It has been a provocative week.

Last Sunday was the commemoration of the 40th year on the unfortunate decision on Roe v. Wade (RW). Over a million children have been murdered each year since the decision. Our church honored this day by watching a video testimony of the impact our local Pregnancy Crisis Clinic makes in the lives of families. I also asked a friend and church member to share about her role in volunteering with this vital and front-line ministry. In February our church will show its support for this front-line ministry through a “baby-bottle blitz” by filling bottles with change, cash or checks for financial support. I am moved to greater compassion with every story of life through these and other ministries. Thank you, God.

Later in the week the Washington Post reports on a NBC/WSJ  poll that 70% of Americans oppose any overturn of the RW decision. In fact, the article states that it is time to stop talking about the issue. Perhaps speaking about the murder of 55+million children has grown uncomfortable for some but those voices still cry out regardless of politics & polls. In fact, the NBC/WSJ poll is worth examining the details to show there is more than meets the eye to their interpretive summary with 70% statistic. The poll mischaracterized the true RW definition and looking deeper one can see that American’s are not so in favor of abortion at any term or any reason.

Then there is the extremely creepy and ever ironic video celebration of abortion. I will not post the video to play here but if you so choose to follow the link and watch, I believe you can see the creepy irony. A male, black actor is dressed up sipping on a choice drink to celebrate the anniversary of RW. The fact that they chose a male over a female to mark abortion, and in this manner is degrading to families of a fatherless culture. This is such a casual view of relationships and sexual intimacy. Personifying the RW decision by addressing it as “Baby” is demeaning and shameful when many on the abortion side deny personhood to this discussion. Surprisingly the politically correct culture is silent on such

objectification of women in this video. Seriously, if in reality the actor attempted to connect with a woman using this language and logic and she had any sense of self-respect of seeking more than a one-night stand, this guy would be going home to a cold shower, alone! Further, one may miss the irony of the actor’s ethnicity but the truth is that abortionists prey on African-American, along with other minorities, to increase financial gain. Black women have 5x more abortions over their lifetime than white women. The actor is foolishly mocking the murder of his own ethnic generation.

Lastly, an article this week for the pro-abortion message is frighteningly honest. The title alone says it all: “So what if abortion ends life?” The author’s message is telling:

Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.

When we on the pro-choice side get cagey around the life question, it makes us illogically contradictory. I have friends who have referred to their abortions in terms of “scraping out a bunch of cells” and then a few years later were exultant over the pregnancies that they unhesitatingly described in terms of “the baby” and “this kid.” I know women who have been relieved at their abortions and grieved over their miscarriages. Why can’t we agree that how they felt about their pregnancies was vastly different, but that it’s pretty silly to pretend that what was growing inside of them wasn’t the same? Fetuses aren’t selective like that. They don’t qualify as human life only if they’re intended to be born.

When we try to act like a pregnancy doesn’t involve human life, we wind up drawing stupid semantic li

nes in the sand: first trimester abortion vs. second trimester vs. late term, dancing around the issue trying to decide if there’s a single magic moment when a fetus becomes a person. 

We’re so intimidated by the wingnuts, we get spooked out of having these conversations. We let the archconservatives browbeat us with the concept of “life,” using their scare tactics on women and pushing for indefensible violations like forced ultrasounds… They believe that if we call a fetus a life they can go down the road of making abortion murder. And I think that’s what concerns the hell out of those of us who support unrestricted reproductive freedom.

If by some random fluke I learned today I was pregnant, you bet your ass I’d have an abortion. I’d hav

e the World’s Greatest Abortion… And I would put the life of a mother over the life of a fetus every single time — even if I still need to acknowledge my conviction that the fetus is indeed a life. A life worth sacrificing.

The author tellingly states that personhood is not in debate. Humanity of the unborn is truth. They know they are killing children! The abortion discussion is no longer about whether life starts at conception, but whether life is worth protecting over a woman’s privacy and political choice. In other words, the boundary line has moved beyond pro-choice to pro-death. Power trumps choice. Those who have the power and silence the voices of those who do not and eliminate them if they so choose. 

Words like “choice”, “reproductive freedom” and a “women’s privacy” are simply being marketed to the masses to mask mass murder. Pro-life is pro-choice. The pro-life movement offers women and families options that are available beyond the easy decision of abortion [I’m saying abortion is an easy decision only on the surface but the consequences are anything but easy; from emotional shame, physical complications; spiritual regret and not to mention the reality of taking a life]. The pro-life movement offers choices of medical & insurance resources, financial support, care & compassion, adoption or foster-homes for an unwanted child and multiple other choices.
Please note, this is not a message of judgment on those who have had an abortion. God’s grace and forgiveness is available to every sinner. There is no sin too great where Christ is not a greater Savior. The gospel of

Jesus Christ provides forgiveness, freedom, healing and hope. Love can be yours. Life can be known because Jesus’ resurrection. You have the opportunity see Jesus turn tragedy into triumph, and join millions of unborn children in the presence of God. In heaven every tear will be wiped away, every heart will be healed. Turn to Jesus and trust Him with your sin.

In all, after this week I am provoked to further pray for the Lord’s mercy on our nation and partner with others for the cause of life.

 

LORD, HAVE MERCY.

Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! 2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.