Slavery then: abortion now
Introduction
Opting for an abortion is emotionally traumatic, both at the time and often for years afterwards. This is the experience and testimony of many men and women. We can be sympathetic to anyone who has been through the experience. We need to be sensitive to the feelings and emotions this subject evokes and respond compassionately. We believe that through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, there is forgiveness, healing and cleansing freely available to all who've had abortions or been involved in any way just as with any other sin.
William Wilberforce
In the early nineteenth century, a group of Christians, under the leadership of William Wilberforce MP, addressed a global issue, that of slavery. The odds against them swaying public opinion, let alone changing the laws of our nation were enormous and yet they persevered. At the time of Wilberforce's death in 1833, the cogwheel had begun to turn. Today much of the world lives in the freedom they fought for. We believe abortion is a similar issue of global proportions.
The abortion issue
Let's look at the facts. Since 1967, when the Abortion Act was passed in the United Kingdom, we have killed more babies in the womb than Jews murdered in the Holocaust. In the years following 1973, when the United States Supreme Court legalised abortion, granting the USA the most permissive abortion laws in the Western world, there have been upwards of 1,500,000 abortions annually in the USA. To date, there have been around 50 million abortions.
In 1981 there were more life-ending abortions than live births in cities like New York and Washington DC. More human beings have been killed by abortion than in all the wars of all times. Unquestionably, the least safe place on planet earth today is the mothers womb!
Sanctity of life
The issue of abortion is part of the bigger issue of the sanctity of life. Arguments by pro-abortionists often centre on a woman's right to decide and the question of when life actually begins. Is a foetus a baby from the moment of conception? If so, and the scientific evidence clearly indicates that it is, who gives the right to decide who should live and who should die? Does the baby have any say in whether or not it wants to live?
The testimonies of some of the world's leading geneticists may be summed up in the words of Dr Watson A Bowes Jnr of the University of Colorado Medical School:
The beginning of a human life from a biological point of view is at the time of conception. This straightforward biological fact should not be distorted to serve sociological, political, or economic goals.
Our conscience has been seared
How has this happened. Simply put, we've swallowed the prevailing Western philosophy of the twentieth century, based on the work of Hegel in Germany. In summary, this ethic maintains: Whatever solves a problem on the practical level must be considered as moral. No action is right or wrong in itself. If a given action results in a desirable effect, it is ethically acceptable. In other words, the end justifies the means, and what is useful is right. This is what fuelled Hitler's policies resulting in the killing not only of six million Jews, but also many other categories of people seen by him to fall short in some way, such as the disabled and the mentally impaired.
As we have imbibed the Hegelian philosophy, it has eroded our God-given conscience. The biblical principle is, 'Love persons/use things.' We've inverted this principle and unashamedly love things and use people. It's relieved us of the burdens of personal morality and responsibility. We now judge each life by its quality and meaningfulness and we willingly put to death those whose lives don't meet the required standards. We consider that people should be allowed to live only if they meet certain standards of usefulness and productivity. We don't want people around who are burdens, especially financial or emotional burdens, to us - those who fail to have our subjective standard of a 'meaningful, useful, and productive' life.
The death on demand mentality
The trend in education today is to teach children that there are no values, that there's no right or wrong, that there's no God, and that man is his own God. This is perhaps the strongest philosophical force pushing us along the course of the abortion/euthanasia, death on demand mentality. In a survey of 700 UK teachers, nearly 70% approved of including the topic of abortion in lessons on birth control.
The majority of Western citizens still hold on to reverence for life, so we've had to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing. 'Terminating a pregnancy' is easier to stomach than 'killing a baby'. It's a lot easier to discuss abortion if you never mention the tiny human victim or refer to the victim's death. Maybe if we still used the old-fashioned term, 'with child' instead of 'pregnant' we might think differently about it.
The time for action
Here at Christian Spectrum we believe the abortion laws must be changed. The sweeping tide of pre-birth deaths must be stemmed. Our laws are influenced by the small minority who repudiate our Christian heritage and everything it's meant to our civilisation and society. Abortion-on-demand is wrong. Let us be a voice for the innocent voiceless.
In 1981 there were more life-ending abortions than live births in cities like New York and Washington DC. More human beings have been killed by abortion than in all the wars of all times. Unquestionably, the least safe place on planet earth today is the mothers womb!