My daughter is eighteen weeks pregnant as I write this. She and her husband are over the moon.
I have just read a very long Washington Post article (Kitchener 2022)[1] on the growing distribution networks for illegal abortion medication in the States and Mexico. The last few paragraphs tell of one woman’s abortion experience from this medication. Here is an extract, “The fetus was floating in the water. Slightly smaller than her palm, the fetus had a head, hands, and legs, she said. Defined fingers and toes”.
I belong to an active bible-based church with many ministries to surrounding communities, and missionaries all over the world. Yet throughout recent tumultuous changes to abortion legislation in the US, I haven’t heard abortion being discussed at church. This silence among brothers and sisters feels like it comes from a place of uncertainty about how to balance love and truth, as we are constantly confronted by politically correct pro-choice views.
Renowned news media companies can sympathetically report on illegal activities which work to uphold the pro-choice beliefs their articles carry. They carry descriptions of the “fingers and toes” of an aborted 13-week-old fetus with impunity. Yet pro-lifers are shamed for not caring about the women who are mothers to these fetuses.
And it seems all the media balls are on one side of the court when the same article quoted above ends with confusingly poignant words from the woman now burying her expelled fetus, saying, “I hope in the future, when I am ready, your soul will find me again”. The disjuncture between demanding easy access to abortion while still recognizing the humanity of the aborted is perturbing.
Beyond emotional confusion, I also find that logic is time and time again trampled by pro-choice advocacy. The arguments for abortion seem to flex with the justification required. Truth is defined by circumstance.
An example of the use of personal life situations to determine ethics appears in the referenced article. The circumstances of a mother of four, with a history of serious pregnancy complications and a husband who opposes abortion, are cited as legitimation for universal secret access to termination. Intimate personal struggles seem to be used to promote blanket absolution rather than compassionate help for individual conundrums.
We can see the deceptive chains that begun long ago and are multiplying. Increasing social acceptance of sex outside of marriage juxtaposed with brutal condemnation for sexual trespass. It is striking how often the world presents false dichotomies. And tragic how the painful consequences are covered up by humanism or oppression. Humanists offer counselling for broken hearts and solidarity for guilty consciences. And where there is no mercy for sexual offence, there is often the cover of oppressive silence.
As I compare the joy sparked by a wanted embryonic life with the painful complexities of one unwanted, I want to shout from the roof tops that God longs for each of us, no matter our circumstances, to have life and to have it abundantly (John 10:10). But our heavenly Father, like any good father, knows that true love is freely given and received.
Let’s all agree to one thing as we consider the suffering of many this Christmas time. Let us speak confidently about God’s love and truth wherever we can. I don’t want to be silent about our gracious Creator who took on vulnerable flesh in a woman’s womb, so that he could bring to all who would receive it, freedom from the agonies of sin and death.
“That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19, ESV)
Sources:
[1][1][1] Kitchener, Caroline. 2022. “Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network arises after Roe.” The Washington Post, October 18, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F382e202%2F634ed23cf3d9003c581438c5%2F5ff03bc8ade4e216707b37d5%2F9%2F70%2F634ed23cf3d9003c581438c5&wp_cu=8bfd19d4dab3956724efb97d3f55b70f%7CA19F5C5C930B732DE0530100007F05B2
