Rowing Against the Tide of Abortion

Riding the Rapids: Rowing Against the Tide of Abortion

We are continuing our series Riding the Rapids: Navigating the Whitewater of Today's Culture. This morning, as I mentioned earlier, we are going to step into the turbulent waters of the abortion issue. Abortion has been a national controversy - and a national divide - since the 1973 Roe vs. Wade case where the Supreme Court ruled that a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion. Recent undercover videos of Planned Parenthood doctors and nurses callously talking about harvesting body parts for profit has only added fresh fuel to a fire that has burned for over forty years in this country. This is an issue that has reached inside the church, with 65% of all women who have abortions self-identify themselves as Christians. Just a couple statistics:

• Since Roe vs. Wade was passed in 1973 nearly 60 million babies have been aborted in the United States.

• Over a million abortions are performed every year in the USA.

• There is good news: the abortion rate nationwide has been declining for years and is currently down by about 12% from 2010.

But the issue is more than statistics. Abortion is an emotionally volatile issue and often generates more heat than light as people on both sides of the issue react emotionally and sometimes violently to the other side. It is also an emotionally sensitive subject especially for those who have had an abortion or have urged someone to have an abortion, or has a loved one who has had an abortion. It has touched many of our lives in one way or another. As I thought about it I realized that abortion intersects with my life in a very personal way as well. My mom became pregnant with me out of wedlock when she wasn't quite 16. My dad was only 18 when they found out she was pregnant. This was in 1959 when abortion was not a common or legal option in Michigan but if it had happened after Roe vs. Wade abortion might well have seemed an attractive option. My dad was a high school dropout (although I find myself now wondering if he dropped out of HS in order to support mom and me) and worked lousy, low paying jobs. Neither of them was ready for the responsibility of being married, much less raising a child. So many of the challenges and hardships they faced at such a young age could have been avoided by terminating the pregnancy. But I, for one, am glad they didn't make that choice. Instead they got married at an incredibly young age and worked hard to provide a stable home for me to grow up in.

All that to say, this can be an incredibly sensitive topic and my prayer for this message is that it generates both light and heat. Light from God's word and recent discoveries in the world of medical science, and heat, not the kind of heat generated by angry rhetoric but the warmth of God's compassion for women who, like my mom so many years ago, find themselves facing a world of challenges and problems they don't know if they are ready to handle and abortion seems like an easy way of avoiding those challenges. And for any in this room or listening to this message online who have had an abortion, it is my prayer that the warmth of God's mercy and forgiveness so freely given in Christ will flood over your soul. There is a fountain that can wash us clean from every stain and sin and redeem every regret for good and blessing.

Ps. 139:1-18

1. When does life begin? (mass of tissue or baby?)

At the heart of the abortion debate is this one question: when does life begin? Is there a time when the fetus is just a mass of tissue and then a point of time when that mass of tissue becomes a human baby? For many years those who argued for abortion argued that for the first trimester the fetus was a mass of tissue, not a baby.

Psalm 139 is a beautiful testimony to the loving and intimate involvement of God in our lives, recognizing that He knows more about us than we know about ourselves. He knows our thoughts before we think them, He knows our words before we say them. God knows us inside out. And that intimate involvement in our lives began long before we were born, it began from our earliest moments in the womb. Verse 13 explains that God knows us so intimately because He is the One who created us in our mother's womb.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (vv. 13-16)

In the remotest place, the womb, as unseen as the depths of the earth, God formed and wove and knit us together in loving creative artistry. The miracle of pregnancy is that God, from the moment of conception, is knitting and forming an eternal soul with a unique personality into being. When does life begin? The Bible has a clear and consistent answer to that question: life begins at conception. God speaks to the prophet Jeremiah and says, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. In the NT, when Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit she immediately went to see her older cousin Elizabeth, and John the Baptist leapt in the womb at the sound of Mary's voice. In some supernatural way the baby forming in Elizabeth knew the voice of the mother of his Lord, who was being formed in her womb and he leaped for joy!

These passages reaffirm what Psalm 139 so beautifully declares. We are never accidents to God, and we are never less-than-human tissue in the womb. To God there is no such thing as an unwanted pregnancy - He knows and loved us even before we were conceived, and as He knit us together in love, He also knit a God-given destiny for our lives.

Medical science now confirms what the Bible has asserted all this time. For many years the pro-choice advocates claimed that in the early stages of pregnancy the fetus was merely a mass of tissue and removing it was not much different than removing an appendix. Early sonograms seemed to confirm this with blurry shots of what appeared to be an indistinct blob in the womb. With advances in technology such as 3D ultrasounds, it became clear even very early in the pregnancy that what was in the womb was a baby. Medical science now reveals that the heart begins to beat between the 18th and 24th day after conception. Brain waves have been recorded as early as 45 days after conception. At 8 weeks the baby possesses the unique fingerprints that it will have for life. At 11-12 weeks a baby can suck its thumb.

