For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. (Psalm 139:13-16)
In 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States legalized abortion. Since that time, more than thirty million unborn children have had their lives snuffed out. This is sixteen times the total number of Americans lost in all of our nation’s wars combined. Every day, more than 5,000 unborn lives are aborted in their mother’s wombs.
Today, abortion is legal in all 50 states right up until the time of birth. As we speak, the "Freedom of Choice Act" is now before Congress, which if passed would permit no limits on the killing of unborn babies.
To say that abortion is a controversy is a gross understatement. That people are polarized with this issue is painfully evident. The abortion war has finally begun to live up to its name, sadly, but predictably escalating from hostile words to violent actions. In this year alone, we have seen two abortion doctors shot — one killed. Others are regularly hauled off to jail as they protest in front of clinics. It divides our country.
What can we do? What should we do? With all the rhetoric and slogans surrounding us, what are we to think? Is abortion a moral issue, or just a matter of personal preference? Are there any real answers, or is the issue so confusing that we ought to simply ignore it?
Abortion is certainly one issue about which we need to think biblically. If we do not, we will easily fall prey to the convoluted thinking of our society. Society, however, is not God and has a rather poor record attempting to function in that role. There is no doubt that there are many in society who would like to make their will supreme. If we would preserve truth, we must not let them. We must declare truth based upon God’s Word. Frances Shaeffer said, "If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute." Unless we boldly speak the truth based upon God’s Word, we will be guilty of giving aid to society in its endeavor to become the supreme arbiter of truth.
Abortion is one issue worth speaking about. Although it is controversial, we must not shrink from the conflict. Martin Luther said, "If I declare with loud voice and clearest exposition every portion of God’s truth except that one little bit which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ no matter how boldly I may be professing Christ. For the soldier to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that single point." Clear biblical thinking and positive biblical confrontation must be undertaken by the church if people are to know the truth.
Serious Christians must confront the fundamental issues that are raised by abortion. While there are many such issues, the basic question is this: When an abortion is performed, are we killing a human life? Just what is this growing inside the womb? Is it a baby? Is it a person? Or is this simply "tissue" — the "product of conception" — as some call it?
In the abortion debate, there is certainly a lot of heat without light. Slogans abound. "Women have a right to their own body." "Women should have the right to choose." "The fetus is not a baby." "Every child should be a planned and wanted child." Be careful to look behind the slogans to see whether they are based on the truth. Many of the slogans are simply based on what people want to believe is the truth. People choose to believe what they want to believe to enable them to have the kind of lifestyle they want. When our society has chosen to reject God’s rule over us, why should we expect that society to have any regard for notions of absolute truth which has its foundation in God? And when we look at abortion, it becomes painfully evident that few care about the truth.
The real issue is that people, when confronted with an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy, want to fix it. They want to terminate that pregnancy. And so, abortion has now become one of the main means of birth control. The issue for them is not whether the "product of conception" is really a baby. The issue for them is not whether they are killing a human life. They just don’t want to be pregnant. They don’t want to carry that baby to term. They want to have an abortion. This is the real driving force behind all the posturing and postulating about abortion. The goal is to be able to have an abortion at any time and all the propaganda surrounding it is constructed to assure that the goal is achieved.
This is what happens. People act irresponsibly in terms of sexual behavior. An unplanned and unwanted pregnancy occurs. So they decide to get an abortion. After all, they have been told that they are only eliminating a few cells. These cells, they are told, are not really a human being, only "potentially" human. Certainly, these cells are not a person. And, after all, a woman has a right to control her own body. So, off she goes to an abortion clinic to have this "medical procedure."
But there they do more than remove an unformed clump of unwanted cells. You see, these cells look very much like a little baby — a human baby. They don’t look like a baby snake, or a baby fish, or a baby grasshopper, because they aren’t. They are not deciding what to become, not simply because they cannot decide, but because there is no decision to make. Scientists are not anxiously standing around waiting to see what these cells become, because they already know. This is a little human baby developing into the only thing it can become, a more mature human being. It is not becoming a human, it already is.
