In 1857 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that black people are not fully human and therefore were not eligible to receive the full benefits, blessings and provisions of the law of the land.1 According to that judicial decision, black people could be bought, sold and owned as property since they were considered to be less than human.
Such was the opinion of the justices of the Supreme Court.
What was God's opinion?
In holy Scripture God has said that humanity is made in His image, that the human being was created a little lower than God and had been, in the beginning, crowned with glory and majesty (Genesis 1:26, Psalm 8:5). Though now tragically fallen, we are still precious in God's sight.
To abuse a human being by robbing him of his liberty or denying her humanity is to sin not only against the creature but also against the Creator. There was no greater crime in the 18th and 19th centuries than the crime of slavery. Yet the measure of the crime was far more than the chains which enwrapped the arms and legs of black men, women and children. At issue was the heart of all humanity. Slavery was merely a salient expression of humanity's inability to comprehend truth — truth about self, about others, about God.
The Spirit of God strove mightily to stir the hearts of Christians to stand and be counted, to sound forth God's Jubilee word of truth, to shine the Lord's light into a cruelly lost, bound and blinded generation. What was the church's response?
Though there were heroic measures by some committed believers, many Christians in America did not consider the slavery issue to be their personal responsibility. Indeed, some believed they could both worship Jesus and own slaves, contending that no one had the right to tell them what to do with their own personal property. Evidently the majority agreed that it was a matter of personal choice.
They were wrong. Property and personal choice were not the issue. The issue was the sanctity of life, humanity's inability to perceive that sanctity, and the consequent abuse of that life over against the clearly stated moral laws of a just, holy and compassionate God.
When the unseen scale of divine mercy and justice overflowed with offense, the Lord of heaven and earth released this nation to the outworking of our sin choices. The result was a Civil War which exceeded in destruction, fury and blood all other wars in which our nation has ever engaged. In giving us over to the violent harvest we had planted, God was acting in history to judge a people who had forsaken His compassion and transgressed His holy law.
Abraham Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address, gave expression to this truth:
"The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses … and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'"2
Slavery was not a uniquely white American sin. Who sold the slaves to the buyers? Black African tribes sold other black African tribes and Muslim Arabs sold them all. Who transported the slaves? European merchants played a major role. Asia had its own booming slave trade (and today remains a primary abuser of women and children in the abomination known as sex trafficking).
The enslavement of human beings is a distinctly human sin. America came under God's judgement not because we invented this particular offense but because we embraced it, refused to renounce it, and those who knew better failed to gain its removal through means less violent than that which we ultimately experienced.
God granted this nation a season of grace concerning slavery but when that season expired, the God of grace acted in history to confront our wickedness for He is also a just and holy God who will not abide man's wickedness forever. He has not only reserved judgement for the end of the age. He also exercises judgement within history (see Jeremiah 8:11,12 Psalms 75:7 136:15 147:6 Daniel 2:20,21 Amos 1-3).
God acted in history because He has revealed Himself as a defender of the weak and powerless who shows Himself strong on behalf of those who have no strength (Psalm 72:12-14). God acted in history because He has said that the shedding of innocent blood is an abomination to Him (Proverbs 6:16,17).
The suffering was greatest in the South but great also in the North for there was much innocent blood found on many hands. We need not invent a sin to fall under its judicial consequences. In fact, we do not even need to enjoy a sin to come under judgement. We need only to silently tolerate its violence in the broken and bruised lives of the helpless.
Indeed, those who committed the crime and those who accepted the crime, those who planted the seeds of iniquity and those who accepted the planting, those who reaped the profits and those who accepted the reaping, all alike were swept into the fire storm which consumed the sheaves and pastures and plantations of oppression.
We should not be surprised by this. The Word of God clearly says, "Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin" (James 4:17).
When we refuse to oppose evil we are choosing to accept evil. If we choose to accept evil then we are no longer guiltless. The "innocent bystander" is a myth. History reveals only participants — some active, some passive — but all who live participate in history.
There were some who suffered because they opposed the evil of slavery — the persecuted ones, the martyrs. Their blood was not a testament of judgement but of courage. However, their’s was a minority report. The majority report was published by those who practiced the crime and those who accepted the crime. Since their’s was one witness, their’s also was one judgement.
In 1857 the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that black people are less than human but within a few brief and terrible years that decision was overturned in a courtroom where cannon thundered arguments of fire and rivers ran red with the blood of testimony. No less a Judge than Almighty God delivered the verdict. How fearful and awesome to be given over by God to the outworking of our sin choices!
In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled that unborn babies are not human, are less than human and therefore are not eligible to receive the full blessings, benefits and provisions of the law of the land.3 According to that ruling, the unborn child is not a living entity entitled to the protection of the law, but rather, is nothing more than property owned by the owner of the womb and as property may be kept and nurtured or rejected and destroyed according to the desire of the property owner.
The 1973 decision opened the way for abortion on demand. According to that decision, states may neither prohibit nor regulate abortions during the first trimester; states may not prohibit but may regulate second and third trimester abortions (the regulations vary from state to state).
Since 1973, over 58,500,000 unborn babies have been put to death in the United States.4 This figure is certainly low because of the number of unreported abortions. Nevertheless, it is a stunning number.
This year at least 1.3 million unborn babies will be killed in the United States.
That is 3561 babies every day.
148 per hour
2.5 every minute
Picture a church building with 140 people in attendance for the Sunday morning worship service (the average worship attendance in America is less than 100). If each worshipper in that church represents a baby being aborted today in America, then before that service could be completed, the building would be empty.
Remember that each of those babies possessed talents, gifts, abilities. Just as that church contains musicians, writers, carpenters, nurses, farmers and doctors, mothers and fathers — a diverse, colorful rainbow of personalities and talents — so would that same room be filled with a rainbow of possibilities if those children could be present after ten or thirty or fifty years of life. But they won't have those years of life. They are being killed today.
The defenders of abortion do not talk about talents, gifts, possibilities, the humanity of the unborn. They don't talk about a baby at all. They talk about a fetus.
They don't talk about the death of an unborn baby. They talk about the termination of a fetus, as if by dehumanizing and depersonalizing their discussion of the crime they could wash the blood from their hands.
How similar to the mind of Franz Stangl, commandant of the Nazi labor and death camp at Treblinka who said,
"It had nothing to do with humanity...
it was a mass … I rarely saw them as individuals.
It was always a huge mass."5
The Nazi soldiers who were responsible for the massacre of six million Jews attempted to excuse themselves by saying they were only following orders, even as doctors today say that they are only obeying the law of the land when they murder an unborn child. The Nazis attempted to excuse themselves by saying they did not see the Jews as individual persons with human worth but only as a mass condemned to death. Nevertheless, the world condemned the Nazis and brought them to justice.
