Sanctity of Human Life Talking Points
Deut. 30:19
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” – Deut. 30:19
Introduction: Just like Israel of old, we as a nation and as individuals, we must come to grips with the option and opportunity in Deuteronomy 30:19. God has set before us the option of life and death and the opportunity to choose life. Thankfully, the Supreme Court overruled[1] an earlier ruling that dates back to January 22, 1973, when that Court struck down virtually all state restrictions on abortion,[2] opening the door for our nation to murder pre-born human beings like never before. Though the Supreme Court reversed that ruling, it did not stop abortion. In fact, the ruling merely put the matter of abortion back on the states to decide. Tragically, over 63 million pre-born lives have been lost to surgical abortion[3], and untold numbers have been terminated via chemical abortion.
Let the weight of that hit you. Just think of a catastrophic disaster where the entire populations of California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington are wiped out. That is what we are talking about. Abortion is the American Holocaust, and it is a moral outrage that ought to make every Christian in this nation rise up in righteous indignation.
Yet the debate over abortion continues to rage across America. Consequently, it is important to expose the deceptive arguments of the pro-abortion crowd, and then see the declared truth of the word of God regarding preborn human life, and finally give you some definite things you can do about this immoral madness called abortion, this continued war on human life in many states.
I. DECEPTIVE ARGUMENTS OF THE PRO-ABORTION ACTIVISTS
First of all, let’s talk about the deceptive arguments used by the pro-abortion crowd. Let’s be honest, the abortion activists, who used to call themselves “pro-choice” and now prefer to see themselves as defenders of “reproductive health,” have a lot of persuasive-sounding arguments they use to shout down their opponents. Listen closely to some of them, and see if they really are all that sound when we subject them to scrutiny
A. “A fetus is not a baby.”: For example, there are some who say: “That’s not really a baby while in the womb.” That’s foolishness. Any modern sonogram will offer compelling proof. Want more? A number of years ago, a group of 60 prominent physicians, which included former presidents of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Academy of Neurology, met in Cambridge, Mass. and presented a declaration that said: “The fetus is not a sub-human species... the embryo is alive, human, and unique in the special environmental support required for that stage of human development.”[3] The bottom line: The biological facts are absolutely conclusive that the fetus is a living human being.
Yet many are deceived by the terminology used by the abortion activists to refer to the baby in the mother’s womb. They talk about embryos, products of conception, and fetuses. Take the word “fetus” for example. That’s a perfectly good Latin word meaning “preborn baby.” But it is a Latin word, which most people do not understand. The abortion activists know this, which is why they like to use these obscure terms. It’s all a part of their great deception.
And then there are those who would agree that what is growing in the womb may be a living human being, but claim that it hasn’t yet obtained “personhood” and therefore does not have human rights until the birth takes place. In other words, if it is in the womb, it is not a person. That hair-splitting argument brings up some interesting parallels in history. It reminds me of the Dred Scott case of 1857, when the Supreme Court said that the black man was not protected by the Constitution because a slave was not a person.[4] It reminds me of Nazi Germany where Hitler and his regime said that a Jew was not a person. The Nazis were shrewd enough to know that before you can enslave and exterminate human beings, the first thing you have to do is depersonalize and dehumanize them—semantically destroy them before you physically destroy them. Make them into something less than human.
So that’s a dangerous argument to say that the preborn baby in the womb is not human. It leads down a slippery slope where virtually all human life becomes worthless—we’re speeding down that slope right now. Legalized abortion naturally leads to physician-assisted suicide, which a number of state legislatures have passed and others are considering. We need to stop this slide and stand for life!
B. “What about rape and incest and saving the life of the mother?”: When you add up abortions due to rape and incest, and those to save the life of the mother, all three account for less than four percent of all abortions—that’s right, four percent.[5] Fine, let’s drop the other 96 percent of the abortions for now and we’ll talk about these instances. When a pregnant woman’s life is in danger, and she requires a medical procedure to save her life which could simultaneously harm her unborn child, there is nothing wrong with going ahead with this procedure as long as no direct harmful action is taken against the child. Abortion is wrong because it involves the intentional killing of a child; a life-saving surgery for a pregnant woman does not involve this intentional action, and therefore cannot be considered an “abortion” even if the unborn child dies as an indirect result of the medical procedure.
There is a great deal of emotion attached to victims of rape and incest, and rightly so. But are you going to play God in a matter like this? Are you going to say that a baby conceived by rape or incest should not live? Wouldn’t that be following a wrong with another wrong? Let’s say a white man raped a 13-year-old African-American girl, impregnating her. Should her parents force her to abort that child? If they had, we would not have been blessed by the Gospel singer Ethel Watters, conceived by rape. And what about Ruth, a woman who has a book of the Bible named after her, and who is named in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ? She descended from a man named Moab, who was born out of an incestuous relationship. Who wants to play God?
C. “What about handicaps and birth defects?”: When a doctor tells you there is a bad problem with the baby and says that abortion might be the best option, it causes some to pause. My wife and I heard a doctor tell us the same thing, and we were concerned, but we said we would accept what God gave us, and by God’s grace both of our children are healthy and whole, though Kristen spent 10 days in the NICU when she was born.
