My country’s reactions to the recent reversal of Roe v Wade have prompted me to write on the subject. I hope you’ll read them and respond.
Abortion Rights and Wrongs
As we all know, the Supreme Court recently reversed the Roe v Wade decision. I guess I was pretty pessimistic about this – I really didn’t believe such a thing would happen in my lifetime. But it did, and as a citizen of this country and a Christian, I truly rejoice. Apparently, more than half of the country however, did not. They were shocked and grieved, and it seems, motivated to go to the polls and vote. Over 65% of Kansans showed up at the polls to demonstrate their concern that “abortion rights” might be taken away. Many are calling for abortion to be enshrined in law.
Former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the UN Nikki Halley was interviewed on TV and asked about the Republican response to the notion that maybe they’d stirred up something that was going to hurt them in the mid-term elections. She’s a smart politician, so her response was guarded, talking first about the “kitchen table issues” that matter most to all Americans and only at the end coming around to say how great it is that now this issue can be decided by the voters instead of 9 Supreme Court justices. That was a careful response, one not likely to offend, and true as far as it went. Halley did what crafty politicians are good at. She didn’t say whether she was for or against abortion, only that she was glad voters could decide for themselves.
That’s why I’d never want to be a politician! I hate careful responses that don’t really take any sort of stand! I know, you can’t be elected if you take a strong stand (I’m told), just as a pastor can’t build a big congregation if he takes a strong stand and offends people. Don’t talk about politics, pastor! Just tell people “positive, encouraging” things. I’m glad I’m free from pastoral duties at this point in my life!
In our current culture, everyone strives to be politically correct and not upset anybody. We want to win as many people over as we can, so we adhere to slogans like, “you win more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Fair enough. But what I see is that we’re like the frog in the pot of lukewarm water. You know the story. Put the frog in a pot of hot water and he’ll jump right out; but put him in lukewarm water and turn the temperature up gradually, and he’ll never know what’s happening until it kills him.
I’d say the water’s getting really hot in America today. Time magazine chose a transexual man as “the woman of the year.” Our president’s press secretary is not only “a woman of color” (hey, isn’t everyone a person of color? I’m not exactly white you know. I’m more peach colored or reddish, but that’s a color too), but she’s also a member of a special “community,” the two-spirit, LGBTQ + who-knows-what-other-letters “community.” Never mind they’re all individuals and live in different places and aren’t really much of a community. After all, I’m called white. Am I a member of “the white community”? Oh, you racist! You think we’re all alike?! How much am I like Anderson Cooper or Elizabeth Warren or Taylor Swift or Pete Buttigieg? Hello? What white “community”?! What LGBTQ+ “community”? But I digress.
What I’m saying is, many in our country are so proud of things we used to be ashamed of. In fact, we actually “celebrate” an entire month of “pride” in something that used to be disgraceful and embarrassing, something it used to be no one would admit to. So I come back to the issue of abortion. There are those today who say we should celebrate abortion and abortion “rights.” Think about what these people are saying!
The word abortion should be, and really is, a very ugly word. When a military mission or a spaceflight launch is aborted, it’s not considered by any means a good result, but a terrible one! When we speak about an “abortive attempt” to do something, it always means something negative and bad, a failure. So abortion is a very negative thing. It is putting an end to or aborting a human life.Pregnancy should be a wonderful thing, the result of two people coming together in a loving relationship. It’s quite a miraculous thing to conceive a baby, to bring it to birth, and then to see that life grow and progress. No human can begin to understand it or appreciate fully what it involves.
To abort a baby then, is something against nature and against God, who is the very Author of life. Psalm 139 says He “knits” us together in the womb, so that we are fearfully and marvelously made. All human beings are made in the very image of God, so they are of inestimable worth. Every human life has purpose, and that purpose is meant to come to fruition, to fulfillment.
When humans sinned, they thwarted God’s purposes for them and for humanity. When a baby is aborted, that frustrates and thwarts the purpose of that life and the life of the parents. We as human beings, limited in our knowledge, cannot truly understand the impact of one human life. Think of all the things a human being does throughout their life, all the accomplishments, all the relationships, all the contributions and interactions even the most common or ordinary person makes! Who can tell what a baby will grow up to be and accomplish? Who can even imagine the impact each life will have?
That’s why aborting that life and all its potential is a grave sin and mistake. Yet we’re told this is a “right” that all women have, a “right to choose”? God Himself has given us free will, choice, if you will. But He specifically tells us what He would have us choose. He says, “Choose life!” (Deut. 30:19) From the very beginning of human existence, He forbad the taking of life because all human life bears His image. (Gen. 9:6)
So often today, we’re told that it’s the woman’s body, so it should be her choice. But this is contrary to clear, scientific fact, for it is plain that a baby has it’s own DNA from conception and is a separate entity from the woman’s body. A woman is granted the privilege of bearing and caring for human life at its most vulnerable stage. To betray that confidence by aborting that life violently and cruelly, is surely one of the most heinous and grievous of sins. It is instinctual for human beings to love and protect babies. To end their lives is therefore irrational and contrary to the very nature of things as God ordained them.