But if the massacre of six million Jewish men, women and children was immoral, how shall we measure the immorality of this silent holocaust — the massacre of fifty-eight million unborn babies? They are the most innocent, defenseless members of the human family and their innocent blood cries out from the ground.
There is something perverse about people who will march on behalf of whales, seals and endangered species of birds while allowing children to be destroyed by the millions. There is something perverse about a nation which pours wealth into the coffers of abortion clinics while declaring the destruction of an eagle's egg to be a federal crime punishable by a $5,000 fine and a year in jail.
If we know that the eagle’s egg contains an unborn eagle, how can we not recognize that a mother’s womb contains an unborn human being? If we are willing to protect by federal law the unborn eagle, why are we not willing to protect the unborn human being?
Such perversity will not go unpunished in a just and moral universe. Even as God would not allow this nation to go unchecked in its enslavement of human beings, neither will He allow it to go unchecked in its murder of human beings.
Slavery and abortion are concerned with the same truth: humanity's inability to discern the dignity, value and sanctity of a human life. Slave owners contended that no one had the right to tell them what to do with their “property," even as pro-abortionists speak of a mother's "freedom of choice,” her right to do as she will with her “property."
This argument misses the point. The issue is not property. The issue is life, whether any person has the right to violate another life. An unborn child is not disposable property. An unborn child is life infinitely precious and valuable to God. An American President said:
"Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men decide that others are not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide."6
That President added,
"This is not the first time our country has been divided by a Supreme Court decision that denied the value of certain human lives."7 "Make no mistake: abortion on demand is not a right granted by the constitution."8
The Supreme Court has spoken. Yes, and the Supreme Court has been wrong before. The law has been established. Yes, and the law has been overturned before by a greater Justice, a greater Law.
The Lord has spoken very clearly. He has said in Psalm 127:3 that children are a gift of the Lord. He has revealed in Psalm 139:13-16 that He is involved in the process of forming the child in the mother's womb and that even in that womb-existence the child is known to the Lord as a living person. He has said in Proverbs 6:16,17 that the shedding of innocent blood is an abomination to Him.
What has the church done with God's revelation? Much the same as it did in the days of slavery. There are heroic measures by a minority of committed believers but evidently the majority of Christians in America do not perceive the abomination of abortion to be their personal responsibility. And so we continue to build buildings, sing songs and preach our sermons while innocent blood is shed.
Do we suppose a holy and righteous God will remain silent? He has granted a season of grace but when this season has expired, if we have not taken hold of His mercy by turning from our offense, He will confront us with our sin, He will give us over to the harvest we have planted.
Now is the time for Christians to cast off the sin-yoke of indifference. Now is the time to discern the spiritual nature of our conflict and learn the skillful use of spiritual gifts. Now is the time to stand and live in defense of innocent blood, speaking God's truth in love and shining His light with grace.
Now is the time.
What can we do?
We can begin by understanding the root causes of abortion.
1. First root cause: MONEY
The killing of unborn babies is a lucrative business. Money triumphs over humanity in many industries and surely in this one.
In 2014 Planned Parenthood, which is the primary abortion provider in the U.S., made an estimated $147,771,000 dollars (a figure based on the number of abortions times $451, which is the average cost of an abortion in the U.S.).9 The estimated yearly income of all abortion clinics in the U.S. in 2014 was $477,000,000 (again, based on the number of abortions times $451).10 This figure does not account for the many unreported abortions in this country.
This also does not take into account the money derived from the harvesting of organs and tissue from unborn babies. Given the enormous profits available to this industry and the money spent on political lobbying, the resistance to legislative change is not surprising. But let’s not misunderstand the motive. It has nothing to do with compassion for women. It’s about money.
2. Second root cause: CONVENIENCE
Deeply rooted in the modern psyche is the idea that the convenience, career, prosperity and pleasure of the individual is more important than the welfare of society in general or any other human life. This concept, that the preservation of personal well being is more important than other lives, permeates western culture and poisons the decision making process of individuals, corporations and governments.
3. Third root cause: DEVALUING OF HUMAN LIFE
Human life is being devalued on a scale that is destroying modern civilization. Human beings are not seen as reflections of the glory of God but only the end result of chance and biological process. The result is the skewed, perverse perception of trees and birds as sacred objects worthy of protection while human lives are trampled around the world. The almost incalculable slaughter during the past century of tens of millions of men, women and children through war, genocide, famine, plague and abortion has further seared the already numbed conscience of a generation.
This devaluing of life has spawned a spirit of death which is progressively incarnating its darkness in every facet of culture, business, politics and the creative arts.
4. Fourth root cause: MISINFORMATION
The abortion industry cloaks itself in a veil of lies. Abortion providers are not required to inform the mother of medically proven risks to her emotional and physical well being. They are not required to educate her as to the human traits and progressive development of the child in her womb. They do not even refer to the baby in human terms, teaching the mother to depersonalize the child and his or her execution.
The Essential Question:
Are we killing a human being when we kill an unborn baby?
It is said that because an unborn child is not fully developed, because she is not capable of life outside of the womb, therefore she is not fully human, is less than human and so is not eligible to receive the benefits and protection of the law. That makes no sense.
While it is true that an unborn baby is not fully developed, neither is a two year old. It is true that an unborn child is incapable of viable life outside the womb but neither is a toddler capable of life on its own, apart from parental care and nurture. Nevertheless, the two year old is not considered to be less than human because of his dependence and neither should we think of the unborn child as less than human merely because of his dependence.
Consider these medical facts:
According to Dr. Thomas Moore, a maternal fetal medicine specialist,
“The baby's heart starts to beat at around 6 weeks. You may be able to hear — and see — your baby's heart beat for the first time when you're about 8 weeks pregnant if you have an early ultrasound exam. Otherwise, you'll probably first hear it with a fetal Doppler at a regular prenatal care visit. Your caregiver may be able to find it with the Doppler as early as 10 weeks, but it's more common to hear it at 12 weeks. How early the sound can be picked up depends on your baby's position in your uterus, your weight, and the accuracy of your due date.” 11
If you can hear and see your baby’s heart beat, if there is a measurable heart function, then surely this is a living human being. And please note that all of the activity which Dr. Moore describes is within the first trimester.