Let’s say that there’s a mother who has tuberculosis. She has already given birth to four children—one died, one is blind, one is deaf, and a fourth contracted tuberculosis from the mother. Now she’s pregnant again—should she abort? Well, if she had, then the world would have been robbed of the music of Ludwig von Beethoven. Are you going to play God? Follow the abortionist’s argument to its logical conclusion. Do you believe that defective people should be put to death? Then a lot of us here ought not be alive, including me. All of us have defects. Just how perfect do you have to be in order to live? Where do we start when we eliminate those who are defective? Where do we end? In Nazi Germany, abortion preceded the killing of the handicapped, then the elderly, and finally the Jews and other so-called “undesirables.” We’ve started, where do we end?
D. “What about poor unwed teens?”: This is another argument they use. Let me throw out this scenario: What about the poor pregnant unwed teen who was engaged to a man who is not the biological father who wants to break it off when he first finds out? Should she get an abortion? If she had, Mary would have aborted Jesus. Again, who wants to play God? Here are some stubborn statistics:
That makes the womb the most dangerous place for an American—more dangerous than a citizen in the mean streets of Chicago.[6] And if you can believe it, the womb is even more dangerous if you are African American. It is clear by any counting that minorities are over-represented in the statistics relative to their population.[7] Why is that?
It all goes back to Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger.[8] Several years ago, Margaret Sanger was named one of TIME’s “20 Most Influential Americans of All Time.” What was Sanger’s vision? To “improve” the American population by controlled breeding, which is called eugenics. In the 1930s and 1940s, her views and those of her peers in the birth control/population control movement contributed to compulsory sterilization laws in 30 states that resulted in more than 60,000 sterilizations of vulnerable people, including people she considered “feeble-minded,” “idiots,” and “morons.” One of the groups she considered “undesirable” were African Americans. She even presented at a Ku Klux Klan women’s rally in 1926 in Silver Lake, N.J. which led to other speaking engagements with white supremacist groups.[9] In a letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble in 1939, Sanger wrote: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members” (Margaret Sanger commenting on the ‘Negro Project’ December 10, 1939).[10]
So Sanger was a racist and Planned Parenthood is committing black genocide. For example, 79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of predominantly African American or Hispanic communities.[11] Minority women constitute only about 13 percent of the female population (age 15-44) in the United States, but they underwent approximately 36 percent of the abortions. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, black women are more than five times as likely as white women to have an abortion.[12] In fact, undercover pro-life operatives from Lila Rose’s Live Action ministry recorded a Planned Parenthood official saying they would accept donations to “lower the number of blacks in America.”[13]
And yes, don’t forget those undercover videos with Planned Parenthood officials casually sipping wine and eating salad and coolly discussing how to conduct abortions in such a way that they can pull out the organs and sell them.[14] So not only are they targeting minorities and killing babies, they are selling human parts for profit! Again, this is an unspeakable evil! We should not let a dime of our tax money fund them. In fact, we ought to shut every Planned Parenthood down and lock up their leaders!
E. “Doesn’t a woman have the right to choose?”: Doesn’t a woman have the right to do what she pleases with her own body? That is what many women in their pink hats were proclaiming at the women’s march a few years ago in D.C. “It’s my body, I have a right to choose.” No, not according to the law. In most states, its illegal for a woman to be a prostitute, it is illegal to fill her body with illicit drugs, it is illegal to get intoxicated with alcohol and drive. No, a woman can’t do entirely as she chooses. But the argument to end all arguments from the pro-abortion crowd is this: A woman has the right to choose. Choose what? Choose to steal? Choose to kidnap? Choose to murder? No. In a civilized society, a person does not have the right to do as they please in every case.
And that’s especially true with regard to the preborn child in the mother’s womb, because we’re not talking about her body, but a distinctly different person that should be granted full human rights, beginning with life. The same 60 physicians quoted earlier had this to say:
Listen, the baby even provides its own nest, the placenta and the umbilical cord. The baby has its own blood stream, maybe even a different blood type than the mother. In half of the cases, the baby has a different gender.[16] So we’re talking about a guest, a baby, living inside the host, the mother. Run that line of reasoning on out. Let’s say a cult member comes into my home to share his heretical propaganda. He is an unwanted guest from the standpoint of his religion. Do I have the right to murder an unwanted guest? Same faulty reasoning with abortion.
II. DECLARED TRUTH OF SCRIPTURE
Well, we’ve heard their deceptive arguments and they don’t hold water. But what is the declared truth of Scripture? We claim to accept the Bible as the word of God and therefore the final word. Do you agree? If you are a Christian, it ought to be. And there are over 100 texts that deal with the preborn.
A. Preborn Human Life in the Old Testament: Look with me at Psalm 139:13-16. These verses tell us that God forms that child in a mother’s womb, and that child is the subject and object of God’s love and concern. Look at the pronouns. This is not an “it” or a “thing” that can be removed like a tumor and destroyed. This is a person made in the image of God. And the Bible doesn’t distinguish between prenatal and postnatal life. Look at Jeremiah 1:5. Jeremiah was a prophet and God told him: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (KJV - consecrated). You don’t consecrate a gall bladder to become a prophet, you consecrate a person.
B. Preborn Human Life in the New Testament: In Luke’s Gospel, we read that Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, went to visit her relative Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Listen to verse 41: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” I mean, you never heard an expectant mother say: “A fetus leaped inside me or a product of conception kicked me.” No. In fact, the Greek word brephos is used when it says that the baby leaped in her womb. That word can mean: “a preborn child, embryo, fetus, a newborn child, an infant, a babe.” It is the same term that is used to describe Jesus, the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12,16).
In other words, there is no distinction made in the Greek NT between a preborn baby and a newborn child. No distinction. And Greek is an expressive and precise language—there are four words that are used to describe love! But when it comes to describing a preborn child or a newborn child—there is only one term used. A preborn child is therefore not an “it,” a preborn child is a person.
