We Must Expose the Extremism of Abortion Activists: They Are the Radicals, Part 4

Cultures can be judged in many ways, but eventually every nation in every age must be judged by this test: how did it treat people? Each generation, each wave of humanity, evaluates its predecessors on this basis. The final measure of mankind’s humanity is how humanely people treat one another.…Until recently in our own century, with some notable and sorry exceptions, human beings have generally been regarded as special, unique, and nonexpendable. But in one short generation we have moved from a generally high view of life to a very low one. Why has our society changed? The answer is clear: the consensus of our society no longer rests on a Judeo-Christian base, but rather on a humanistic one. Humanism makes man “the measure of all things.” It puts man rather than God at the center of all things.
—Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop, in Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, published in 1979¹—

You can access all of the articles in this series on this page.

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Key points: Abortion is the intentional taking of an innocent human life, and therefore murder. This truth is undeniable. Life begins at conception.^2,3 While a few advocates of abortion admit this, even “pro-choicers” who deny it still are promoters of murdering the innocent. Any society that is OK with this is broken and has an extremely bleak future. There is only one way such a society can avoid such a future. It must turn away from its evil ways, seek God’s forgiveness, and uphold absolute ethical standards once again. For this to happen, those of us who know and understand the truth must declare it forthrightly, and fully expose the extremism of the pro-abortion movement. To a great extent, this extremism speaks for itself. The truth is on the side of defending life.

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On the Friday, April 12 edition of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Bill Maher was blatantly, yet refreshingly honest about his position on abortion. Journalist Jon Brown reported in an article in the Christian Post:

Speaking during a panel discussion with British journalists Piers Morgan and Gillian Tett, Maher conceded the consistency of the “absolutist” [or abolitionist] argument that abortion is always wrong, and that attempts to draw the line at various stages of gestation make little sense.

Gillian Tett said, “The idea that you’re fighting [an] election around this issue [abortion], um, seems to be, you know, just strange. That’s the nineteenth century.”

Tett’s statement was met with applause — but then Maher was bold enough and honest enough to say the all-too-often unspoken part out loud. Even before the applause died down, Maher began, “Well…not…not if you believe it’s murder.”

Maher continued,

You know, that’s why I don’t understand the fifteen-week thing, or the Trump’s plan is, let’s leave it to the states. You mean, so, killing babies is OK in some states? I can respect the absolutist position. I really can. I scold the left when they say, “Oh, you know what? They just hate women, people who aren’t…pro-choice.” They just — they don’t hate women. They just made that up. They think it’s murder, and it kind of is. I’m just OK with that. I am. I mean, there’s eight billion people in the world. I’m sorry, we won’t miss you. That’s my position on that.

In his article, Jon Brown describes what happened next.

“What?” Maher said after his statement was met with awkward silence from Morgan, Tett, and the audience.

“That’s quite harsh, Bill,” Morgan said, adding that perhaps Maher adheres to that position “because you don’t like children.” Maher pushed back by noting how if Morgan is pro-choice, then he technically agrees with him.

“Is that not your position if you’re pro-choice?…You said you’re pro-choice? That’s your position, too,” replied Maher. Judging by Morgan’s facial expression, the British journalist and broadcaster apparently agreed, albeit reluctantly.

 

You can hear the exchange in the above clip, which I’ve taken from this video, a video produced by a ministry called “40 Days for Life.”

Refreshingly Honest, but Harrowing

There’s a sense in which Maher’s statements are refreshingly honest, even though they’re disturbing and even horrific. Yet we need this kind of honesty. Let’s think carefully about what Bill Maher said, as well as some of the implications.

First, to his credit, Maher sees the inconsistency of those allowing for abortion early, and in certain cases people see as problematic, such as rape and incest, but then not later in the pregnancy and not if the baby apparently is developing normally. He also sees the inconsistency of “letting the states decide.” His rhetorical question — You mean, so, killing babies is OK in some states? — unmasks just how faulty relativism is; but America, generally speaking, embraces relativism. This is folly. The value of an innocent human life cannot be determined by the circumstances surrounding how it began, how healthy or infirmed it is, or by majority vote.

Human life, you see, is sacred, because God is the creator and the source of life. He creates human beings in His image. He has given us laws by which we are to live, and they are absolute — not fluid, not relative. Consider the Ten Commandments.

Because the Ten Commandments are given by God, they are absolute. People can and should argue about how to apply any of these commandments in any given situation — such as what constitutes a violation of the Sabbath, what constitutes disrespect for a parent, or when taking a human life is to be defined as murder. But because they are decrees from God, only those types of debates make sense, not debates about whether they are binding.