In light of this, many pro-abortionists are now admitting that it is a baby. In an article written for Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams, in an article entitled So what if abortion ends life? states openly that she believes that life begins at conception but that has never stopped her from being pro-choice. More and more abortion advocates are admitting that it is a baby and that trying to come up with an arbitrary point of development at which it becomes a baby twists them into illogical knots. As Mary Elizabeth Williams writes in her article:

When we try to act like a pregnancy doesn’t involve human life, we wind up drawing stupid semantic lines in the sand: first trimester abortion vs. second trimester vs. late term, dancing around the issue trying to decide if there’s a single magic moment when a fetus becomes a person. Are you human only when you’re born? Only when you’re viable outside of the womb? Are you less of a human life when you look like a tadpole than when you can suck on your thumb? ¹

Obviously Mary Elizabeth Williams, who is a loving mom herself, and others like her who admit that it's a baby from conception, have to find another basis upon which to justify abortion. For Williams the mother's rights are that justification. She writes:

A fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She's the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her.²

I appreciate William's honesty and candor. She isn't trying to deny an inconvenient truth or hide her position behind vague and confusing terms. But I also believe that she still ends up trading one arbitrary line for another. Instead of trying to draw an arbitrary line as to where life begins, she draws an arbitrary line of where a life can be ended if the mother so chooses. That line, to Williams, isn't just in the rare situation where a mother's life is at risk, but also when a mother's personal desires and preferences are in danger by the pregnancy. She goes on to write, [abortion] saves lives not just in the most medically literal way, but in the roads that women who have choice then get to go down, in the possibilities for them and for their families. Then she summarizes where she draws the line: I would put the life of a mother over the life of a fetus every single time — even if I still need to acknowledge my conviction that the fetus is indeed a life. A life worth sacrificing.³

The baby is a life worth sacrificing, but sacrificed to what? If that baby stands in the way of the life the mother wants to live, whether it be a continued education, pursuing a lucrative career, or just living life unencumbered by a child, that baby is worth sacrificing. But a child of any age can stand in the way of these desires and instead offer a young mom a very hard and challenging road to walk. My mom (and dad) had some pretty tough stuff to deal with, no doubt much tougher than if I hadn't come along. Eventually the stress of their lives caught up to their marriage and they argued all the time until they finally divorced. Yes, there are choices that are taken off the table or at least delayed or made much harder when a woman gets pregnant, but we'd never say that these things present a legitimate reason to kill an infant. So somehow the line comes down to this, the unborn baby is less important, less human, less entitled to life than a baby one minute after its born. We would all consider it a horror to sacrifice a baby after birth in order to live the life a mother prefers and yet somehow Williams draws a different line and says the infant is worth sacrificing before it's born. I don't doubt William's sincerity but I do question the rationale behind the line she has drawn.

Another line that some people draw is to say that the unborn is a part of the mother's body the way her appendix or tonsils or right arm is. No one questions if a woman has her appendix removed, and likewise the unborn is a part of the woman's body. But that line doesn't work because, unlike an appendix or limb, the unborn child's genetic code is distinctly different from his/her mothers' genetic code. Every cell of the child is uniquely hers/his. Their blood type is often different, at 8 weeks they will have completely different fingerprints, and half the time the gender is different from his mothers'. The baby is in the mother's body, but it's a distinct, separate body.

One other line that I recently read - and I've heard it's a common one - is that abortion becomes wrong when the sex of the baby is determined. One advocate of this position argued that it's at that point that the mother stops thinking of it as "a little peanut" (her words) and starts to think of it as "my boy" or "my girl". This locates the worth of the child completely in the sentiment of the mother, as if the child doesn't become a child until the mother thinks of it as her child. A variation on this argument is that it is better (even merciful) to abort a child that is unwanted than to bring it into a situation where it isn't loved or wanted. This line again evaporates once the baby is born. And the higher truth that God's word speaks is that there are no unwanted babies to God. He loves and wants them even if their parents don't. And God's love trumps a parent's love every time. Romans 8 says "if God be for us, who can be against us?" If God loves us, we are loved, no matter who on earth doesn't love us.

So people draw different lines, but truth be told I'm convinced that most people in America who think that abortion should be a legal and viable option don't really give it much thought. They may not even approve of abortion personally but think the woman should have the right to choose. Moral lines become blurry in a culture where a woman's rights are elevated and choice is elevated and we just feel that they should have that right. It's that relative morals thing happening. But with a little more thought we realize that it's a selective right and a selective choice they're advocating, because the baby's rights are being violated and the baby has no choice. I'm confident that one day history will look on these rationalizations as being as morally vacant as we now look on the justifications offered for slavery (many of which were very similar). Christian, I believe God calls us to have the courage to stand against our culture in this area and stand for the truth no matter how unpopular or un-politically correct it is!