Let me ask you, if a mother delivered the child and then decided to kill the baby, would that be OK? What about the Lincoln Memorial University student who received national attention several years ago because she delivered her baby, ripped the umbilical cord loose, wrapped the child in a sweatshirt, and threw the unwanted child in the trash? She went to jail. But she wouldn’t have if she had simply gotten an abortion in many states. There’s no difference between what she did and an abortion, because terminating a pregnancy is, in fact, taking a human life.
Do you know how an abortion is carried out? It is ironic that the media will never allow you to see one. They will show us some of the six million victims of the Nazi Holocaust, they will show us abuses in war torn countries around the world, but none of the 60 million victims of the American Holocaust. They will bring the evils of human trafficking and the horrors of war into your home night after night, but not the preborn being aborted or the body parts of aborted babies. Why? Because as supporters of abortion rights, they know that if the light ever shined in that darkness, there would likely be such a righteous outcry that abortion would be stopped.
What happens in an abortion? Some abortionists inject the womb with a saline solution that burns and scalds the baby. Others stick a needle through the womb and into the baby’s beating heart and inject it with poison that kills. Other abortionists use a vacuum device that dismembers and sucks the preborn baby’s body parts out of the womb. Others use forceps, which the baby struggles to avoid, according to the sonograms. They rip off the limbs, crush the baby’s head, pull the body out of the womb, and throw it in the trash! Or they harvest valuable organs before doing so… Thank God partial-birth abortion has been banned, but the other methods are no less inhumane and grisly. I mean, we would expect that in the death camps of Auschwitz, not the health clinics of America. Consequently….
C. Preborn Human Life Must Be Protected: Prov. 24:11-12 says: “Rescue those being led away to death, hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “We knew nothing about this,” does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done? Folks, we need to stand up and speak out. Why? Because abortion is wrong! It is pre-meditated murder! It violates the 6th Commandment in Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.”[17] And I want you to know that God hates it. According to Proverbs 6:16-17: “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.” God hates the shedding of innocent blood! And His ears are filled with the cries of the innocent being slain in this nation, and there will be a day of reckoning! And we will answer for what we do and for what we don’t do!
III. DEFINITE ACTIONS WE CAN TAKE
We’ve talked about the deceptive arguments made by abortion activists and the declared truth of Scripture. Lastly, let’s explore some definite actions we can take. What should we do, what can we do, and what must we do about this great evil of our day?
A. Stay Informed: First, we need to be informed, and that’s why I preached this message. But stay informed. Keep up with what is happening in our government by visiting frc.org and subscribing to the Washington Stand. The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview.
We need to inform others. We need to teach and preach and practice sexual purity at home and in the church so that our young people don’t even get in a position to have to make such a choice between life and death. But if they do get in that position, encourage your kids and your grandkids to choose life. Choose life, even when there is a moral failure, especially among our own. That leads me secondly to say we need to…
B. Show Compassion: We need to show compassion toward the unwed mother and the women who have had an abortion, not condoning the sin, but caring for the sinner, leading all to a place of repentance and restoration. Listen, there is forgiveness in Jesus Christ. That is why he went to the cross! If you have gone through an abortion, it is not the unforgivable sin. The Bible says in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Come to Christ and confess this grievous sin and you will have forgiveness and cleansing.
I have been moved by the testimonies of the women of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, who had abortions, but who now regret them. Consider Wendy from Pennsylvania, who had an abortion when she was 19 years old: “It took 35 years of my life to reconcile that one foolish mistake,” Wendy wrote. “Remember the abortion lie that promised to help me ‘forget about my baby and go on with my life like nothing happened?’ Now, after 35 gut wrenching years, I can go on only because I found forgiveness and peace in the truth – not the lie.” Church, there are a lot of broken and hurting women in our pews and in our communities who are longing to be set free from their guilt and pain. Only Jesus can do that, but he wants to use us to be his messengers of mercy. So church, show compassion.
Here’s my firm conviction: Christians should be just as concerned and compassionate before the pregnancy and after the pregnancy as we are during the pregnancy. We need to support the creation and operation of Pregnancy Resource Centers as they help these young women choose life and then seek to give their children a life. We need to support adoption and foster care in our church because every child deserves a loving home with a dad and a mom. We need to get behind ethical stem cell research, which is leading to positive treatments and giving hope. We need to be compassionate in caring for human life, not only in the womb, but in every age and stage of life.
C. Start Engaging: Third, we need to start engaging on this issue in the public arena, especially if you live in a state where abortion remains unrestricted. Jesus said we are the Salt and the Light (Matt. 5:13-14) and he commanded us: “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). So a practical application for a Christian who is a citizen of America is to participate in the public debate and seek to have a positive “Salt and Light” influence on the direction of our government and its policies and laws. Here are five practical ways we can be active and make an impact:
Our efforts are making a difference. Be encouraged by the fact that the pro-life movement has made significant progress since that awful January 22, 1973 Supreme Court ruling. Since then we’ve seen scores of pro-life laws passed in state legislatures.[19] And now we have a Supreme Court ruling that permits the states to restrict abortion. Sodefinite progress is being made. And public opinion on abortion has shifted. So at least the culture of death is being rolled back bit by bit, and that is encouraging.
