The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.
~~~
Birth control appeals to the advanced radical because it is calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian churches. I look forward to seeing humanity free someday of the tyranny of Christianity no less than Capitalism.
~~~
The masses of Negroes…particularly in the South, still breed carelessly and disasterously, with the result that the increase among Negroes, even more than among whites, is from that portion of the population least intelligent and fit.
~~~
—Margaret Sanger, founder of the American Birth Control League, the organization that became Planned Parenthood. While “Planned Parenthood members have admitted the organization had ‘racist roots,’” there is little doubt that Sanger would be extremely pleased with the organization’s work and influence today.—
Though I was conceived in rape, I was adopted in love. My birthmom’s courageous decision will cause reverberations for generations. So grateful that I’m able to love and be loved! From adoptee to adoptive dad, lovin’ being alive!
—Ryan Bomberger—
Key point: Proponents of abortion are trying to portray advocates for the unborn as extremists, but they themselves are rabidly and unreasonably extreme. Human life is sacred and should be protected is not an extreme position; the idea that abortion should be legal during all nine months of pregnancy for any reason or no reason is. We must cut through the emotionalism that abortion advocates are using to assault the youngest and most vulnerable members of the human family and manipulate the public into supporting its cause, and we must demonstrate just how reasonable and rational abortion opponents are. Any society that fails to respect life as an inherent right belonging all its members cannot remain compassionate, caring, free, and stable. It eventually will be ruled by tyrants.
You can access all of the articles in this series on this page.
America is in trouble. This was one of the themes of a 4-part series of articles I released in early 2019 titled “Nine Reasons God Will Judge New York and America for New York’s New Abortion Law—Unless We Repent.”
At the time, the New York legislature and then-governor Andrew Cuomo passed, signed into law, and celebrated the passage of what they called the “Reproductive Health Act.” In a one-minute commentary that is part of a series called “The Point,” BreakPoint’s John Stonestreet said this about the legislation :
To the sound of supporters chanting “free abortion on demand, we can do it, yes we can,” the New York legislature just passed the terribly named “Reproductive Health Act.” It’s the most radically pro-abortion state-level initiative in recent memory.
The new law has nothing to do with health, and everything to do with death. It removes abortion from the criminal code and makes it legal all the way up to birth, allowing all doctors and midwives to kill unborn babies, no questions asked.
Jubilation followed. And then, Governor Andrew Cuomo lit up One World Trade Center in pink to celebrate.
You’d think that something that its supporters contended for years should be “safe, legal, and rare” would not be celebrated — but it was, and increasingly, it is. It is being celebrated enthusiastically; supporters are even giddy over the passage of laws promoting abortion. The truth is that if abortion supporters ever believed abortion ought to be rare, they don’t now. Today, “abortion not only must be legal, but…it must be celebrated, commonplace, and taxpayer-funded as well. No longer is it permitted [in leftist and Democrat circles] for politicians to just call for abortion’s legality; they must be proudly, vociferously, shouting about it from the rooftops at all times.”
The Reproductive Health Act in New York was enacted into law in anticipation of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Set aside for a moment just how extreme this law is. The near-panic mentality that motivated lawmakers and the governor to rush to enshrine a “right” to abortion in New York law was unnecessary. Why couldn’t the process have waited for the Supreme Court to actually overturn Roe — an action that would turn over decisions about the legality of abortion to the states? That decision would not come until more than three years later, with the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which was issued on June 24, 2022.
Significantly, in his commentary, John Stonestreet continued, “Seventy-five percent of Americans want restrictions on late-term abortions….Take note. The pro-choice movement just revealed its true face. It’s not about choice. It’s about glorifying, even idolizing, death as the path to a good life, with cult-like glee. Lord have mercy.”
The pro-choice movement just revealed its true face. It’s not about choice. It’s about glorifying, even idolizing, death as the path to a good life, with cult-like glee. Lord have mercy.
—John Stonestreet—
This is undeniably a perspective that aligns with Margaret Sanger’s worldview, even though the racist rhetoric she used no longer is acceptable. Of course, the racist rhetoric shouldn’t be acceptable; and neither should any racist attitudes actively seeking to eliminate unborn babies of color! Yet Planned Parenthood heavily targets minority communities, making “abortion services” readily available in those areas. In fact, “Planned Parenthood has located a stunning 86 percent of its abortion facilities in or near minority neighborhoods in the 25 U.S. counties with the most abortions” (also go here, here, here, and here).
Racism aside (as bad as it is), abortion itself is wrong because it is murder. It is the deliberate taking of innocent human life. Notice Planned Parenthood’s promotion of abortion — front and center, on its homepage:
For more information about Planned Parenthood, watch this excellent PragerU video.