Have you ever stood in a hospital room when the heart monitor flat-lines? That means a heart has stopped beating. If the hospital staff is unable to resuscitate the patient, that person will be declared dead. If they can restart the heart, the patient will live. If an unborn baby’s heart is beating, it is alive. If it is not beating, it is dead. If we are the ones who caused it to stop beating, what did we do?
At the age of six weeks from conception an unborn child is developing eyes, lungs, intestines, and measurable brainwaves.12 By weeks ten and eleven, all organ systems are beginning to function. The baby has a skeletal structure, nerves, and circulation.13
During the third month of embryonic development, a perfectly unique set of fingerprints develop.14 Nerve and muscle connections are rapidly increasing. During months five and six, baby learns to recognize the sound of mommy's voice and has discovered the joy of thumb-sucking.15 At seventeen weeks, babies have been observed experiencing what appears to be REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement, indicating that dreaming is taking place).16
If that is not a human being, what is it?
Dr. Paul Ranalli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto adds, “At 20 weeks, the fetal brain has the full complement of brain cells present in adulthood, ready and waiting to receive pain signals from the body, and their electrical activity can be recorded by standard electroencephalography (EEG).” 17
At the time of the 1973 Supreme Court decision, 220 of the leading physicians and professors of medicine in America filed a brief with the Supreme Court stating that the "current medical status of the unborn shows conclusively the humanity of the fetus.”18
The contention that an unborn child is less than human is untrue. We need to speak the truth.
Valuing a Human Life
Considering the medical / scientific validation that a developing human being is living in the womb of the mother, how do we explain the devaluing of this little person as if he or she is not human? If an unborn baby is not a human being, how does she become one after she is born? She will not become human by growing older, larger or learning to read. We do not become human — we are human from conception. If this unborn baby is not a human being, what is she? If she is a human being, shouldn’t we protect her?
Some devalue this unborn child by saying he is not a person at all but a part of the mother’s body, like an arm or leg, and the mother may dispose of this flesh as she would any other part of her body that she no longer needs or wants.
However, the genetic code of an unborn child is distinct from that of his mother. Every limb and organ of the mother’s body carries her genetic code. But the unborn baby carries his own unique genetic code. Though this little person is contained within the mother’s womb, he is a genetically distinct person, not an appendage.
An unborn baby may survive his mother’s death or the child may die in the womb while the mother lives. Both cases prove that the baby and the mother are two distinct persons.
Some pro-abortion advocates suggest that the life of an unborn child is worthy of birth only if the mother considers the baby to be valuable or meaningful to her. If the baby holds no value or meaning to the mother, then he may be terminated.
But consider a homeless person in a city of strangers. People pass him silently on the street, neither valuing his life nor considering his life to be particularly meaningful to them. Because he holds no obvious value to the world around him, should he then be killed?
What a cruel, inhumane thought!
His life holds value and meaning for himself and for the God who created him. Because he is alive and created in God’s image his life should be valued by all of us. Though in our insensitivity we may not recognize his value, possibly someday he will demonstrate worth and meaning to us. Or maybe not; maybe society will never recognize what is intrinsically valuable and meaningful about his life. But he is still alive, still human and neither his poverty nor his possible addictions nor his possible mental disabilities nor any other factor that caused him to be homeless should render him less than human in our eyes.
He is not human because we value him. We value him because he is human.
Joseph Stalin considered the lives of Ukrainian farmers to be less valuable than his plan to collectivize all farms in the Soviet Union. As a result, several million persons starved to death. Stalin valued his Marxist ideology more than he valued the lives of men, women and children. But we do not consider his choice to be intellectually or politically valid. We consider it to be genocide.
Pot Pol valued his perversion of Marxist theory more than the people of Cambodia. The result was the death of at least two million Cambodians. We consider that to be genocide.
Adolf Hitler did not value the lives of Jews, Gypsies or the mentally and physically disabled. He valued his National Socialist theory. As a result, millions died in his death camps. We consider that to be genocide.
Worth, value, is not determined by political ideology, race, size, age, handicap, wealth or poverty. We have worth because we are human. Whether we are Jewish humanity, impoverished humanity, handicapped humanity or political minority humanity — we are valued because we are human.
Isn’t it also true that little humans are just as worthy of life as big humans?
Unreasonable Reasons for Abortion
1. Some pro-choice advocates justify abortion on the grounds that it protects unwanted children from the future possibility of abuse. They propose that in unhealthy, unstable families, abortion is a compassionate alternative to the possibility of neglect or violence. Granted, there are too many families trapped in a tragic web of abuse. But do we really propose to murder the child to protect him or her from violence?
That is not compassion. Rather, it is the perfection of perversity. It is the unreasoning equivalent to the absurdity of shooting home owners to protect them from home invasion.
The statistical record states that from the1973 decision legalizing abortion on demand into the mid 1980s, child abuse in this nation increased by "at least 500%” (according to Dr. C. Everett Koop, Surgeon General of the United States at that time). 19
The level of abuse has continued to escalate dramatically, from 167,000 reported cases in 1973 20 to 903,000 cases in 2001 (the 2001 estimate is provided by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services).21
The theory that by aborting potentially unwanted children we can decrease the level of child abuse has not proven to be valid. Is there in fact a connection between abortion and child abuse? Is the population being desensitized to the suffering of little people, both pre-born and post-born?
Randy Alcorn, in his sensitive book, “Why Pro-Life?” proposed, “The solution to battered children outside the womb is not battered children inside the womb. The solution to child abuse isn’t doing the abusing earlier. It’s not doing it at all.” 22
Instead of killing the unborn child to protect him, why not instead bring him to the birth and let him be adopted by families that will raise him in a safe, nurturing home?
In the Bible we read, "We are His (God's) workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). When a person is redeemed into new life in Christ whether as a child, youth or adult, no matter how abused or misused her past, the Lord is able to heal, release, reshape and transform her into His workmanship, into a life filled with opportunity and possibility. We deny the world this Christ-shaped craftsmanship when we play God and murder the unborn child.
The proud choice to "protect" an unborn child by taking his or her life derives from that first and primary of all lies, "You shall be like God" (Genesis 3:5).
2. Another fallacy is the common belief that by legalizing and regulating abortion it can be limited to the first trimester and therefore will be morally acceptable.
First of all, we have already demonstrated that the humanity and worthiness of an unborn infant is not predicated on size or womb age but on the fact that it is a living, growing human being. Therefore at any womb age abortion is morally unacceptable. But those who define the humanity of the unborn as something which develops only in the final weeks before birth must still deal with the fact that second and third trimester abortions occur in this country every year.
