4:17-19). I have to remember that there but for the grace of God, go I, and there also I have been, while I placidly ignored the grace of God.

After all, I was growing up and in college during the era of racial integration, equality for women, legal abortion, free love, and anti-government and anti-war activism. They all seemed to happen at once and they influenced me as well as the culture all around me. But even then, I recognized them as moral issues. Maybe it was my up-bringing in my home and in the church, but I saw that there was right and there was wrong. It’s true that I was naively unaware that men took advantage of women as often as they do, but I also knew that there were men who respected women, treated them well, and loved them well. I could see those relationships all around me and I knew that was how God wanted us to live. 

Morality has been subjected into cultural law always—and very much so in the United States. Otherwise, we would be stealing from each other, hurting each other, or killing each other without fear of being apprehended. There used to be repercussions for stealing another’s spouse, too. But as we grew weaker and weaker in keeping the laws regarding sexual immorality, the laws have grown passé. The repercussions for adultery have been removed. Some things, such as honesty have grown to be socially acceptable at times and not worthy of punishment. The integrity of our moral laws seems to be on a downward spiral.

“ The integrity of our moral laws seems to be on a downward spiral. ”

 

Since the 60’s and 70’s when the idea of sexual freedom conspicuously took hold, sexual relationships have become synonymous with dating, living with one another as good as marriage, and so on. That pregnancy may result from this has made women victims rather than participators, and taken men and their responsibility to women out of the equation—thus demeaning the personhood of both men and women. But such ideas are what is called free thinking—one’s ability to decide by themselves what is right or wrong for them. Today we are called intolerant if we don’t allow that, all the while deteriorating into a society with fewer and fewer sexual morals. Moral principles, according to Webster, “concern the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.”

What is even more concerning is that the United States has now legislated immorality and made morality and immorality political issues. The fallout is over 60 million aborted children. When I was in high school and before Roe v Wade, when legalizing abortion was first pushed and succeeding in some states, I was pretty much unaware of the argument and hadn’t given it thought one way or the other. My best friend, however, was Catholic and she was greatly disturbed. Her arguments may have well been the first catalyst in getting me to think through the right and the wrong of abortion. She was distraught over the lives that were being extinguished before they entered the world. Who would they have become? What would they have contributed to society? To their families? What good might they have accomplished? How dare we keep them from living!

Of course, back then, there was a scientific aspect to the question and those on the side of legal abortion told us loudly and clearly, that an unborn baby wasn’t anything more than a clump of tissues for the first few month. They didn’t look human, and were incapable of thought and emotions. Although prenatal ultrasounds were invented in the 1950’s, they weren’t perfected till the end of the 60’s; and although they were used in some situations, it wasn’t until the late 80’s and early 90’s that doctors began requiring them for all their pregnant patients. 

In 2005, National Geographic, using 4-D ultrasound imaging, wrote and produced a 100-minute film, In the Womb, which a follows a pregnancy from conception to birth. The photography is spectacular. We showed it as part of our parenting curriculum at the pregnancy centers. Thing is, as this film clearly demonstrates, an unborn baby is never just a clump of meaningless tissue. 

“ By the time a woman discovers she is pregnant, her baby’s heart is beating. ”

 

From the start, this living human is specifically unique. Twenty-two days after conception, a single heart cell begins to beat, and as it does the cells around pick up the rhythm and beat as well. By the end of the 11th week the fetus is just three inches long, but all the organs have formed and all that’s needed is growth. Everything—including hair color, eye color, and sex—has been determined. And it doesn’t just all take place during the 11th week—hundreds of tiny transformations and determinations are made from day one. That’s just part of the story; the whole story is miraculously fascinating.

By the time a woman discovers she is pregnant, her baby’s heart is beating. A unique individual, unlike any other, is growing inside her. Even though most abortions take place during the first trimester, it doesn’t diminish the fact that a real person is being murdered in what is supposed to be the safest of places, a God-ordained place, for life to begin. 

Looking on the internet for some of this information, I am astounded at the number of medical websites that happily give all the information and congratulations for pregnant women, describing each stage of the wonder of pregnancy accurately—while simultaneously, other medical websites that encourage abortion leave these important facts out. The logic of what we are being told boils down to this: unborn people are only important if they are wanted by their mothers. They can be either highly treasured or discard-able, just based on our feelings about them. How nonsensical! 

I have purposely not incorporated Christian or biblical views here, trying to show how illogical and immoral the pro-abortion view is from a mere human standpoint. Nevertheless, with corruption having seeped so deeply into our surroundings, we as believers, must know all the reasons for us to hold our positions. We must defend our faith in the Creator of the universe and of all life. Outside of Him, there is certainly no hope.

A short film, titled 180, was produced in 2011 by Ray Comfort, Christian author and evangelist. Comfort is gifted with positively presenting Christian views and the Gospel itself, sometimes, as in the case of this movie, using very engaging conversation with unbelievers to do so. The movie demonstrates that the heart of a nation could be reversed, even on abortion. But first, hearts have to receive Jesus as Lord. Take a look:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ByXvyVMHE

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