The doctors know this. But because we have chosen to close our eyes to the truth as we worship the god of self, we justify the killing of this life under the mantle of the law of the Supreme Court. Yes, killing is the right word. The doctor is not removing the life, he or she is killing it. We euphemistically call it "terminating a pregnancy."
They do this in a variety of ways. In the early stages, they may perform a D&C or Dilatation and Curettage abortion. A tiny spoon-like instrument, the curette, is inserted into the womb through the dilated cervix and the wall of the uterus is scraped, cutting the baby’s body to pieces.
Suction abortion is a more common method in early stage pregnancies. This is like the D&C, only a suction tube tears the placenta and baby to pieces as they are sucked into a jar.
Another form of abortion which is used in later stages is the Salt Poisoning, or Hyper-natremic abortion. Usually around the thirteenth week of pregnancy, a long needle is inserted through the mother’s abdomen and a strong salt solution is injected directly into the amniotic fluid which surrounds the child. The baby is poisoned and burned by the salt, and the mother goes into labor about a day later and expels a dead baby.
While there are Hysterotomy and Prostaglandin abortions, as well as discussion of RU486, the abortion pill, the latest form of abortion to come to light is the D&X, or Dilation and Extraction abortion. This form of abortion was recently featured in Light, the publication of the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. This method was taught by Martin Haskell at the National Abortion Federation "Risk Management Seminar" September 13, 1992. Haskell operates abortion clinics in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, and claims to have performed more than 700 D&X abortions. In this abortion, the baby is removed feet first, with the exception of the head. Then the abortionist stabs scissors into the base of the skull, and the head is "evacuated" — the brains are sucked out. Haskell reports that he "routinely" does these abortions on women 20 to 24 weeks pregnant.
Why would people close their eyes to this? Have they believed the pro-abortion propaganda? Unfortunately, many have. Some do because they are deceived, others do because they choose to. But for those who are willing to divorce the emotional rhetoric from the real issue of abortion, there still remains this question — Are we killing an innocent human life? You must answer that question. You cannot avoid it and honestly claim that you are seeking the truth.
Does the Bible give us any assistance in answering the question of whether this unborn entity is really a human life? What can we conclude from the pages of Scripture concerning these human creations we call people?
In Genesis 1:27 we read, "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them." Humans are a creation of God. We are special in that there is the imprint of the divine image upon us. Some would reduce us to the status of mere animals. The Scripture, however, indicates that our status is much higher than that. In fact, we are told that we were created "for a little while lower than the angels" (Hebrews 2:7). The Bible teaches that we are God’s handiwork, not the product of mere evolutionary accident.
From the text of Psalm 139 we understand that the process of our development in the womb did not escape the notice of God. We read in verses 13-16, "For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."
Considering the limited knowledge that David had of the human body, what kind of Psalm would he have written if he had known of the complexity of the DNA code or that his body contained thirty trillion cells with volumes of information coded on each one? In any event, David understood that God was aware of his existence even before he was born.
Another strong statement can be found in Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." God both knew and consecrated Jeremiah in advance of his birth. As a matter of fact, God says to Jeremiah, "I formed you in the womb." Did God consider Jeremiah to be Jeremiah even before he was born? Apparently so.
In the New Testament we find an interesting use of the Greek word for baby. In Luke 18:15 we read, "And they were bringing even the babies to Him, in order that He might touch them." In Luke 1:41 we read, "And it came about that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." In both cases the word for baby is brephos. This term is used to refer to both pre-born as well as post-born life.
Some may say that they probably weren’t aware of the difference between a baby and a fetus. But that is the point! To them it was all human life. These terms are just arbitrary descriptions of different stages of human development. At conception human life is called a zygote; at implantation, you are an embryo; at two months development, you are a fetus; at birth, you are a baby; at fifteen years old, a juvenile; and at 21 years of age, you are an adult. In all of these stages, you are human life.
Furthermore, you are not merely potential human life. Potentiality implies possibility but not necessity. All of us over thirty-five are potential candidates for the U.S. presidency. None of us, however, may even get nominated. On the other hand, the life in the womb is not merely potential human life, it is of necessity human life — it cannot develop into anything else.