According to Dr. Elizabeth Johnson,
“The Guttmacher Institute, a former affiliate of Planned Parenthood, estimates that roughly 1%, or over 15,000, abortions are performed after 20 weeks annually in the U.S.” 23 (This figure is based on an annual estimate of 1.5 million abortions. As we have said, it is difficult to accurately assess the number of abortions performed each year in the U.S. because some states and some organizations do not report. However, this figure was developed by a pro-abortion organization; they had no incentive to minimalize the annual number of abortions).
Dr. Johnson goes on to say, “These particularly gruesome surgical techniques involve crushing, dismemberment and removal of a fetal body from a woman’s uterus, mere weeks before, or even after, the fetus reaches a developmental age of potential viability outside the mother. In some cases, especially when the fetus is past the stage of viability, the abortion may involve administration of a lethal injection into the fetal heart in utero to ensure that the fetus is not pulled out alive or with the ability to survive.” 24
Abortion "regulations" are based on such a broad definition of a mother's health as to exclude practically no one. Health factors include "emotional and psychological condition, family size, a woman's age.” 25 In other words, if a woman is considered to have a family already too large (who sets the number?), or if she is considered to be of an improper age to bear children (according to what authority?), or if she does not fit some median of emotional stability (whose median?), then she can demand an abortion up to the day of birth.
So now we have legalized, "regulated" abortion in America. And we have more than one million babies destroyed before birth every year. This includes second and third trimester abortions. The idea that legalized, regulated abortion can bring about a more acceptable moral situation is not true. We need to speak the truth.
3. Another unreasonable reason to justify legalized killing of the unborn is to equalize medical opportunities for the poor, particularly among ethnic minority poor. According to this line of reasoning, if abortions were illegal, wealthy people would still find a way to have safe abortions while the poor would be forced into "backroom, coat hanger" operations. Legalized abortion is necessary, it is argued, as a remedy to the oppression of economic disadvantage.
Certainly, access to quality health care should always be a concern of compassionate societies. But the truth is that the poor, especially among the black and Latino communities, are suffering terrible oppression because of legalized abortion.
It is an indisputable fact that abortions occur disproportionately higher among minority groups. In 1975, 300,000 abortions were reported among the black community in America.26 That represented 1.3% of the total black population in this country and was double the rate of the white population.27
If anyone were to run for public office on a platform promising the extermination annually of 1.3% of any minority group, such a person would be immediately and correctly branded as dangerous, malicious and ignorant. But in truth, such a policy has been practiced and encouraged from without and within the black community for many years.
In fact, this has been a long term goal of the abortion movement. Planned Parenthood, the leading abortion provider in the US, has identified its core clients as “young women, low income women and women of color.” 28 Indeed, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, said, “All our problems are the result of overbreeding among the working class.”29
Consider these recent statistics:
Since 1973, approximately 14.5 million African American babies have been aborted in the U.S. 30 Compare that to other causes of death in the black community during those years: Aids: 227,000
Violent Crime: 329,000
Cancer: 1.3 million
Heart Disease: 2.5 million
Abortion is by far the largest single cause of death among African Americans.
The Latino community has also suffered disproportionately:
“In the year 2000, Hispanic American women represented 12.8% of the U.S. population of women of child-bearing age but accounted for 20.1% of all abortions performed that year in this country. African-American women accounted for 13.7% of the U.S. population of child-bearing age but accounted for 31.7% of all abortions that year.” 31
These were future scholars, community organizers, artists, athletes, political leaders, scientists, pastors, teachers, businessmen and businesswomen. Why are so few crying over the talents, gifts, dreams and opportunities irretrievably lost to the Latino and black communities and buried in the trash cans of abortion clinics?
Why is no one connecting the depressed economies of urban neighborhoods with the mass murder of creative thinkers and innovative entrepreneurs? It is undeniable that the abortion industry, though incredibly profitable for a few, has had a catastrophic impact on the economic development of minority communities.32
Where are the businesses, the jobs, the imaginative, groundbreaking pioneers and innovators who should be invigorating, revolutionizing urban economies? Too many died before they were born. Why is no one protesting what amounts to state-sanctioned economic oppression of minority communities?
Why are so few shouting a word of warning that this present state of events is nothing less than democratic genocide and is only one goose-step removed from the unspeakable horrors of mass social extermination?
Let no one say that cannot happen here. If the social mind-set has already accepted the idea that some people may arbitrarily decide who lives and who dies, that some people are unworthy of living and therefore should die, then the only ingredients lacking for a greater tyranny are a crisis of large proportions, or series of crises, and an attractive, amoral, opportunistic leader.
Legalized abortion has not relieved the oppression of the poor. Rather, it has opened a door of oppression which, in an unstable future, may be impossible to close. God help us if that door is ever opened wider.
We need to speak the truth.
4. It is suggested that abortion is painless for the unborn. This is grievously untrue.
According to medical research, an unborn baby is capable of feeling pain from an early stage of development. Consider these facts:
“The brain begins to take shape only18 days after conception. By 20 days, the brain has already differentiated into forebrain, midbrain, and hind brain, and the spinal cord has started to grow. Four or five weeks after conception, pain receptors appear around the mouth, followed by nerve fibers, which carry stimuli to the brain. By 18 weeks, pain receptors have appeared throughout the body. Around week 6, the unborn child first responds to touch. In weeks 6-18, the cerebral cortex develops. By 18 weeks the cortex has a full complement of neurons. In adults, the cortex has been recognized as the center of pain consciousness. During weeks 8-16, the thalamus develops, functioning as the main relay center in the brain for sensory impulses going from the spinal cord to the cortex. In week 18, nerve tracts connecting the spinal cord and the thalamus are established, and nerves from the thalamus first contact the cortex in week 20.” 33
According to Dr. Paul Ranalli, neurologist at the University of Toronto, “At 20 weeks, the fetal brain has the full complement of brain cells present in adulthood, ready and waiting to receive pain signals from the body, and their electrical activity can be recorded by standard electroencephalography (EEG)” 34
According to Robert J. White, MD, PhD, professor of neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University: An unborn child at 20 weeks gestation “is fully capable of experiencing pain ... Without question, [abortion]is a dreadfully painful experience for any infant subjected to such a surgical procedure.” 35
One method of abortion is the suction method: the infant is sucked out of the womb by a suction/vacuum device. The force of the suction is so great it literally rips the infant limb from limb and he or she is removed from the womb in pieces. That is not painless to the baby.
Another method of aborting the unborn is through the injection of a corrosive, saline solution into the womb. Over a period of hours the saline solution burns away the tissues and organs of the infant, inducing death. That death cannot be anything other than excruciatingly painful for the unfortunate child.