What Do Americans Think?
Since the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs, one might be tempted to believe that Americans now are opposed to any restrictions on abortion. After all, since Dobbs, the pro-choice position has won in every state where abortion-related referendums have been held. In an article for the Christian Post, Ryan Foley reports,
In 2022, voters in California, Michigan and Vermont approved referendums establishing a right to abortion in their respective state constitutions while voters in Montana rejected a measure that would have required doctors to provide care for babies who survive botched abortions.
Efforts to pass constitutional amendments clarifying that there is no right to abortion in the constitutions of Kansas and Kentucky also failed in 2022.
In 2023, Ohio voters approved a measure establishing a right to abortion in the state constitution.
In addition, polling specifically related to Americans’ reaction to the Dobbs decision appears to indicate a shift among Americans in the direction of a pro-abortion position. Even so, these results don’t reveal the full story. A recent survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports found that two-thirds “of American voters believe abortion should not be legal past three months.” At this specific point in the pregnancy — the end of the first trimester — the physical sex characteristics of the baby are present, and the little girl’s or boy’s vital organs and facial characteristics are developing. Toenails and fingernails also are growing, and, further, the baby is exploring his environment by doing things like opening and closing his or her mouth and hands.
The Rasmussen Reports poll shows less support for abortion on demand than some other recent surveys, although many pollsters will lump together “legal in most cases” and “legal in all cases.”
Also, another recent poll (a The Economist/YouGov poll) found that 72% favored
-
- having some restrictions on abortion,
- making abortion illegal in certain cases, or
- making it illegal altogether.
Only 28% believe abortions should be available without any restrictions at all.
What Do Americans Really Believe?
Why do we see this kind of discrepancy when we contrast ballot initiatives and certain polls to other polls that include information about abortion perspectives? I believe there are several reasons.
1. A Rejection of Absolute Truth
First, people are not grounded in an understanding of moral and ethical truth as absolute and unchanging, and this leaves them to respond only emotionally. Leftists have, up to this point, been largely successful in framing the Dobbs decision as an attack on women and women’s “rights,” and many people are responding based on this perspective. It wasn’t. Even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who clearly favored abortion, disagreed “with the logic of the 1973 court’s majority opinion [in Roe vs. Wade] and the constitutional basis under which seven justices arrived at their conclusion.” Ryan T. Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), and Alexandra DeSanctis write,
The Roe Court removed nearly every question about abortion policy from the hands of the American people and turned them over to unelected judges, even though the Constitution contains nothing that could remotely support a right to abortion. Roe and the Court’s subsequent abortion jurisprudence created a legal minefield in which the supposed right to abortion was treated as sacrosanct for nearly five decades, protected at every turn by rulings that had more in common with legislation than judicial opinions.…
The decision in Roe and subsequent decisions upholding it were textbook examples of judicial activism, and were egregiously wrong. Roe and Casey created a “constitutional right” to abortion out of thin air. The majorities in those cases did not actually find textual, historical, or traditional evidence for any such right. Rather than seek a constitutional answer to the question of abortion, living constitutionalist Justices in Roe began from their desired conclusion—legal abortion in some form—and reasoned backward to pretend that the Constitution licensed their decision.
Item 1, however, isn’t primarily about how Roe vs. Wade was decided, but about whether or not a higher law exists to which both government and citizens are accountable. While promoting the idea that everybody has a right to his or her own truth makes people today feel magnanimous, people don’t really live that way. Consider these seven rules for relativists.
2. A Lack of Understanding of the Nature of Rights
Second, we see the discrepancy because Americans today have a distorted and erroneous perspective about what rights actually are. When America’s Founding Fathers wrote of “unalienable Rights” in the Declaration of Independence, they were referring to the rights that belong to all people because God created them as human beings. This is the basis of the equality they also wrote about; people are equal from the beginning — they are “created equal” by God, not made equal by government actions or policies. What are some “unalienable rights”? Exodus 20:1-17 in the Bible is is a good place to start. The Ten Commandments not only are, together, a list of enumerated responsibilities, but also a list of inherent, God-given rights.
In other words, rights aren’t to be manipulated or created by the government. If the government must “create” a “right” for it to be a reality for anyone, it isn’t inherent or God-given. I realize we as Americans are far away from this understanding of rights — and this is precisely the point. Modern Americans have swallowed the lie that government is the source of and the dispenser of rights.