Others, including our President, Bill Clinton, would argue that this human life does not become a person until God implants the soul. And when does this happen? During one of the town meetings, I watched a young man pose a question concerning abortion to President Clinton. In defense of his position, President Clinton posed the question of when the soul is given by God. He asked the young man whether he knew when the soul came into the body. This idea of ensoulment is nothing new. We can find it expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas and before that by Aristotle. However, in St. Thomas the male received his "rational soul" forty days after conception and the female had to wait eighty to ninety days for hers. Sexist or not, at least the baby here was still in the womb. Apparently Bill Clinton must assume that the soul is not given until birth, otherwise how could he support the laws as they now stand concerning abortion? To be fair, he simply pointed out the fact that we do not know for sure when the soul is given. If that is indeed the case, then should we not assume that it may be given at conception rather than a later time and be safe? What if we assume the later time and are wrong?
All of this seems really to just dance around the issue. There has never been a time in human history when we knew more about the development of human life than we do today. All of us have seen pictures of unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs which were perfectly formed little people. All of the questions of viability and the like do not change the fact that we are talking about human life related to the creator God, who gives life. If some people want to take that life away, they should simply admit it, and quit cloaking their arguments in absurdity. We are talking about life here.
I recently watched a TV ad produced by the DeMoss Foundation. It featured a split screen with a newborn on one side and a fetus in the womb on the other. It pointed out that the baby on the right (the newborn) had two arms and two legs, and so did the baby on the left; that the baby on the right had ten fingers and ten toes, and so did the baby on the left; that the baby on the right could kick and move and turn over, and so could the baby on the left. In fact, the only difference, they said, in the two was that the baby on the right had been born, and the baby on the left desperately wanted to be.
This brings us to the question of what we can do as Christians in light of this "silent holocaust". We must not do nothing. We are told in Micah 6:8 that the Lord requires us "to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with . . . God." To take seriously that command means that we cannot sit idly by while millions who cannot speak for themselves are silenced forever.
To do justice means that we must stand for the most helpless and defenseless among us — millions of unborn babies. There is something wrong with a society which closes its eyes to this injustice. And there is certainly something gravely wrong with a church that does the same.
How we choose to cry out for justice may differ. Some have chosen to take a very active role in picketing clinics and engaging in civil disobedience. Others consider such actions as unwise and counter-productive. It should be said that no form of violence against those who are pro-abortion is right. Christians should not fight fire with fire. Jesus did not.
I have been personally impressed with what I feel is a more effective tactic. It is the approach of kindly but clearly sharing the truth via the mass media. The DeMoss Foundation is producing and airing many excellent television commercials concerning the sanctity of human life. They do not attack anyone, but rather present the truth concerning this life within the womb. They are powerful. They’re educational. It seems to me that they not only fulfill the command to do justice but also the command to love kindness.
To love kindness also means that we should be providing alternatives and care for those who choose to bring these unborn babies into the world. We cannot be those who simply curse the darkness. If all we do is piously denounce abortion, then we have not done enough. Those who have crisis pregnancies have great needs, and we must be there to help. We must provide help and counseling, housing, doctor’s bills, and adoption to show the love of Jesus to those who are hurting and looking for an alternative to abortion. The fact is that every child is already a "wanted child." If the natural mother doesn’t want the child, there are multitudes longing to adopt children. They want the child, and we must make sure that there are ways to bring them together.
We are living in a society which has closed its eyes to major inhumanity. There has been a devaluing of human life for the sake of convenience and comfort. There is much talk of rights, but what of the rights of the unborn? Who will stand for them?
What will be the judgement of history on our generation? In their challenging book, Whatever Happened To The Human Race?, Frances Schaeffer and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop posed this question, "Will future generations look back and remember that — even if the 20th century did end with a great surge of inhumanity — at least there was one group who stood consistently, whatever the price, for the value of the individual . . .?" Will you be part of that group? Will you stand consistently? Will you stand whatever the price? I certainly hope so.
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