Several weeks back, the 87th Texas State Legislature passed what is known as Senate Bill 8, or, the Texas Heartbeat Bill. The bill prohibits the performing of abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected. In a typical pregnancy, an unborn child develops his or her heartbeat around day 21 of the pregnancy and can be detected as early as the 5th week. So, in many ways, this bill is a big win in the fight against abortion especially considering that most abortions take place by week13 (92% in 2018).
-The Stats
In America, there are approximately 1,000,000 abortions performed each year.
Of the those 1,000,000 abortions performed each year, approximately 1.5% are due to rape or incest. That means that an overwhelming majority of abortions are purely elective.
1 in 4 American women (24%) have had an abortion by the age of 45.
More than half of all women seeking an abortion are in their 20’s.
A significant percent of women seeking abortions are adolescents (12% in 2014).
An overwhelming majority (75%) of women seeking abortions are considered to be poor or low-income.
-These statistics provide just a snapshot of the mountains of data available about abortion.
-The Biden Administration Sues Texas.
A New York Times article published October 7, 2021 reports that a Federal Judge in Texas has approved an injunction filed by the Biden Dept. of Justice that temporarily prevents the Texas Heartbeat bill from going into effect.
Judge Robert L. Pitman “...used sharp language to criticize the law, known as Senate Bill 8, which was drafted to make it difficult to challenge in court by delegating enforcement to private individuals, who can sue anyone who performs abortions or “aids and abets” them.
From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their own lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” he wrote in his opinion.”
And here lies the forgotten or ignored aspect of abortion.
-The Part we Don’t Talk About.
Abortion is always unnecessary, and therefore constitutes premeditated murder. Unnecessary meaning, “not needed.” Premeditated meaning, “characterized by fully conscious willful intent and a measure of forethought and planning.” It is the willful ending of innocent, viable human life.
The overwhelming majority of abortions are entirely unnecessary and are obtained solely for personal, selfish, and unacceptable reasons. There are some legitimate situations where the life of the mother is at risk, but these are rare and make up a small number of the annual numbers. See below for more discussion on this point.
Here are some of the top reasons given as to why women obtain abortions…
Interference with school or career, and unreadiness for a child or another child.
Financial difficulties.
Single motherhood and relationship problems.
Completed childbearing and responsibility to dependents.
Opinions on adoption. —This one was particularly troublesome. The study notes, “more than one-third of interview respondents said they had considered adoption and concluded that it was a morally unconscionable option because giving one's child away is wrong.”The only explanation for such a delusion is that our culture has made a distinction as to when a fetus becomes a child. For many, a fetus does not become a child until it is viable outside the womb (around 25 weeks), or after the child has bee born. But these are entirely arbitrary.
Abortions due to rape or incest constitute approximately 1.5% of annual abortions.
-We must be honest here and point out that at the center of each of these reasons stands “Me.” “I don’t want this child.” “I don’t want to pay the price of having this child.” “I don’t want to be inconvenienced by this child.” The overwhelming majority of women who obtain abortions do so because they do not want the responsibility of the child. They are unwilling to pay the physical and emotional costs associated with bringing the child into the world.
But that is not the narrative today. Today, this desire to avoid this responsibility is cloaked in the language of “personal choice,” “personal freedom,” and “personal control.”
We've even gone so far as to invent a constitutional right to kill babies enshrined in the egregious case of judicial overreach named Roe V. Wade.
Here, we need to return to the ruling handed down today from Judge Pitman. He states, “women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their own lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution.”
That's where we are today. The life of the unborn is said to be worth less than a woman’s right to not have her life changed. The unborn is treated not as a life worthy of human dignity, but as a threat to a woman’s constitutional right to have control over her life.
But here’s the part that isn’t often talked about. The statistics don’t lie. Most every woman seeking an abortion made a choice to engage in the act of intercourse that led to the pregnancy. Our choices have consequences. That’s the way God made the world. And some of our choices result in the loss of freedom, the loss of convenience, and the loss of say-so over our lives.
To be a citizen of a country is to give up certain freedoms as you follow the restrictive laws of the land.
The choice to get married means giving up the right to singleness.
The choice to obtain a job means giving up the right to plan out your day.
The choice to have children means giving up the right to be childless and free.