The Ten Commandments therefore stand in direct opposition to all relativistic approaches to morality — the notion that each individual or society determines what is right or wrong. The Ten Commandments are not relative.⁴

Although some might argue that abortion doesn’t violate the Sixth Commandment, it does. Nor is abortion justified in situations of rape, incest, or impairment evident in the development of the unborn baby. Why? Because the Sixth Commandment forbids murder, and murder is the taking of an innocent life. Without question, preborn babies are human beings whom God has created in His image; they simply are young and don’t yet reflect His image in all the ways they eventually will, given the opportunity to live. Also, they are, undeniably, innocent. They have a God-given right to live. No one addressing or even facing a difficult or unwanted pregnancy can cite an ethical principle that would justify killing the unborn baby. This is not to ignore the difficulties surrounding these situations. Doing what is right, however, often means doing what is difficult rather than what is easy or what appears to be easy.

What about an ectopic pregnancy? Is abortion justified in that situation? It’s important to understand that although the word pregnancy is used in the phrase ectopic pregnancy, an ectopic pregnancy (EP) isn’t really a pregnancy, so ending it is not an abortion in the sense that most of us understand it today. When an EP is uninterrupted and reaches its natural conclusion, the baby does not survive, and the threat to the mother’s life is very real. Medical intervention to end an EP is ethically justified.

The point here is that abortion is the taking of innocent life, and therefore murder. We know this, but just in case anyone has doubts, Bill Maher’s statements help us understand the truth (even though such doubts certainly can be assuaged without them). In a moment, we’ll consider Maher’s explicit admission that abortion is murder.

Second, Maher also, in a backhanded way, affirms abolitionists. His view of the worth of a human life is different from the view of the abolitionist, but he respects and understands the abolitionist’s perspective nonetheless. In recognizing the consistency of the stance of those who are working to outlaw abortion in all cases, Maher condemns the idea that certain circumstances, some of which have nothing to do with the health of the baby, make abortion acceptable, but that without those circumstances, it is unacceptable.⁵

Third, Maher understands that abolitionists don’t hate women. In a previous article at Word Foundations, we made the case that holding women accountable for their abortions actually holds them in high esteem. While it’s true that many abortive women are victims, being a victim never gives anyone a right to take the life of another person. Writing all abortive women off as victims and refusing to hold any of them accountable for their actions is essentially to treat women as less than human. It is like saying to them, “You’re not capable of refusing to murder your child.” To take this approach is to treat them like animals!

Fourth, Maher agrees that abortion is “kind of” murder. Even in his honesty, Maher attempts to soften the brutal truth. Even so, in admitting that it is “kind of” murder, he acknowledges that it actually is murder.

Our fifth point is that despite the fact abortion is murder, Maher is “just OK with that.” Mark it down! Maher isn’t “just OK” with abortion, but also murder. Are you OK with his being OK with it. We are, after all, talking about murder. Maher points to the problem of overpopulation to justify taking other people’s lives.

Sixth, being OK with murder to “solve” the problem of overpopulation opens the floodgates to tyranny of the worst sort, and even invites it.

Seventh, if overpopulation justifies murder, what else does it justify? Don’t be fooled. If murder is permissible, nothing else is forbidden.

Eighth, once a society accepts the premise that overpopulation justifies murder, then what else can “legitimately” justify murder, or any other action that violates the rights and freedoms (including the economic freedoms) of people? One issue that certainly will be cited (and is being cited already) is climate change, even though the climate change doomsayers have an extremely dismal track record (also go here) with their predictions.⁶

Rationalization becomes the order of the day. As we indicated above, in this kind of cultural atmosphere, nothing is forbidden so anything and everything is acceptable. And who makes these decisions — all of which are serious, and some of which determine whether life or death will prevail? This is why Francis Schaeffer warned that when a society rejects of the idea that right and wrong are unchanging and binding upon everyone, that society is headed straight for tyranny — a horrific scenario in which elites rule according to “arbitrary absolutes,” doing whatever they wish. Tyrants hate Christians as intensely as they do because Christians appeal to an absolute authority to whom all are accountable. Yet Christians must continue to do this, because they, too, are accountable to that authority. As believers faithfully uphold God’s laws as guardrails that make authentic freedom and liberty possible, they can be confident, even in the face of ridicule and fierce opposition. Here’s another quote by Dr. Schaeffer: “The ‘little man,’ the private citizen, can at any time stand up and, on the basis of biblical teaching, say that the majority is wrong.”⁷

As we indicated in Part 2 of this series, already we are extremely close to having arrived at the tyrannous place Francis Schaeffer warned against.