The contention that abortion is painless for the child is a lie. We need to speak the truth.
5. It has been said that legal, regulated abortion is safe for the mother. This is not true.
The medical community is only beginning to deal with the objective reality of deep rooted grief and depression and other mental health issues in the mother following the planned death of her unborn child. Consider the evidence:
“The data surrounding abortion shows a high correlation between abortion and an increased risk of mental health problems.36 There are over 100 studies that demonstrate this connection.37 One study found that women whose first pregnancies ended in abortion were 65 percent more likely to score in the “high risk” range for clinical depression than women whose first pregnancies resulted in a birth — even after controlling for age, race, marital status, divorce history, education, income, and pre-pregnancy psychological state.38 Studies found that 10% of mental health problems suffered by women are directly attributable to abortion.” 39
“Studies also reveal an increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide following induced abortion. One of the leading studies, led by a pro-abortion researcher and controlling for all relevant factors (including prior history of depression and anxiety and prior history of suicide ideation), found that 27 percent of women who aborted reported experiencing suicidal ideation, with as many as 50 percent of minors experiencing suicide or suicidal ideation.40
The risk of suicide was three times greater for women who aborted than for women who delivered.41 The study also found that 42 percent of women who aborted reported major depression by age 25, and 39 percent of post-abortive women suffered from anxiety disorders by age 25.” 42
“Studies have linked a history of abortion to sleeping disorders and eating disorders.” 43 “Adolescents who had abortions were three times more likely to experience trouble sleeping.” 44
One post-abortion specialist writes, “In a study of post-abortion patients only 8 weeks after their abortion, researchers found that 44% complained of nervous disorders, 36% had experienced sleep disturbances, 31% had regrets about their decision, and 11% had been prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor.” 45
There is also significant documented evidence regarding post abortion physical health issues for the mother.
In her testimony before a Senate subcommittee in 2004, Dr. Elizabeth Shadigan testified, “Abortion increases rates of breast cancer, placenta previa, pre-term births, and maternal suicide .... Statistically, all types of deaths are higher with women who have had induced abortions.” 46
There are also studies which demonstrate a “statistically significant increase in premature births or low birth weight risk in women with prior induced abortions.” 47 A study published in the British Medical Journal indicates that the chance of early death in infants of mothers with previous abortions is increased by two to four times the normal rate.48
In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers state, “Pelvic infection is a common and serious complication of induced abortion and has been reported in up to 30% of all cases.” 49 In the same journal, a study of women having first-trimester abortions stated that “women with postabortal pelvic inflammatory disease had significantly higher rates of … spontaneous abortion, secondary infertility, dyspareunia, and chronic pelvic pain.” 50
Women with single and multiple abortions experience elevated risks of ovarian and liver cancer. 51 According to a study published in the British Journal of Cancer, an abortion increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by a minimum of 50 percent and as much as 300 percent. 52
It is not surprising that many women, post-abortion, say that they were not given enough information.
6. It is said that legal, regulated abortion is necessary because of hardship situations such as rape or incest or a pregnancy which presents a threat to the mother’s life.
We need to consider the facts.
According to Planned Parenthood, abortion due to incest or rape accounts for only 1% of all abortions. 53 Other studies indicate a lower rate (National Right to life reports .5%).
Regarding a threat to the mother’ life, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that in his many years of practice, he never once encountered a medical crisis requiring the abortion of the unborn child. 54 According to Dr. Anthony Levatino, an obstetrician and former associate professor of Ob-GYN at Albany (NY) Medical College (and a former abortionist), he has never been involved with a patient who required an abortion to save her life or advance her health. 55 He testified to that fact before Congress. Dr. Levatino suggests that the most practical way to end a pregnancy is to deliver the baby.
We should not minimize traumatic pregnancies. They do occur and always need to be dealt with prayerfully and compassionately — the sanctity of the mother’s life must always be respected. Especially in cases of rape or incest, the mother should be surrounded by a loving, supportive community who will walk with her through her recovery from the trauma of abuse and the ensuing pregnancy. But don’t punish her or the unborn child. Punish the abuser or rapist.
Abortion and Women’s Rights
Although abortion has been tied to women’s rights, it is a fact that more women are pro-life than pro-choice and the largest pro-choice demographic is men. For good reason. Far from being a promoter of women’s rights, in some countries abortion has become the primary means for eliminating unwanted females.
In China today, two-thirds of the children being born are males.56 It is a medical fact that more unborn females are aborted than males.
This is called prenatal sex selection or sex-selective abortion –- choosing to abort a preborn child based solely on the child’s sex. The result is skewed sex ratios at birth. It is estimated that as many as 160 million women are missing from the world population because of “neglect, infanticide, inequalities in care” and sex-selective abortion. 57
Some have called this a war on women. Randy Alcorn, in “Why Pro-Life,” rightly points out the inconsistency in campaigning for equal rights for females while destroying a female’s right to be born. 58
This brings us to the term, pro-choice. It sounds so moral, so righteous to say, “I am in favor of women having a free choice.” But not all choices are moral or righteous. That’s why we have laws that limit our choices. We are free to make choices that harm others but we do not have that right. There should be laws prohibiting the weeding out of females from the population, not laws enabling this.
It is simply unreasonable to say, “I am personally opposed to killing unborn children but I affirm the right of others to do it.” We would not apply that same standard of illogic to any other act of violence. We would not say, “I am personally opposed to sex trafficking or the exploitation and abuse of women and children or genocide or ethnic cleansing but I affirm the right of others to do it.”
If that absurd anit-logic does not apply to post-born human beings, how can it apply to pre-born human beings? People can phrase it any way they want but pro-choice results in the death of unborn children.
What does it mean to be Pro-life?
1. We recognize the unreasonableness of abortion.
For many years I worked with special need students and saw the damage which alcohol inflicts on an unborn child. For this reason some states require bars to post signs warning of the danger that a pregnant mother’s consumption of alcohol poses to her unborn baby. But in those same states it is legal to kill the unborn child.
That is so completely irrational.
Being Pro-life means we see through the untruth, we live with discernment, we recognize the unreasonableness and misinformation with which the abortion industry has shrouded itself. In the face of irrational untruth, we speak truth.
2. We maintain balance.
In all the emotion of our struggle we must remember that abortion is only a symptom of a far more destructive issue. The pornographic degradation of women, men and children is only a symptom. Racism, violence — these are only symptoms.
The true issue is rooted deep in the broken hearts of captive people who cannot comprehend the sacred worth of their own life or any other human life. Deeply bruised by the spirit of death that has invaded this world, therefore they bruise others.