But we still have a long way to go. Remember, elections have consequences. So your vote matters this fall—not only on a federal level, but on the state level. Most of the pro-life advances have been made in state legislatures, so we need more pro-life governors and state legislators. Bible-believing Christians need to be engaged because we can make a difference in who is making those life and death decisions by the way we vote and by our activism. Thomas Jefferson declared: “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”[20] Let’s vote for public servants who agree and remind those currently serving of this great truth of the need for government to protect the dignity of every human being, born and preborn.
Listen, God’s people need to rise up and stand up and speak up for the defenseless! In fact, the Bible gives us our marching orders in Isaiah 58:1: “Shout it aloud! Don’t hold back! Raise your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their rebellion, and to the house of Jacob their sins.” We need to be that voice for those who have no voice.
Again, we need to fall on our knees in humble repentance and fervently pray to Almighty God that he will continue to change the direction of this nation that has launched out into a sea of innocent blood. We once held to the God-given right to life in this nation, but that day passed and night descended. Yet now, a new day for life is on the horizon. Nothing is impossible with God. Pray that even as slavery ended in America, even as the Jewish Holocaust ended, that the American Holocaust might end, that the murder of innocent preborn babies might end, and that by the grace of God and our repentance, this dark night on the soul of our nation might end and that the light of the gospel might once again shine brightly in our land once again.
Prayer: Creator God and Author of life , we pray for your mercy. Our nation deserves to be destroyed because of abortion alone, even if we had no other sins. Have mercy on us as a people. We pray for those who have had abortions and for all those who have had a hand in them. We pray that you would lead them to the Cross and help them look up to him whose hands and feet were pierced that their sins might be paid for. Thank you for the forgiveness and the new beginning that Jesus offers. Give us the courage to have a voice for those who have no voice, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Dr. Kenyn Cureton, a former pastor and Vice President for Convention Relations for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, currently serves as Vice President for Christian Resources with Family Research Council.
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[1] Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization No. 19-1392, 597 US (2022). See https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf?bcs-agent-scanner=20760f20-6125-3a4a-8574-0b8901af4386
[2] Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S.; 113, 163-164 (1973)
[3] https://www.foxnews.com/politics/abortions-since-roe-v-wade
[4] Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857)
[5] See the stats provided by the Alan Guttmacher Institute: http://www.agi-usa.org/presentations/abort_slides.pdf
[6] See the stats provided by the Alan Guttmacher Institute: http://www.agi-usa.org/presentations/abort_slides.pdf
[7] http://www.lifenews.com/2016/01/14/58586256-abortions-in-america-since-roe-v-wade-in-1973/
[8] http://www.frcblog.com/2016/10/real-margaret-sanger/
[9] http://www.lifenews.com/2015/02/23/7-shocking-quotes-from-planned-parenthood-founder-margaret-sanger/
[10] https://libex.smith.edu/omeka/files/original/d6358bc3053c93183295bf2df1c0c931.pdf?bcs-agent-scanner=c76ae885-c258-d340-b722-da069e0b086c
[11] http://www.protectingblacklife.org/pp_targets/
[12] http://www.blackgenocide.org/black.html
[13] http://liveaction.org/what-we-do/investigations/racially-motivated-donations/
[14] http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/cmp/investigative-footage/
[15] See http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0717_Abortion__Evolution.html.
[16] C. Everett Koop, M.D., Koop: The Memoirs of America’s Family Doctor (New York: Random House, 1991), p. 264, comments: “It always seemed clear to me that life begins at conception. After the twenty-three chromosomes of the sperm are united with the twenty-three chromosomes of the egg to become a one-celled living organism containing the entire genetic code that will eventually become a you or a me, that single cell requires nothing except nutrition to become a baby nine months later. Biologists seem to have no trouble believing that life begins at the time of fertilization when they talk about lizards, doves, or baboons; it is only when the argument turns to the highest form of animal life, a human being, that there enters a lot of fuzzy thinking about conception and life.”
[17] When God set forth the final five of the 10 Commandments to protect people’s rights and preserve order in society, the first one is a prohibition is against taking someone’s life. In fact, the high value God places on human life is the justification for Capital Punishment. See Genesis 9:6, which says: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God has God made man.” When you murder another person, you have committed a great evil. Why? Because God created man in His image, and your malicious attack against another human being is considered an indirect attack on God Himself. And that crime is worthy of the death penalty. Rom. 13 in the NT talks about the fact that God has ordained government to carry out that penalty—the authority “does not bear the sword for nothing—He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” Human life is precious in God’s sight, the object of his great love. Anyone who takes a life wrongfully, is the object of God’s wrath. See also Exod. 21:12-17, 22-23, 29.
[18] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/record-number-of-pro-abortion-laws-being-introduced-dwarfed-by-pro-life-gai
[19]https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/record-number-of-pro-abortion-laws-being-introduced-dwarfed-by-pro-life-gai
[20] Thomas Jefferson to Maryland Republicans, 1809. as found in Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert E. Bergh, eds., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 20 vols., (Washington, D.C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903-1904), 16:359.
Deut. 30:19
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” – Deut. 30:19
Introduction: Just like Israel of old, we as a nation and as individuals, we must come to grips with the option and opportunity in Deuteronomy 30:19. God has set before us the option of life and death and the opportunity to choose life. Thankfully, the Supreme Court overruled[1] an earlier ruling that dates back to January 22, 1973, when that Court struck down virtually all state restrictions on abortion,[2] opening the door for our nation to murder pre-born human beings like never before. Though the Supreme Court reversed that ruling, it did not stop abortion. In fact, the ruling merely put the matter of abortion back on the states to decide. Tragically, over 63 million pre-born lives have been lost to surgical abortion[3], and untold numbers have been terminated via chemical abortion.