What limits do abortion advocates want to place on abortion? None. In fact,…they increasingly are advocating legal infanticide. Moreover, they consistently maneuver to make abortion available to anyone who wants it at taxpayer expense (also go here). And here’s more. Democrats and leftists are trying to force those who oppose abortion to support it in their business policies. They are taking legislation that was crafted to meet the needs of mothers having babies and misusing it to insist employers meet the demands of their female employees who want abortions. Real choice among those who claim to be pro-choice is almost nowhere to be found.

Yes, this is the kind of place to which relativism leads a society. Ironically, the elite tyrants who are in power don’t consider the views of those who wish to protect preborn babies as being just as valid as those of abortion advocates. instead, they work to impose their pro-death views on absolutely everyone. It isn’t Christians who are “cramming their views down society’s throat,” but people who are adamantly anti-Christian!

In his novel Cruel Logic, author Brian Godawa surveys the place to which culture eventually will arrive after it rejects the idea of absolute truth and absolute standards of right and wrong. I’ll say it again: That place is horrifying! As much as Bill Maher does understand, and as much as Bill Maher does get, he apparently fails to get this.

The Peril We Face Because of Declining Birth Rates

Let’s consider the matter of overpopulation for a few moments. Our ninth observation is that Maher and others who agree with him about overpopulation are just wrong. In fact, they couldn’t be more wrong!

First, many countries are facing a demographic winter due to a decrease birth rates, which have fallen below replacement levels. In February of 2023, in his monthly letter to the supporters of the James Dobson Family Institute, Dr. Dobson wrote about this trend and its ominous implications. Dr. Dobson’s letter is a must-read resource. A reproducible, easy-to-read copy is available here. Americans have been lied to about overpopulation! They are brainwashed! Dr. Dobson warns,

Here’s how demographics work. Historically, children and young adults have greatly outnumbered the elderly. Those of a marriageable age have produced a vigorous birthrate for 300 years, which continually swelled the size of the population. On the other hand, most humans had a short life span and were dying faster than babies were born. Thus, the population has been depicted as a pyramid, with the young being represented across its broad base, and fewer older individuals nestled at the pinnacle. Now we’re witnessing what is called an “inversion of the pyramid,” where there are many more older people at the bottom, and a smaller number of younger people and babies at the top of the pyramid.…This inversion is a worldwide phenomenon.…

If the human population continues to wither, it will have shocking implications economically, politically, culturally, socially, and spiritually. Indeed, it will affect every dimension of life. Medical plans will fail. Pensions will not be sustainable, creating chaos within the culture. Social unrest is occurring regularly in France as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to raise the retirement age.

When calculations were made upon which Social Security was created, the numbers appeared to “work” because the young and healthy were always expected to outnumber those who were old and sick. Now, as our nation’s seniors face discrimination in their health care, we run the risk of devaluing our elderly.

As the trend continues, human life will become cheap, euthanasia will be commonplace—as it already is in Canada—, and infanticide will be acceptable and considered moral. Don’t believe me? It’s already legal in California.

Second, the doomsayers about overpopulation have been wrong — thoroughly wrong.

Finally, we need to realize that people have found ways to increase production and improve the quality and conditions of people’s lives. To a great extent, the doomsayers have been wrong because they assume, erroneously, that people are the problem. Watch and carefully listen to this PragerU video.

Tenth, Bill Maher has a cavalier and even callous attitude about murdering babies: “I mean, there’s eight billion people in the world. I’m sorry, we won’t miss you. That’s my position on that.” Yet, maybe he will.

Maher is assuming a great deal when he says, “I’m sorry, we won’t miss you,” because he doesn’t know what kinds of advances and beneficial contributions the aborted individuals might have offered the world. This is our eleventh consideration. It’s a theme we mentioned above, and one we explored early-on at Word Foundations, in this article. The following news report from CBN News unmasks the prevalence of the overpopulation myth, as well as the dangers that have arisen from society’s believing it. This video includes the following report, as well as an enlightening conversation about the subject of the report.

As we have noted, abortion robs the earth, and more importantly, the people in it, of innovators, entrepreneurs, producers, and consumers. Abortion isn’t the only reason for this, but it is a big reason. Of course, it’s also people’s attitudes against having children that help create and exacerbate declining birth rates worldwide; but such attitudes wouldn’t be as ingrained in peoples minds and lifestyles were it not for abortion in America — a practice that was legal nationwide for nearly fifty years by judicial fiat.