Our God never desires to heal a wound slightly. He desires the total redemption and wholeness of every person who will receive His restoring grace. Our task as Christians is far more than the mere protest and redress of any particular issue. We must offer to death-captivated people a living Lord. Only Jesus can restore the unseeing eye. Only Jesus can awaken the unfeeling soul and heal the broken heart. Only the Lord of resurrection can break the chains of death.
We must offer this world Jesus: Jesus the healer of broken lives; Jesus the Shepherd of lost sheep; Jesus the lover of the unloved; Jesus the crucified Savior who took our sins and failures upon Himself, died to redeem us from the captivating death cycles of this world and rose from the dead.
While avoiding the sin of passivity and indifference to relevant issues, we must also resist the seduction of issues. We must be imitators of our Lord who said, "Whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner" (John 5:19). Since our Father is at work delivering men and women from bondage to sin and death, then so must we, His people.
There will be many symptoms to which we as disciples of the Great Physician must address ourselves. But our ultimate concern is always far greater than the mere evidence or symptom of an issue. We seek redemption, restoration in the lives of hurting people.
Abortion is the revelation of a deeper wound. The wound is rooted in the captive heart of death-bound humanity. In Jesus, and in Him alone, can this heart be healed.
What can we do? We can maintain balance as we offer to wounded, dying people a living, healing, forgiving, gracious Savior who values each human life young and old, pre-born and post-born.
3. We recover the revelation that our conflict is spiritual in nature and can ultimately be resolved through the exercise of spiritual means.
The Apostle Paul said, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).
Our enemy is not that person receiving, performing or counseling abortions. They are people for whom Jesus died and rose from death, just as He did for us. They are people in need of the saving grace of God even as we have been, and remain, in need of grace. Our enemy is not people. Our enemy is death in the eyes and in the heart, the demonic deception that binds and blinds the human soul to the sacredness of every human life.
This is essentially a spiritual problem, requiring a spiritual solution through the exercise of spiritual means. Our brother Paul reminds us that, "The weapons of our warfare are not worldly but are divinely empowered for the pulling down of strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4).
The Apostle Paul says that if we want to fight a spiritual war, if we want to pull down spiritual strongholds wherein multitudes are held captive, then we must learn to use spiritual tools. He says these tools are divinely empowered for the express purpose of pulling down those spiritual fortresses of evil which hold humanity in bondage. But the church must recover the skillful use of such instruments.
One reason Christians have so often been ineffective in combating evil and leading people into the kingdom of God is because we have often tried to do spiritual tasks with worldly tools. That doesn't work. Since the basis of our conflict is spiritual, our basic instruments must also be spiritual. What tools have we been given?
We are called to pray.
Righteous prayer, spoken in faith by a holy believer, based on the Word of God and motivated by love, is the most powerful force in this world. The Word of God says, "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much" (James 5:16).
For whom should we pray? We need to pray for ourselves, that we, as individual members of the household of faith, will respond in a balanced way to the deeper issues beneath the symptoms; that we will always be motivated by compassion; that we will have the courage to stand in defense of innocent blood.
We must pray for discernment that penetrates down to the root issues: greed, selfishness, the devaluing of human life, the spirit of lying and death that is loosed on the land.
We need to pray for the church, that we will throw off the yoke of selfish preoccupation with our own appetites and programs, doctrines and traditions while ignoring the silent cry of the unborn. We need to pray that compromised churches will be stirred to throw off the chains of culture-bondage, this submissive following wherever society leads.
We need to pray that the church will learn to love truth more than prestige, bruised and hurting people more than budgets and building drives. We need to pray for Holy Spirit gifts of repentance and anointing in wisdom, discernment, revelation, compassion and power.
We need to pray for our church leaders, that they will have the spiritual insight and boldness to declare truth even at personal cost; and that their motivation will always be to exalt Jesus.
Sadly, a significant number of Christian denominations have issued policy statements in regard to abortion which, though regretting the loss of life, affirm the right of individuals to destroy the life of their unborn if they so desire. While such statements often sound moral and religious, they are in fact the result of moral cowardice and are the contemporary equivalent of the empty spirituality which worshipped Jesus while condoning the enslavement of men and women created in God’s image.
Those who make such statements are the spiritual children of those who sang about a just and holy God while tolerating the Nazi brutalities. Compromised hearts and minds will not be impacted by truth unless we pray for them.
We also need to pray for our civic leaders — senators, representatives, governors, judges, our President and Vice President. Pray that they will seek the wisdom of the Lord and have the courage and integrity to speak that wisdom. Especially when a leader takes a Biblical stand we need to be faithful in our intercession for him or her and we need to pray that more such men and women will be called into civic affairs.
Even when leaders oppose Biblical morality, even when they champion immorality, we need to pray for them. There may not be anyone else in all the world praying for them. How can we, then, expect them to act in a manner consistent with God's truth? Where would we be if no one had ever prayed for us?
We need to pray for ourselves, our church and our leaders, both friend and adversary.
As we pray supportively we must pray offensively, focusing our prayer on the spiritual stronghold of abortion, binding and pulling down the demonic principalities which rule that stronghold: greed, selfishness and the spirit of murder and death. We must recover the right employment of fasting with our prayer, remembering our Lord's admonition that some spiritual battles are won only “by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29).
We must learn to speak the Word of God as we pray, not theories or vain repetitions but confessing and releasing God's liberating Word of truth. Scripture teaches, and the lives of great men and women of God confirm, that faithful, Spirit-directed prayer releases the power of God over circumstances and accomplishes much good.
There is an authority in prayer greater than all the weapons of the world and we must learn to use this authority skillfully. We are in a spiritual conflict in which only spiritual tools will prevail.
However, prayer must be accompanied by proclamation. Truth liberates but truth must be spoken. What can we do?
4. We speak the truth to our generation.
We need not speak as debaters — God has not called us to debate the so-called wisdom of this world. God has called us to proclaim His truth. Our proclamation must be established in Scripture and fortified with responsible research and investigation. Sanctified half truths are no substitute for filthy half truths.
Then, when we have gathered our facts, we speak the truth consistently, respectfully and compassionately, not with malice. Above all, we must be willing to live the truth we speak.
What can we do? We can speak truth to a generation bound up in lies and half truths.
As we have said, there are pregnancies produced by the trauma of rape or incest. In each of these crises the mother should be embraced by a loving community of faith.