Let the weight of that hit you. Just think of a catastrophic disaster where the entire populations of California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington are wiped out. That is what we are talking about. Abortion is the American Holocaust, and it is a moral outrage that ought to make every Christian in this nation rise up in righteous indignation.
Yet the debate over abortion continues to rage across America. Consequently, it is important to expose the deceptive arguments of the pro-abortion crowd, and then see the declared truth of the word of God regarding preborn human life, and finally give you some definite things you can do about this immoral madness called abortion, this continued war on human life in many states.
I. DECEPTIVE ARGUMENTS OF THE PRO-ABORTION ACTIVISTS
First of all, let’s talk about the deceptive arguments used by the pro-abortion crowd. Let’s be honest, the abortion activists, who used to call themselves “pro-choice” and now prefer to see themselves as defenders of “reproductive health,” have a lot of persuasive-sounding arguments they use to shout down their opponents. Listen closely to some of them, and see if they really are all that sound when we subject them to scrutiny
A. “A fetus is not a baby.”: For example, there are some who say: “That’s not really a baby while in the womb.” That’s foolishness. Any modern sonogram will offer compelling proof. Want more? A number of years ago, a group of 60 prominent physicians, which included former presidents of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Academy of Neurology, met in Cambridge, Mass. and presented a declaration that said: “The fetus is not a sub-human species... the embryo is alive, human, and unique in the special environmental support required for that stage of human development.”[3] The bottom line: The biological facts are absolutely conclusive that the fetus is a living human being.
Yet many are deceived by the terminology used by the abortion activists to refer to the baby in the mother’s womb. They talk about embryos, products of conception, and fetuses. Take the word “fetus” for example. That’s a perfectly good Latin word meaning “preborn baby.” But it is a Latin word, which most people do not understand. The abortion activists know this, which is why they like to use these obscure terms. It’s all a part of their great deception.
And then there are those who would agree that what is growing in the womb may be a living human being, but claim that it hasn’t yet obtained “personhood” and therefore does not have human rights until the birth takes place. In other words, if it is in the womb, it is not a person. That hair-splitting argument brings up some interesting parallels in history. It reminds me of the Dred Scott case of 1857, when the Supreme Court said that the black man was not protected by the Constitution because a slave was not a person.[4] It reminds me of Nazi Germany where Hitler and his regime said that a Jew was not a person. The Nazis were shrewd enough to know that before you can enslave and exterminate human beings, the first thing you have to do is depersonalize and dehumanize them—semantically destroy them before you physically destroy them. Make them into something less than human.
So that’s a dangerous argument to say that the preborn baby in the womb is not human. It leads down a slippery slope where virtually all human life becomes worthless—we’re speeding down that slope right now. Legalized abortion naturally leads to physician-assisted suicide, which a number of state legislatures have passed and others are considering. We need to stop this slide and stand for life!
B. “What about rape and incest and saving the life of the mother?”: When you add up abortions due to rape and incest, and those to save the life of the mother, all three account for less than four percent of all abortions—that’s right, four percent.[5] Fine, let’s drop the other 96 percent of the abortions for now and we’ll talk about these instances. When a pregnant woman’s life is in danger, and she requires a medical procedure to save her life which could simultaneously harm her unborn child, there is nothing wrong with going ahead with this procedure as long as no direct harmful action is taken against the child. Abortion is wrong because it involves the intentional killing of a child; a life-saving surgery for a pregnant woman does not involve this intentional action, and therefore cannot be considered an “abortion” even if the unborn child dies as an indirect result of the medical procedure.
There is a great deal of emotion attached to victims of rape and incest, and rightly so. But are you going to play God in a matter like this? Are you going to say that a baby conceived by rape or incest should not live? Wouldn’t that be following a wrong with another wrong? Let’s say a white man raped a 13-year-old African-American girl, impregnating her. Should her parents force her to abort that child? If they had, we would not have been blessed by the Gospel singer Ethel Watters, conceived by rape. And what about Ruth, a woman who has a book of the Bible named after her, and who is named in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ? She descended from a man named Moab, who was born out of an incestuous relationship. Who wants to play God?
C. “What about handicaps and birth defects?”: When a doctor tells you there is a bad problem with the baby and says that abortion might be the best option, it causes some to pause. My wife and I heard a doctor tell us the same thing, and we were concerned, but we said we would accept what God gave us, and by God’s grace both of our children are healthy and whole, though Kristen spent 10 days in the NICU when she was born.
Let’s say that there’s a mother who has tuberculosis. She has already given birth to four children—one died, one is blind, one is deaf, and a fourth contracted tuberculosis from the mother. Now she’s pregnant again—should she abort? Well, if she had, then the world would have been robbed of the music of Ludwig von Beethoven. Are you going to play God? Follow the abortionist’s argument to its logical conclusion. Do you believe that defective people should be put to death? Then a lot of us here ought not be alive, including me. All of us have defects. Just how perfect do you have to be in order to live? Where do we start when we eliminate those who are defective? Where do we end? In Nazi Germany, abortion preceded the killing of the handicapped, then the elderly, and finally the Jews and other so-called “undesirables.” We’ve started, where do we end?
D. “What about poor unwed teens?”: This is another argument they use. Let me throw out this scenario: What about the poor pregnant unwed teen who was engaged to a man who is not the biological father who wants to break it off when he first finds out? Should she get an abortion? If she had, Mary would have aborted Jesus. Again, who wants to play God? Here are some stubborn statistics:
- Over 60 percent of women who abort their babies are over 20 years old (most are NOT unwed teens)
- Over 40 percent of all abortions are carried out on patients for the second, third, or fourth time
- 76 percent of women who abort their babies are unmarried
- 53 percent of women who abort their babies have no other children
- Fully 22 percent of all pregnancies are terminated by abortion, not counting miscarriages.