In her song, I am the Mother of Evangeline, singer Brandy Carlisle, who is a liberal progressive herself, writes, “… The first things that she took from me were selfishness and sleep. She broke a thousand heirlooms I was never meant to keep. She filled my life with color, cancelled plans and trashed my car. But none of that is ever who we are…”
Carlisle puts it so very clear: Some of our choices, including the choice to get pregnant, means that things will be taken away from us. But, those things are not who we are most essentially. But that's the abortion argument. "An unwanted child takes away my very essence as a person." "The unwanted child violates my essential person." And so, we willfully go on sacrificing our children on the altar of maintaining selfishness...
Other choices do not necessarily ensure certain consequences, but by making certain kinds of choices, we open ourselves to potential consequences…
For those who join the military or serve as first responders, they are potentially putting themselves into harm’s way.
Those who choose to smoke are opening themselves up to potential internal bodily harm.
Those who get in a car are subjecting themselves to the potential of a car wreck.
And those who engage in the act of intercourse are opening themselves up to the potential of pregnancy.
And with some of these potential consequences, there are no morally permissible ways out of them.
That’s the reality. For most women, these unwanted pregnancies are the result of a choice. They chose to engage in the act of intercourse, they opened themselves to the potential of pregnancy, and now they have an unwanted consequence. The problem is there is no morally permissible option open to these women other than bearing the child to birth and seeing to it that the child has the best possible life.
-Abortion is Never Morally Permissible.
Our society has reduced the issue of an unwanted pregnancy to one of personal freedom. No longer do we talk about the consequential choice the mother made in the past. A choice that has affected this unborn child. The narrative now is that this child is an unwanted assault on her freedom.
We do not treat our elderly people this way (although some argue we should). We do not treat those with mental and physical disabilities this way. But we attempt to convince ourselves that the unborn life in the womb is somehow different.
It is naked insanity. It is willful dishonesty. It is murder.
For the overwhelming majority of women that find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy, there is no morally permissible option open to them other than carrying the child to term, giving birth, and ensuring his or her life to the extent they are able. Abortion is murder.
Almost Never?
-In this article, I am discussing elective abortions that are obtained for entirely unnecessary reasons. I am not speaking of those very rare instances where where medical intervention may be necessary to save the life of the mother.
These situations are almost exclusively to be found in ectopic pregnancy situations (Ectopic pregnancy refers to any pregnancy that is implanted outside the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tube).
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists (AAPLOG) states, "Continuation of such a pregnancy cannot result in the survival of a baby and entails a very substantial risk of maternal death or disability...For these reasons the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians recognizes the unavoidable loss of human life that occurs in an ectopic pregnancy, but does not consider treatment of ectopic pregnancy by standard surgical or medical procedures to be the moral equivalent of elective abortion, or to be the wrongful taking of human life."
We live in a sinful world. Sin breaks everything, including a woman's ability to have a perfectly healthy pregnancy. Sometimes, the tragedy of an ectopic pregnancy occurs, and when medical intervention is required, this is not considered to be an abortion.
-How Should the Church be Responding to This?
1 - The Church must stand for life and against abortion.
The Church stands on the authority of God’s Word, which says that all human life bears God’s image (Gen. 1:27), that God Himself forms us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13), and that murder is wrong (Ex. 20:13).
It means we practice valuing life by encouraging the healthy practices of biblical marriage and family structure.
It means standing with young women in crisis, helping them in these difficult moments to make the right decision and helping to shoulder the burden.
It means speaking out against the evils of abortion.
It means that we support ministries like Life Choices here in Roxboro, and other Pregnancy Support Centers.
It means that we vote for and support government and civic leaders who stand for life.
It means that the Church takes up the needed ministry of foster-care and adoption.
2 - It means that we minister the love, grace, and forgiveness of God to those women who have experienced abortion, and we do not hate them.
There is a clear and distinct difference in standing against abortion and ministering to those who have had abortions.
Often, women who have have abortion in their past grieve it for the rest of their lives. They need space to grieve openly and honestly, hear the truth of God’s Word, feel the embrace of the Christian community, honestly deal with the sin, and seek repentance.
The Church must hold fast to what is true while also holding out the hope of Jesus Christ Who saves us from our sins.
3 - The Church must pray.
We must pray that God will protect the unborn.
We must pray for mothers who feel trapped and see no way out except abortion.
We must pray that the gospel hope of Jesus to save us from sin is heard more loudly than the abortionist’s promise to save the woman from an unwanted situation.
We must pray that judges and lawmakers will see the necessity of protecting the life and dignity of the unborn.
We must pray for God’s justice to fall on those who promote and practice the evils of abortion.
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