Dear Friends,
Yesterday was Sanctity of Life Sunday and many churches throughout
our country addressed the issue of abortion from the pulpit.
There is no greater hot button today than the issue of abortion.
It has separated family and friends and divided the heart of our nation.
I am unashamedly prolife, and I believe in doing whatever I can to
protect and preserve the rights of the unborn, I know there are some reading
this who hold a differing view. I respect your right to disagree, but I
strongly oppose your position.
It has been said that the most dangerous place to be in America is
not the inner city where gangs threaten innocent lives. Or in the prisons where
only the fit survives. The most dangerous place to live is in the womb of a
mother who is being told if she doesn’t really want her baby, than abortion is
the solution.
Abortion is presently the second most common surgical procedure in
the nation, only slightly behind circumcision.
The vast number of abortions performed in our nation are performed
for social reasons.
Rape, incest, life of the mother, and severe fetal deformity
account for only 2 to 5% percent of all abortions. The remaining 95 to 98% are
simply casualties of convenience.
Since 1973 when the Supreme Court decided to legalize abortion
over 60 million babies have been aborted, 23 times the number of Americans
killed in all U.S. Wars
More babies die from abortion each year in this country than the
total of all Americans killed in the 12 years of the Viet Nam war. In fact, if
the memorial for the deaths of the unborn were built on the same scale as the
Viet Nam War Memorial in Washington D. C., the wall would be almost 50 miles
long.
In 1993, the Tampa Tribune editorial displayed a cartoon. It
showed a lone man shouting at God.
“God, why haven’t you sent us people with cures for cancer and
aids, and answers to world hunger and all the social problems?
God answers, “I did.”
And then the man responds, but “Where are they”?
God answers, “You aborted them.”
Who knows what some of those 60 million lives might have
accomplished had they not been destroyed in the womb.
A professor at UCLA Medical School asked his students a
hypothetical question.
“Here is the family history. The father has syphilis, the mother
has TB. They already have four children. The first is blind, the second is
deaf, the third has diabetes, and the 4th has TB. And now the mother
is pregnant again. The parents are willing to have an abortion if you decide
they should. What would you tell them?”
The students respond, “It’s a no brainer. Counsel them to have an
abortion.”
“Congratulations,” said the professor. “You have just murdered
Beethoven.”
The tragedy of abortion is that those who are being killed can
neither represent themselves before a court of law nor defend themselves from
sure death.
We hear passionate pro-choice advocates echoing cries in support
of a woman’s reproductive rights, but when it comes to choosing between a
woman’s reproductive rights and the life of an unborn child, the answer to me
seems clear and unambiguous. The innocent child’s life should trump the
reproductive rights of a woman.
Proverbs reminds us that “We are to rescue those being taken off
to death and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say, ‘Look, we
did not know this’-does not he who weighs his heart perceive it? Does
not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay all
according to their deeds?” (Proverbs 24:11-12 LBT).
I believe God has a special heart for the poor, needy and
vulnerable and who fits that description any better than a helpless child
carried in a mother’s womb.
I believe if we as individuals and as churches will bless those
who are the poor and weak and vulnerable, those who cannot repay us, He in turn
will bless us and our churches.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
P.S. In the words of Dr. Seuss in Horton Hears a Who,
“Please don’t harm all my little folks, who have as much right to live as us
bigger folks do!”
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