Speaking of attitudes, have you heard of DINKs? It means “dual income, no kids.” Watch PragerU personality Aldo Buttazzoni‘s video presentation on this now-viral phenomenon. Here is his article to which he refers in the video.

Attitudes as well as actions are important. All of this spells disaster for the futures of nations loving or even tolerating abortion, where newborns aren’t arriving to replace the old and the dying with vibrant and productive males and females.

Embracing Eugenics Once Again — Foolishly

Shawn Carney, President and CEO of 40 Days for Life, responded in part to Bill Maher’s admission with these observations.

 

Eugenics was the driving force of Hitler’s effort to take over the world — and yes, it is one of abortion’s underpinnings today. This is our twelfth observation.

Eugenics had a significant number of followers in America in the 1930s. In her bestselling biography of Louis [Louie] Zamperini — Unbroken — Laura Hillenbrand writes about  this movement. It was quite popular in America at the time of Zamperini’s youth.

In the 1930s, America was infatuated with the pseudoscience of eugenics and its promise of strengthening the human race by culling the “unfit” from the genetic pool. Along with the “feebleminded,” insane, and criminal, those so classified include women who had sex out of wedlock (considered a mental illness), orphans, the disabled, the poor, the homeless, epileptics, masturbators, the blind and the deaf, alcoholics, and girls whose genitals exceeded certain measurements. Some eugenicists advocated euthanasia, and in mental hospitals, this was quietly carried out on scores of people through “lethal neglect” or outright murder. At one Illinois mental hospital, new patients were dosed with milk from cows infected with tuberculosis, in the belief that only the undesirable would perish. As many as four in then of these patients died. A more popular tool of eugenics was forced sterilization, employed on a raft of lost souls who, through misbehavior or misfortune, fell into the hands of state governments. By 1930, when Louie was entering his teens, California was enraptured with eugenics, and would ultimately sterilize some twenty thousand people.

When Louie was in his early teens, an event in Torrance [California, where Louie and his family lived] brought reality home. A kid from Louie’s neighborhood was deemed feebleminded, institutionalized, and barely saved from sterilization through a frantic legal effort by his parents, funded by their Torrance neighbors. Tutored by Louie’s siblings, the boy earned straight A’s. Louie was never more than an inch from juvenile hall or jail, and as a serial troublemaker, a failing student, and a suspect Italian, he was just the sort of rogue that eugenicists wanted to cull. Suddenly understanding what he was risking, he felt deeply shaken.⁸

While today eugenics has generally been deemed unethical (what other conclusion could be reached by any rational person in the face of Hitler’s atrocities?) it still is a powerful ideological force underlying and driving the abortion industry. Moreover (as we have said), relativism, the philosophy that says one person’s moral views are just as valid as all others, also fuels and drives abortion. It bears repeating: relativism is widely accepted as true in America today, despite its bitter fruit and its failure to work in the real world.

Our Nation’s Urgent Need

How extreme are abortion advocates? They advocate the freedom to murder. They wish to impose their moral and ethical views on everyone in America and even want to force everyone in the nation to pay for and, wherever possible, even participate in abortion. Be forewarned: they are very close to getting what they want.

As we noted in Part 2 of this series,

Ballot initiatives relating to abortion will be considered in 2024 in many states, perhaps more than a dozen, including Florida, Maryland, New York, Nebraska, Montana, Arkansas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, South Dakota, Maine, and Pennsylvania. [UPDATE: Ballot initiates on abortion will appear on ballots in ten states this November.] Beware! Pro-abortion forces aren’t interested in a rational, reasonable debate. They will try to use Dobbs as an opportunity to promote their pro-death policies. Be assured that “pro-death” is an appropriate description of all they’re advocating.

Against the cultural backdrop, Christians and others who respect life and want to protect it from conception to natural death must expose the extremism of the pro-abortion forces. Again, they are trying to mainstream murder.

We must faithfully uphold the truth that standards of right and wrong are absolute and unchanging. They have God as their author.

We will resist going where the extremists are trying to take us. We will point our nation in a different direction, and lead her to a better place.

For the sakes of all involved — even if we are misunderstood and ridiculed — we will lovingly and forthrightly speak the truth.

Will you join us?

Part 5 is coming soon.

You can access all of the articles in this series on this page.

 

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.