Two counterfeit rights created by the federal government in recent memory are “abortion” or “reproductive rights” and same-sex “marriage.” Both of these are violations of biblical principles present in the Ten Commandments upholding life and God-ordained, man-woman marriage. Abortion takes an innocent life (and thus is murder) and same-sex marriage is a blatant affront to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Especially seen in light of the Ten Commandments, abortion and same-sex marriage are not rights, but sinful; they are violations of God’s commands and His good purpose for humanity. People and nations defy divine commands to their own peril. As the inspired prophet Isaiah declared in Isaiah 5:20-21 declared,
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.
Mother Teresa once said, “Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign. … You must weep that your own government, at present, seems blind to this truth.”
She also said this:
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.…
If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the whole world…. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for.
3. Emphasizing Sex for Pleasure Alone and Deemphasizing the Importance of Children
Third, we see the discrepancy because the myth that sex is primarily about pleasure and adult relationships and not about children has been widely ingrained into American culture and into the American psyche. This is one of the myths that led to the recognition of same-sex marriage in the United States, and it is a major myth that continually fuels the promotion of abortion as “health care,” “women’s rights,” and birth control in America. Yet, try as we might, we cannot divorce the sex act from conception. Why? Because the end result of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman — and ideally between a husband and a wife — often is a child. This truth actually is self-evident: The realities surrounding sexual intercourse affirm marriage and family in the most unambiguous of terms. This isn’t true only for individual families, but also true for society-at-large. Christian psychologist W. Peter Blitchington made this profound statement about the family in 1980:
The foundation upon which society is constructed—the central unit linking people to a social structure—is the family. And the most important component of the family is the husband-wife relationship. Any changes in that relationship will produce far-reaching effects upon the community as a whole. As long as the husband-wife tie is intact, an emotional cornerstone will be created upon which the happiness and satisfaction of everyone can be constructed. But when the tie is weakened, every other bond in society also will weaken.1
4. Society’s Increasing Acceptance of Same-Sex Marriage Obliterates in People’s Minds the Importance of the Reproductive Capabilities of Opposite-Sex Couples
A fourth reason for the discrepancy is that recognition and acceptance of same-sex marriage has reinforced the myth (both in society and in people’s minds) that the reality that procreation occurs naturally only through heterosexual intercourse has nothing to do with marriage and the family. (See myth #6 in this article). If two men or two women can “marry” then what does that say about marriages between opposite sex couples — and even about relationships between opposite-sex couples? It robs them of a recognition of their unique ability to produce children. This has ominous legal implications for the nation because of how it is affecting (and will affect) marriage and family statutes; but as you can see, it also has implications that work to reinforce the pro-abortion narrative: Children get in the way; they really don’t matter. How different this perspective is from the one we read in Scripture!
5. Nature and Reality Testify to the Truth, Contradicting the Leftist Narrative
Despite all of the lies Americans have embraced, when we take into account the information highlighted in the survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports and in The Economist/YouGov poll, we see snapshots of more measured and reasonable responses to abortion on the part of Americans. This is our fifth observation. Even though people are “sympathetic” regarding the plights of women facing unwanted pregnancies, and understandably so; they have an innate sense that abortion is wrong. “The requirements of the law [of God] are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness,” Paul wrote of the Gentiles in Romans 2:14-15.
Long Term Challenges and Immediate Needs
As we’ve indicated, there is a prevailing narrative that upholds Roe vs. Wade as something sacred, and that says that its demise is an assault on women. This is wrong, and here we have sought to explain some of the reasons why at times it appears people are jumping on the pro-choice bandwagon en masse. As advocates for the pre-born, we need to work, long-term, to lovingly and compellingly, yet persuasively, convince our family members, friends, neighbors, and fellow members of the general populace that
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- absolute truth and an unchanging standard of right and wrong exist,
- rights that government must create for its citizens to have them are counterfeit (not inherent or unalienable) rights,
- the primary purpose for sex is reproduction, not physical pleasure (as awesome as sexual pleasure is), and
- the realities of sex affirm man-woman marriage and the natural family in the clearest and most unambiguous of ways.
The fifth reality we cited — that many of these realities are self-evident, will help us make our case effectively. Be encouraged. The truth is on our side.
In the meantime, we have an immediate and urgent challenge. We must convince the electorates of more than a dozen states where abortion referendums will take place in November to think with their heads, not merely react with their feelings. We need to convince them that the abortion advocates that are the extremists — not those we who are fighting for the right of those living, but not yet born, to live.
Next time, we’ll explore several realities that will help us make our case — and make it effectively.
Stay tuned! I’ll release part 2 on Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Copyright © 2024 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages in this article have been taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
top image credit: Photo by Derek French at Pixels
Note:
1W. Peter Blitchington, Sex Roles & The Christian Family, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1980), 49.
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