But let us also be truthful. The vast majority of more than one million abortions performed in America this year will be performed not because of the tragedy of rape or incest but because it is more convenient to dispose of a child who would otherwise inhibit the pleasure and lifestyle of the parent. The contention that abortion is the compassionate response to oppressed women is nothing more than the self-justifying deception of a self-centered society.
In fact, the proliferation of abortion is the result of a godless lifestyle philosophy that has seized this nation, a philosophy which says that an individual's pleasure and convenience is more important than anything else in the world, including another human life. This perverse philosophy has created a climate of moral confusion in our nation, a confusion which is evident in muddled judicial decisions and legislation which is neither consistent nor rational.
A pregnant woman was shot and though she survived, her unborn baby was killed. Her assailant was charged with murder, yet in that same state the infant could have been put to death by the mother and an abortionist. This is so grievously unreasonable.
Another example of our national moral confusion is the fact that minors who cannot legally buy cigarettes may, in some states, obtain an abortion on demand without parental knowledge or consent. In fact, in some states, a teenage girl who could not be treated for a sinus infection in any hospital without her parents' consent, may have an abortion and her parents would never know unless she chose to tell them. If complications set in and she died, they would be notified.
There is no semblance of justice or wisdom in any of this. But when a nation forsakes the justice and wisdom of God, it will experience confusion.
What can we do? We speak the truth.
5. We speak the truth with love and respect for those with whom we disagree.
Given the compelling truth that the unborn child is a living human being, why have so many participated in the murder of that child who do not profit from the industry? Why have so many submitted to abortion procedures who are uncertain and even grieved by their decision? Why have so many compromised their integrity by hiding behind pro-choice camouflage?
One reason may be because we who believe in the sanctity of human life have not always spoken the truth in love, have not always loved the wrong person more than our right arguments. Would we listen to someone confronting us in an unloving way? It is often difficult to be compassionate in the turmoil of such an evocative struggle, yet if we lose the love of Jesus, we have lost everything worth sharing.
We must be more than Pro-birth. We must also be Pro-Life, loving the pregnant mother, helping her to make life-affirming decisions for herself and her child. If she decides to give birth to her baby, a Pro-Life response is to walk alongside her with love, prayer, encouragement, wise counsel and financial assistance.
As she makes the choice to raise her child or give him up for adoption, the Pro-Life community stands beside her and affirms her courage. The decision to give birth will require sacrifice but that is the only choice that does not require the sacrifice of the child.
A mother’s most life-affirming choice is to carry her baby full term and if she is unable to care for it, then give it up for adoption. She will find the courage to do this if she is embraced by a truth-speaking community of faith that lives the truth with love.
6. We meet guilt with grace.
How do we deal with women (and men) experiencing the crushing guilt of abortion? We embrace them with the same forgiving, restoring grace with which Jesus embraced us. Abortion is a grievous sin but we have all grieved God by our sins of thought, word and deed. In Jesus, we have encountered the unconditional love of God.
The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to a church and after listing a variety of sins which exclude us from God’s kingdom of grace, he then said, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:11).
When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ in true repentance and faith, believing that He truly carried our sins, died out death and rose triumphant from the dead, He forgives and restores.
A woman caught in the act of adultery was thrown down at the feet of Jesus. He knelt to her there in the dust, then stood to face her accusers and dismissed them with these cutting words, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).
Jesus stooped again to the woman in the dust while the men drifted away, one by one. The Lord then asked, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” (8:10).
She replied, “No one, Lord” (8:11).
Jesus then released her into a new life now and forever, “I do not condemn you either. Go, from now on sin no more” (8:11).
I too met Jesus in the dust of death. No truer words than these have been spoken concerning my life and yours, “For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Those words were written by Paul the Apostle and he knew well both the wages of sin and the gift of grace. He had shed innocent blood as a violent persecutor of Christians but having encountered the forgiving grace of God in Christ Jesus, he was able to testify, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? … For I am convinced that neither death, nor life …nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).
We speak the truth, we pray, we embrace the broken with the restoring love of Jesus.
This is not to say that Christians should abandon civic involvement. To the contrary, we need more than ever to be active in public affairs. When God calls men and women to the vocation of public service, and He does, they should give themselves wholeheartedly as to any ministry. And though most of us will never run for public office, we should never hesitate to communicate our values and opinions to those who represent us. We need to vote with intelligence and discernment, while resisting the temptation to see one political party or the other as the "savior" of the nation.
We must also maintain with absolute clarity the foundational truth that there is one Savior and He does not live in the White House or the court house. He sits upon the throne of the universe as Lord of lords and King of kings. He hears us when we pray and our highest expression of civil responsibility is to pray for those to whom the Lord has granted governmental and judicial authority.
When we are genuinely Spirit-led and Spirit-filled, when the humble, loving presence of Jesus is truly manifest in our lives, then occasions of public and private prayer for elected officials, doctors, judges — can become transformational. With hands of compassion, strong in the unmeasured grace which our Lord has extended to us, we pull down walls and gates, remembering that we are servants to those held captive.
We must continue to be active and generous in building exits of compassion from the highways of confusion. If a woman in a difficult situation desires to carry her baby to full term, the churches and synagogues in her community should have in place a means of serving her. It is not enough to oppose evil. We must sacrificially support that which is good, remembering that in loving sacrifice we give visible substance to the truth we profess.
We must not fail to discern the crucial nature of our times. With the death of each unborn child there is a hardening of the nation's heart, a callousing of soul, a swelling of scar tissue connecting the killing of the unborn to the killing of the unwanted infant (infanticide), to the killing of the elderly (euthanasia), to the killing of the handicapped, the unproductive, the political dissident, the racially excluded, until finally heart and soul are buried, a nation decomposes in the chaos of its lust, and a dragon emerges.
In this century we have seen, with choking and bloody clarity, this dragon rise up out of an educated nation, a supposedly moral nation, a nation which only assumed some lives to be less than worthy of life. In Germany in the 1930s that monster was birthed, the monster grew and consumed many, many lives.
If the Word of God is any authority at all, if history teaches any truth, then we must know that the judgement of God is poised over this nation. Among the most sobering words in the Bible are these, regarding people who reject God’s truth, “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts … For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions … God gave them over to a depraved mind” (Romans 1:24,26,28).
How terrible a fate for any person or nation, to be given over to lethal choices. But what would be more just than that the Lord of history would release a nation to its dragons? Those who applauded their rising and those who tolerated their rising, all alike, will be swept into the ravenous jaws of holocaust.
What of those who oppose the rising of the dragon? They will suffer for their witness and their righteous sacrifice will be their crown of glory.