That makes the womb the most dangerous place for an American—more dangerous than a citizen in the mean streets of Chicago.[6] And if you can believe it, the womb is even more dangerous if you are African American. It is clear by any counting that minorities are over-represented in the statistics relative to their population.[7] Why is that?
It all goes back to Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger.[8] Several years ago, Margaret Sanger was named one of TIME’s “20 Most Influential Americans of All Time.” What was Sanger’s vision? To “improve” the American population by controlled breeding, which is called eugenics. In the 1930s and 1940s, her views and those of her peers in the birth control/population control movement contributed to compulsory sterilization laws in 30 states that resulted in more than 60,000 sterilizations of vulnerable people, including people she considered “feeble-minded,” “idiots,” and “morons.” One of the groups she considered “undesirable” were African Americans. She even presented at a Ku Klux Klan women’s rally in 1926 in Silver Lake, N.J. which led to other speaking engagements with white supremacist groups.[9] In a letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble in 1939, Sanger wrote: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members” (Margaret Sanger commenting on the ‘Negro Project’ December 10, 1939).[10]
So Sanger was a racist and Planned Parenthood is committing black genocide. For example, 79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of predominantly African American or Hispanic communities.[11] Minority women constitute only about 13 percent of the female population (age 15-44) in the United States, but they underwent approximately 36 percent of the abortions. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, black women are more than five times as likely as white women to have an abortion.[12] In fact, undercover pro-life operatives from Lila Rose’s Live Action ministry recorded a Planned Parenthood official saying they would accept donations to “lower the number of blacks in America.”[13]
And yes, don’t forget those undercover videos with Planned Parenthood officials casually sipping wine and eating salad and coolly discussing how to conduct abortions in such a way that they can pull out the organs and sell them.[14] So not only are they targeting minorities and killing babies, they are selling human parts for profit! Again, this is an unspeakable evil! We should not let a dime of our tax money fund them. In fact, we ought to shut every Planned Parenthood down and lock up their leaders!
E. “Doesn’t a woman have the right to choose?”: Doesn’t a woman have the right to do what she pleases with her own body? That is what many women in their pink hats were proclaiming at the women’s march a few years ago in D.C. “It’s my body, I have a right to choose.” No, not according to the law. In most states, its illegal for a woman to be a prostitute, it is illegal to fill her body with illicit drugs, it is illegal to get intoxicated with alcohol and drive. No, a woman can’t do entirely as she chooses. But the argument to end all arguments from the pro-abortion crowd is this: A woman has the right to choose. Choose what? Choose to steal? Choose to kidnap? Choose to murder? No. In a civilized society, a person does not have the right to do as they please in every case.
And that’s especially true with regard to the preborn child in the mother’s womb, because we’re not talking about her body, but a distinctly different person that should be granted full human rights, beginning with life. The same 60 physicians quoted earlier had this to say:
“A human ovum together with a human sperm produces a biologically identifiable human embryo. It has separate and unique genetic information and biological material. Every cell in a woman’s body has exactly the same 46 chromosomes, and exactly the same genes. Every cell is identical in that way, except for the cells in that baby. The baby has a different set of chromosomes and a different set of genes.”[15]
Listen, the baby even provides its own nest, the placenta and the umbilical cord. The baby has its own blood stream, maybe even a different blood type than the mother. In half of the cases, the baby has a different gender.[16] So we’re talking about a guest, a baby, living inside the host, the mother. Run that line of reasoning on out. Let’s say a cult member comes into my home to share his heretical propaganda. He is an unwanted guest from the standpoint of his religion. Do I have the right to murder an unwanted guest? Same faulty reasoning with abortion.
II. DECLARED TRUTH OF SCRIPTURE
Well, we’ve heard their deceptive arguments and they don’t hold water. But what is the declared truth of Scripture? We claim to accept the Bible as the word of God and therefore the final word. Do you agree? If you are a Christian, it ought to be. And there are over 100 texts that deal with the preborn.
A. Preborn Human Life in the Old Testament: Look with me at Psalm 139:13-16. These verses tell us that God forms that child in a mother’s womb, and that child is the subject and object of God’s love and concern. Look at the pronouns. This is not an “it” or a “thing” that can be removed like a tumor and destroyed. This is a person made in the image of God. And the Bible doesn’t distinguish between prenatal and postnatal life. Look at Jeremiah 1:5. Jeremiah was a prophet and God told him: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (KJV - consecrated). You don’t consecrate a gall bladder to become a prophet, you consecrate a person.
B. Preborn Human Life in the New Testament: In Luke’s Gospel, we read that Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, went to visit her relative Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Listen to verse 41: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” I mean, you never heard an expectant mother say: “A fetus leaped inside me or a product of conception kicked me.” No. In fact, the Greek word brephos is used when it says that the baby leaped in her womb. That word can mean: “a preborn child, embryo, fetus, a newborn child, an infant, a babe.” It is the same term that is used to describe Jesus, the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12,16).
In other words, there is no distinction made in the Greek NT between a preborn baby and a newborn child. No distinction. And Greek is an expressive and precise language—there are four words that are used to describe love! But when it comes to describing a preborn child or a newborn child—there is only one term used. A preborn child is therefore not an “it,” a preborn child is a person.