The Bible draws a clear line and it’s the right line: For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Ps 139:13-16

2. Rowing against the currents of abortion

So how are we as believers meant to respond to abortion? I've titled this message Rowing Against the Tide of Abortion because I think this is one current we really need to pull against with all our strength. When my dad and I lived on a boat, we spent some time anchored in the middle of Montauk Lake and one day I rowed our dinghy to shore to buy some bait for fishing. When I went to row the dinghy back to our boat, the tide was going out to sea. It was exhausting to row against but I knew if I stopped rowing the current would literally carry me out to the ocean. To stop rowing would only mean being carried into real danger because that was the direction the tide was going. That's where the current of abortion is heading. I believe it is a national tragedy and a national shame and eventually it's a current that is heading in one direction: toward the judgment of God. I don't say that lightly or to be melodramatic. I say it because I believe it's that serious a blight on our national conscience.

But how do we row against the current, how do we try to change the tide of popular opinion? I want to share three things I believe we should do. There are other things God might call some of us to do and there is room for different convictions, but these three things I think are appropriate for us all.

1. Row against the tide by using our rights within a free democracy

Some might be called to work within the political system but at the very least we as Christians living in a free democracy should make our voices heard by voting. There are many political messages out there and I am not going to jump into political issues, and I don't believe Christians should necessarily be one issue voters, but I do encourage you to know where a candidate stands on abortion and I believe that is one issue that should be of highest priority to a believer.

Abortion is not primarily a political issue, it's a moral issue. Sometimes people say you can't legislate morality. Actually we do all the time. Laws against stealing, cheating, extortion, blackmail, prostitution, child pornography and murder are all issues of legislating morality. William Wilberforce fought for decades against the slave trade and he fought against very strong economic and political headwinds. He remained civil and worked within the system to change enough hearts to eventually see the laws changed. I think we need to be committed to that kind of long-view struggle and do what we can within our democratic system.

2. Row against the tide by supporting loving and compassionate alternatives to abortion

That's what I love about STPRC, it is rowing against the tide of abortion, not in a combative way, but in a supportive way, offering compassionate help and alternatives to a pregnant woman. The abortion rights group is often called pro-choice and it is often said of those who oppose abortion that we want to take away a woman's right to choose. Actually, we believe that abortion is a poor choice and we want to offer compassionate alternatives to help a woman or a couple make a better choice. That might mean offering up that child for adoption. It might mean doing what my mom and dad did: get married and struggle to raise that child. It might mean a girl becoming a single mom at a very young age, as one of my nieces has recently chosen to be. Church families can and should offer love, care and support to young, single moms or young, struggling couples as much as we are able to.

3. Row against the tide by offering the love and forgiveness of Christ to those who have had abortions

Studies show that many women who have had an abortion suffer physical, emotional, and psychological wounds from the abortion. Many also suffer with deep regret, remorse, and feelings of guilt. As much as abortion rights advocates have tried to convince them that it is a natural and good decision to make, many women suffer psychologically for years and years afterwards. Joan Appleton was an advocate of NOW and head nurse at a VA abortion facility. She wondered why so many women struggled so much with their decision to have an abortion. She says, I counseled these women so well; they were so sure of their decision. Why are they coming back now - months and years later - psychological wrecks?⁴

The thing about guilt is that it can't be talked away. Using generic terms and pretending that it is as harmless and natural a surgery as having an appendix removed doesn't convince the deepest recesses of a woman's conscience. Renaming sin doesn't change sin. Downplaying how wrong something is might eventually harden our conscience but it can never cleanse our conscience.

Jesus can cleanse our conscience of guilt and sin. Jesus died on the cross to save us from all our sins, not only to forgive us but to restore us in every way. The first step is a hard one, but it's a necessary one. We need to confess our sin. We need to bring it into the disinfectant of light, not hiding it by denying it but confessing to God that we sinned, that we are guilty. And then asking Jesus to cleanse us of that sin and forgive us and wash away our guilt and guilty conscience. Only Jesus can wash us clean of our guilt. Only Jesus can make us whole again, pure again, clean again. Only Jesus can lift the weight of shame and guilt off of our shoulders and declare over us: forgiven. Clean. Innocent. Righteous.

I was talking to a local pastor who's wife had an abortion many years ago and now goes to different churches to share her story of finding healing and forgiveness in Christ. That is what I would want anyone who is struggling with guilt and shame - that doesn't need to be the end of the story. Jesus came to rewrite all of our stories, and by believing in him and bringing our sin to him in honest confession we can find healing and restoration.

Let's pray, and if anyone either here or listening online, is in that place of remorse and guilt ask the Lord Jesus for forgiveness. Ask him to wash over you with the cleansing power of his blood. Ask him to restore you and to redeem your sinful choices and to bring something good out of them. He is more than able to do that. Let's bow our heads.

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For the Christian, being pro-life means much more than the birth of a precious baby. We want to see people born again into the kingdom of God. Our message is a message of salvation and restoration to a broken and hurting world and abortion is just one more symptom of how broken this world is. Jesus is the answer to that brokenness, we never want to forget that. So we are to row against the tide of abortion, but to do that in the spirit of Jesus, not to do that in an angry, combative way, but in a courageous and compassionate way.