Yet in the urgent and crucial summons of the moment, as we brace ourselves to stand before the emerging dragons, our ministry must remain an expression of the living presence of Jesus Christ, or it is nothing at all. We are not called to debate the debaters or wound the wounded. We are called into the ministry of healing with Him who was bruised for our iniquity and by whose wounds we are healed. We are called into the ministry of resurrection with Him who triumphed over death.
This crucified and risen Lord is speaking to this generation. He says that though He hates our sin and will judge all sin from which we refuse to turn, yet He loves the sinner with a passionate love that passes all understanding.
There is no sin which He did not take upon Himself on His cross, long ago. Bore it, atoned for it. He is able to forgive, heal and restore all who turn to Him in true repentance and childlike trust.
He is also speaking to His church:
He says that innocent blood is crying to Him
from the earth and this is an abomination to Him.
Who will stand and speak?
Our finance campaigns will not help,
nor building drives
nor pedigrees nor reputations
nor religious empires nor media monopolies.
Who will carry the oil of healing,
who will speak the truth in love,
who will minister the life of Jesus?
Who will set the prisoner free?
Who has learned this art?
Who will heal a broken heart?
The living God is calling for His people to stand and live in defense of innocent blood. How will we answer, church? Yes, in word or in silence, in action or in resigned tolerance, we do answer. Our answer will determine God's dealing with this church and with this nation.
**
Endnotes
1. In Dred Scott vs. Sandford, 1857.
2. Abraham Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address”, in Great Issues in American History, Richard Hofstadter, ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1958), pp. 416-417.
3. In Roe vs. Wade, 1973.
4. National Right to Life Fact Sheet, 2016
5. Gitta Sereny, Into That Darkness: from mercy killing to mass murder (New York: McGraw Hill, 1974), p. 201.
6. Ronald Reagan, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984), p. 38.
7. Ibid., p. 19
8. Ibid., p. 16.
9. National Right to Life fact sheet, Dec. 2016.
10. National Right to Life fact sheet, Dec. 2016.
11. Dr. Thomas Moore, maternal fetal medicine specialist, quoted in Babycenter, Dec 15, 2016 (Ob-Gyn Thomas Moore is Dean for Clinical Affairs and former Chairman of the Department of Reproductive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine).
12. Robert Dockery, "Twelve Facts You Should Know About Abortion", The Forerunner, October, 1983, p. 11.
13. National Right to Life Fact Sheet, Dec. 2016
14. Gary Bergel, C. Everett Koop, M.D., "When You Were Formed In Secret", published by National Right to Life, pp. I-7, I-8.
15. Ibid., p. I-12.
16. Randy Alcorn, Why Pro-Life? Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers (Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), p. 50
17. Dr. Paul Ranalli, neurologist, University of Toronto quoted in National Right to Life Fact Sheet, Dec 13, 2016
18. Dockery, p. 11.
19. Gary Bergel, C. Everett Koop, M.D., "Abortion in America", publ. by National Right to Life, p. II-6.
20. Alcorn, p. 90.
21. Alcorn, p. 90.
22. Alcorn, p. 93.
23. Elizabeth Johnson, M.D., January 20, 2015 in the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
24. Ibid.
25. Dockery, p. 11.
26. Gary Bergel, "What's At The Root of Planned Parenthood?", The Forerunner, October, 1983, p. 10.
27. Ibid.
28. National Right to Life website, Dec. 2016: Abortion’s Impact on Minorities.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. National Right to Life Fact Sheet, Dec. 2016.
34. Dr. Paul Ranalli, neurologist, University of Toronto, quoted in National Right to Life Fact Sheet, Dec. 2016.
35. Robert J. White, MD., Ph.D. professor of neurosurgery, Case Western Reserve University, quoted in National Right to Life Fact Sheet, Dec. 2016.
36. John M. Thorp, Jr., Public Health Impact of Legal Termination of Pregnancy in the US:
40 Years Later, SCIENTIFICA 2013. (quoted in Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion p. 3).
37. Priscilla K. Coleman, Abortion and Mental Health: A Quantitative Synthesis and Analysis of Research Published 1995-2009, 199 The British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 180. (quoted in Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion p. 3)
38. J.R. Cougle et al., Depression associated with abortion and childbirth: A long-term analysis of the NLSY cohort, MED. SCI. MONITOR 9(4):CR157 (2003). (quoted in Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion p. 3).
39. Ibid. p 183 (quoted in Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion p. 3)
40. D.M. Fergusson et al., Abortion in young women and subsequent mental health, J. CHILD PSYCHOLOGY & PSYCHIATRY 47:16 (2006). (quoted in Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion p. 3)
41. Ibid ((quoted in Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion p. 3)
42. Ibid (quoted in Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion p. 3)
43. D.C. Reardon & P.C. Coleman, Relative Treatment Rates for Sleep Disorders and Sleep Disturbances Following Abortion and Childbirth: A Prospective Record-Based Study, J. Sleep 29:105-06 (2006). (quoted in Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion p. 3)
44. Americans United for Life: Summary of Known Health Risks of Abortion, p. 3.
45. David C. Reardon, “Major Psychological Sequelae of Abortion,” 1997, Elliot Institute. quoted from, Why Pro Life? Randy Alcorn, p. 71, 72.
46. Alcorn p. 69.
47. Ibid.
48. John A. Richardson and Geoffrey Dixon, “Effect of Legal termination on Subsequent Pregnancy,” British Medical Journal (1976): 1303-4, quoted from, Why Pro Life? Randy Alcorn, p. 69.
49. Allen Osser, MD and Kenneth Persson, MD, “Postabortal Pelvic Infection Associated with Chlamydia Tracomatic and the Influence of Humoral Immunity,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (November 2984): 669-703. quoted from, Why Pro Life? Randy Alcorn, p. 70.
50. Lars Heisterberg, MD, “Sequelae of Induced First Trimester Abortion,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (July 2986): 79 quoted from, Why Pro Life? Randy Alcorn, p. 70.
51 Alcorn, p. 71.
52. Brinton LA, Hoover R, Fraumeni IF (1983), British Journal of Cancer, 47:757-62, quoted from, Why Pro Life? Randy Alcorn, p. 71.
53. “Abortion: Facts at a Glance,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America, n.d.,1 cited in Why Pro Life? Randy Alcorn, p. p 78.
54. Alcorn p 76.
55 Jay Hobbs, Commentary, October 20, 2016.
56. Straits Times report, Beijing, Feb. 7, 2000, quoted from, Why Pro Life? Randy Alcorn, p. 60.
57. Anna Higgins, J.D., April 13, 2016 quoted in Charlotte Lozier institute.
58. Alcorn p 60.