Let me ask you, if a mother delivered the child and then decided to kill the baby, would that be OK? What about the Lincoln Memorial University student who received national attention several years ago because she delivered her baby, ripped the umbilical cord loose, wrapped the child in a sweatshirt, and threw the unwanted child in the trash? She went to jail. But she wouldn’t have if she had simply gotten an abortion in many states. There’s no difference between what she did and an abortion, because terminating a pregnancy is, in fact, taking a human life.
Do you know how an abortion is carried out? It is ironic that the media will never allow you to see one. They will show us some of the six million victims of the Nazi Holocaust, they will show us abuses in war torn countries around the world, but none of the 60 million victims of the American Holocaust. They will bring the evils of human trafficking and the horrors of war into your home night after night, but not the preborn being aborted or the body parts of aborted babies. Why? Because as supporters of abortion rights, they know that if the light ever shined in that darkness, there would likely be such a righteous outcry that abortion would be stopped.
What happens in an abortion? Some abortionists inject the womb with a saline solution that burns and scalds the baby. Others stick a needle through the womb and into the baby’s beating heart and inject it with poison that kills. Other abortionists use a vacuum device that dismembers and sucks the preborn baby’s body parts out of the womb. Others use forceps, which the baby struggles to avoid, according to the sonograms. They rip off the limbs, crush the baby’s head, pull the body out of the womb, and throw it in the trash! Or they harvest valuable organs before doing so… Thank God partial-birth abortion has been banned, but the other methods are no less inhumane and grisly. I mean, we would expect that in the death camps of Auschwitz, not the health clinics of America. Consequently….
C. Preborn Human Life Must Be Protected: Prov. 24:11-12 says: “Rescue those being led away to death, hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “We knew nothing about this,” does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done? Folks, we need to stand up and speak out. Why? Because abortion is wrong! It is pre-meditated murder! It violates the 6th Commandment in Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.”[17] And I want you to know that God hates it. According to Proverbs 6:16-17: “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.” God hates the shedding of innocent blood! And His ears are filled with the cries of the innocent being slain in this nation, and there will be a day of reckoning! And we will answer for what we do and for what we don’t do!
III. DEFINITE ACTIONS WE CAN TAKE
We’ve talked about the deceptive arguments made by abortion activists and the declared truth of Scripture. Lastly, let’s explore some definite actions we can take. What should we do, what can we do, and what must we do about this great evil of our day?
A. Stay Informed: First, we need to be informed, and that’s why I preached this message. But stay informed. Keep up with what is happening in our government by visiting frc.org and subscribing to the Washington Stand. The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview.
We need to inform others. We need to teach and preach and practice sexual purity at home and in the church so that our young people don’t even get in a position to have to make such a choice between life and death. But if they do get in that position, encourage your kids and your grandkids to choose life. Choose life, even when there is a moral failure, especially among our own. That leads me secondly to say we need to…
B. Show Compassion: We need to show compassion toward the unwed mother and the women who have had an abortion, not condoning the sin, but caring for the sinner, leading all to a place of repentance and restoration. Listen, there is forgiveness in Jesus Christ. That is why he went to the cross! If you have gone through an abortion, it is not the unforgivable sin. The Bible says in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Come to Christ and confess this grievous sin and you will have forgiveness and cleansing.
I have been moved by the testimonies of the women of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, who had abortions, but who now regret them. Consider Wendy from Pennsylvania, who had an abortion when she was 19 years old: “It took 35 years of my life to reconcile that one foolish mistake,” Wendy wrote. “Remember the abortion lie that promised to help me ‘forget about my baby and go on with my life like nothing happened?’ Now, after 35 gut wrenching years, I can go on only because I found forgiveness and peace in the truth – not the lie.” Church, there are a lot of broken and hurting women in our pews and in our communities who are longing to be set free from their guilt and pain. Only Jesus can do that, but he wants to use us to be his messengers of mercy. So church, show compassion.
Here’s my firm conviction: Christians should be just as concerned and compassionate before the pregnancy and after the pregnancy as we are during the pregnancy. We need to support the creation and operation of Pregnancy Resource Centers as they help these young women choose life and then seek to give their children a life. We need to support adoption and foster care in our church because every child deserves a loving home with a dad and a mom. We need to get behind ethical stem cell research, which is leading to positive treatments and giving hope. We need to be compassionate in caring for human life, not only in the womb, but in every age and stage of life.
C. Start Engaging: Third, we need to start engaging on this issue in the public arena, especially if you live in a state where abortion remains unrestricted. Jesus said we are the Salt and the Light (Matt. 5:13-14) and he commanded us: “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). So a practical application for a Christian who is a citizen of America is to participate in the public debate and seek to have a positive “Salt and Light” influence on the direction of our government and its policies and laws. Here are five practical ways we can be active and make an impact:
1. Pray that the dignity of every human life will be respected and protected from conception to natural death (Prov. 24:11-12).
2. Ask the president to appoint pro-life justices and judges to the courts: whitehouse.gov/contact
3. Contact your Representative and Senators by calling the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or visit FRCAction.org and click on the “Get Involved” tab, then “Contact Officials.” Urge them to support pro-life legislation.
4. Educate yourself on pro-life arguments. Read the best arguments from science, the law, and women’s rights to advance the pro-life case against abortion to your friends, family, and neighbors. To find out more about how to promote the pro-life cause in your daily life, check out FRC.org/life.
5. Support a Pregnancy Care Center in our area. To find a life-affirming ministry for women in our area who are expecting a child, check out heartbeatinternational.org/worldwide-directory.