Recently, Vice President Kamala Harris accused the Supreme Court of being an “activist court,” one that could not be trusted to make just decisions, “ripping away” the reproductive rights of Americans. This is blatant and obvious projection, projecting onto others what a person or group itself actually practices. Her statement also goes contrary to facts. It was an activist court that took the Roe v Wade decision in the first place. The present court, rather than being activist, simply acknowledged the wrongness of the decision previously taken and rightly reversed it. To say otherwise displays ignorance of the Constitution and purpose of the Supreme Court.
I understand that abortion is something millions of women believe necessary to spare them the crises an unplanned pregnancy brings to their lives. I can sympathize. However, this cannot justify the unnatural and sinful act of abortion. Rather, what it should do is to point out what the actual root of the problem is.
Unplanned pregnancies are the result of wrong sexual behavior and decisions. The Bible clearly teaches us how sexuality is supposed to be managed. It is to be enjoyed only by married couples, who have done things right and made the commitment necessary to raising children before indulging in the activity likely to bring them into the world.
I can already hear the outraged protests coming in response to these words! How ridiculous! You deny reality! All people indulge in sex outside of marriage! What century are you living in?! I know this perfectly well, and my own sexual practices before marriage, if investigated, would prove it. But just because all have sinned, that doesn’t justify saying what we did was actually not sin but completely “normal” activity!
On the contrary, what it proves is that God’s Word is true and that His ways are best, even if all human beings fail to abide by them. (Rom. 3:23 tells us all have sinned and fall short of His glory, His original purposes.)
What we need to do, rather than legalizing and boasting about our “reproductive rights” or becoming outraged because the Supreme Court did what it was supposed to do, is examine our own sexual ways to see whether or not our ways have produced good results.
I used to fly to some developing countries where there was chaos in the airports. To get a ticket or to get aboard a flight, it was every man for himself, with masses of people striving to get up to the counter or through the boarding area. I used to often fume inside and want to tell the people about something we had in our airports in the states, a system of belts that channel passengers into an orderly line up to counters and through security checkpoints. Eventually, some of these airports must have heard about our system, because they adopted it, and things improved.
There are countless examples of this sort of thing, of people doing things in inefficient or ineffective ways for a long time, but then learning of better ways and improving. I would argue that this goes for all areas of life, including sexuality. I would submit to you that our modern culture has its theories about sexuality and the great majority just accepts them as the best or only way.
After all, “we all know” anybody should be able to have sex with anybody, whenever they choose! “We all know” that “casual sex” is normal, and fornication is an outdated word. “We all know” some are attracted to the same sex and have the “right” to indulge that desire and even “marry”! “We all know” some feel the sex they were born with is wrong so they should have the right to “identify” as the opposite sex and even change their bodies accordingly. And most recently, “we all now know” if an adult is attracted sexually to minors, they shouldn’t be scandalized but indulged and called MAPS (Minor Attracted Persons). These, my friends, are our cultural mores, our culturally accepted ways of looking at and handling human sexuality. “Everybody” seems to accept this without question.
But what kind of results have these ideas produced? I would argue that they produce deadly, harmful, very negative results, with abortion as one among them. Our widely accepted “theories” regarding sexuality have produced broken hearts, guilt, confusion, widespread venereal disease, sexual violence and perversion, an epidemic of single parenting, children who are abandoned or poorly loved and cared for, poverty; in short, untold misery! The Bible very wisely tells us, “The wages (results) of sin is death,” (Ro. 3:23). That is, all the terrible consequences we see around us in this world. But it doesn’t end there. After this life, the consequences go on. There will be a judgment, and those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God but will be excluded and banished to a lake of fire, which is called “the second death.” (Rev. 21:8)
Abortion is not a “right.” It isn’t something to be proud of or to resort to casually. It is the result of faulty, sinful thinking and practice in the area of human sexuality. The answer to this faulty thinking and practice isn’t to legalize the termination of human lives produced by it, but to rethink sexuality and what leads to pregnancy, and change that thinking and practice. There is a better way.
No one can mock God or escape His truth! (Gal. 6:7) Trying to change, deny or ignore reality is very dangerous, and no one succeeds who rebels against it.
The truth is, God is ultimate reality, so rebelling against reality is rebelling against Him. Wise people accept that and submit to Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom! Wise people therefore, will hate abortion and want to do all they can to eliminate it forever!