Our efforts are making a difference. Be encouraged by the fact that the pro-life movement has made significant progress since that awful January 22, 1973 Supreme Court ruling. Since then we’ve seen scores of pro-life laws passed in state legislatures.[19] And now we have a Supreme Court ruling that permits the states to restrict abortion. Sodefinite progress is being made. And public opinion on abortion has shifted. So at least the culture of death is being rolled back bit by bit, and that is encouraging.
But we still have a long way to go. Remember, elections have consequences. So your vote matters this fall—not only on a federal level, but on the state level. Most of the pro-life advances have been made in state legislatures, so we need more pro-life governors and state legislators. Bible-believing Christians need to be engaged because we can make a difference in who is making those life and death decisions by the way we vote and by our activism. Thomas Jefferson declared: “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”[20] Let’s vote for public servants who agree and remind those currently serving of this great truth of the need for government to protect the dignity of every human being, born and preborn.
Listen, God’s people need to rise up and stand up and speak up for the defenseless! In fact, the Bible gives us our marching orders in Isaiah 58:1: “Shout it aloud! Don’t hold back! Raise your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their rebellion, and to the house of Jacob their sins.” We need to be that voice for those who have no voice.
Again, we need to fall on our knees in humble repentance and fervently pray to Almighty God that he will continue to change the direction of this nation that has launched out into a sea of innocent blood. We once held to the God-given right to life in this nation, but that day passed and night descended. Yet now, a new day for life is on the horizon. Nothing is impossible with God. Pray that even as slavery ended in America, even as the Jewish Holocaust ended, that the American Holocaust might end, that the murder of innocent preborn babies might end, and that by the grace of God and our repentance, this dark night on the soul of our nation might end and that the light of the gospel might once again shine brightly in our land once again.
Prayer: Creator God and Author of life , we pray for your mercy. Our nation deserves to be destroyed because of abortion alone, even if we had no other sins. Have mercy on us as a people. We pray for those who have had abortions and for all those who have had a hand in them. We pray that you would lead them to the Cross and help them look up to him whose hands and feet were pierced that their sins might be paid for. Thank you for the forgiveness and the new beginning that Jesus offers. Give us the courage to have a voice for those who have no voice, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Dr. Kenyn Cureton, a former pastor and Vice President for Convention Relations for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, currently serves as Vice President for Christian Resources with Family Research Council.
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[1] Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization No. 19-1392, 597 US (2022). See https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf?bcs-agent-scanner=20760f20-6125-3a4a-8574-0b8901af4386
[2] Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S.; 113, 163-164 (1973)
[3] https://www.foxnews.com/politics/abortions-since-roe-v-wade
[4] Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857)
[5] See the stats provided by the Alan Guttmacher Institute: http://www.agi-usa.org/presentations/abort_slides.pdf
[6] See the stats provided by the Alan Guttmacher Institute: http://www.agi-usa.org/presentations/abort_slides.pdf
[7] http://www.lifenews.com/2016/01/14/58586256-abortions-in-america-since-roe-v-wade-in-1973/
[8] http://www.frcblog.com/2016/10/real-margaret-sanger/
[9] http://www.lifenews.com/2015/02/23/7-shocking-quotes-from-planned-parenthood-founder-margaret-sanger/
[10] https://libex.smith.edu/omeka/files/original/d6358bc3053c93183295bf2df1c0c931.pdf?bcs-agent-scanner=c76ae885-c258-d340-b722-da069e0b086c
[11] http://www.protectingblacklife.org/pp_targets/
[12] http://www.blackgenocide.org/black.html
[13] http://liveaction.org/what-we-do/investigations/racially-motivated-donations/
[14] http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/cmp/investigative-footage/
[15] See http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0717_Abortion__Evolution.html.
[16] C. Everett Koop, M.D., Koop: The Memoirs of America’s Family Doctor (New York: Random House, 1991), p. 264, comments: “It always seemed clear to me that life begins at conception. After the twenty-three chromosomes of the sperm are united with the twenty-three chromosomes of the egg to become a one-celled living organism containing the entire genetic code that will eventually become a you or a me, that single cell requires nothing except nutrition to become a baby nine months later. Biologists seem to have no trouble believing that life begins at the time of fertilization when they talk about lizards, doves, or baboons; it is only when the argument turns to the highest form of animal life, a human being, that there enters a lot of fuzzy thinking about conception and life.”
[17] When God set forth the final five of the 10 Commandments to protect people’s rights and preserve order in society, the first one is a prohibition is against taking someone’s life. In fact, the high value God places on human life is the justification for Capital Punishment. See Genesis 9:6, which says: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God has God made man.” When you murder another person, you have committed a great evil. Why? Because God created man in His image, and your malicious attack against another human being is considered an indirect attack on God Himself. And that crime is worthy of the death penalty. Rom. 13 in the NT talks about the fact that God has ordained government to carry out that penalty—the authority “does not bear the sword for nothing—He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” Human life is precious in God’s sight, the object of his great love. Anyone who takes a life wrongfully, is the object of God’s wrath. See also Exod. 21:12-17, 22-23, 29.
[18] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/record-number-of-pro-abortion-laws-being-introduced-dwarfed-by-pro-life-gai
[19]https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/record-number-of-pro-abortion-laws-being-introduced-dwarfed-by-pro-life-gai
[20] Thomas Jefferson to Maryland Republicans, 1809. as found in Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert E. Bergh, eds., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 20 vols., (Washington, D.C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903-1904), 16:359.