A Primer on Pro-Life Matters, from A to Z
A PRIMER ON PRO-LIFE MATTERS, from A to Z.
“Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds!” (Romans 5:20).
“Enough! You’re here to defend the defenseless, to give justice to the weak and fatherless, to maintain the rights of the oppressed and needy. Your job is to rescue the powerless and stand up for them, to deliver them from all who exploit them!” (Psalm 82:2-4).
A is for Abortion: Abortion is the killing of an unborn child developing in the womb of a pregnant mother. It is morally equivalent to child sacrifice, and is the ultimate child abuse. A preborn baby in the womb is actually a human life! Let’s follow the science: At the moment of conception, the parents’ DNA is passed on to this new creation; the genetic framework that makes someone human is established; the new person’s inherited characteristics are determined, everything from sex to facial features to body type to hair color to his/her personality. At conception, everything is now mapped out, programmed, and it’s full steam ahead as the unborn person receives the nutrition and protection needed by the pregnant mom. The baby’s heart begins to beat on day 18, response to touch at 13 weeks. By the tenth week of pregnancy, the preborn baby has brain activity, a digestive system, and all the main bodily organs ate formed. Some in the medical community, based on outdated research, claim that the fetus starts to feel pain at the 24th week, while recent fetal research confirms it is actually much sooner, that the unborn baby is already forming pain receptors at 7 weeks that are fully linked to the brain by 12 weeks, and at 15 weeks the brain’s hemispheres are connected with the nerves in the spine to signal pain and a stress response to anything invasive. The humanity of the unborn from the point of conception has been well established in the scientific community. Abortion is the taking of an innocent human life at its most vulnerable. Since 1973’s Roe v. Wade, there have been almost 70 million abortions. Only a statistic? Not when you consider that each and every one of those 70 million preborn children were in the process of being handcrafted by our Creator, were created in the image of God, and thus has a God-given value and enjoys eternal worth. There has been a growing callousness in our general society toward the worth and dignity of children ever since abortion has become such an accepted part of our culture. Abortion is a barbaric violation of the sacred intimacy between mother and child, and is an abomination in the eyes of God. It is unthinkable that in a civilized society it would be acceptable to pick up a sharp scalpel, reach into the womb of a pregnant mother, slice up the fetus into small enough parts to suction out with a miniature vacuum cleaner, and dispose of the remains into a trash bag to be taken out with the afternoon trash. It is equally unthinkable that half of the abortions now are accomplished at home, with no medical personnel at hand, and taking two pills that have resulted in death of the mother as well as the unborn child (see “M’ below). In the U. S. society, the innocent blood of these children is crying out to God from the ground. The voices of these victims seem to be getting louder and louder. (For descriptions of abortion procedures, see “K” and “M” below).
B is for Birth Control: The contraceptive “Pill” hit the American market in earnest in 1965. By 1967, nearly 13 million women in the world were using it. And by 1984 that number would reach 50–80 million. The woman who made that happen was none other than the proponent of eugenics, Margaret Sanger (1879–1966), the founder of the American Birth Control League which later became Planned Parenthood. Contraception was controversial right from the start, and it remains an issue on which Christians cannot seem to agree in any unified way. The Roman Catholic Church voiced major moral objections to artificial contraception, based on ‘natural law’ and also on the bad consequences that will result if contraception is widely used. John Paul 2 once said that the issue of contraception was a “struggle for the value and meaning of humanity itself” (1978). Catholic policy on birth control is also derived from the way the Church views the nature of marital sexuality and responsible parenthood. The Catholic Church teaches that the physical expression of love between husband and wife in sexual intercourse can’t be separated from the reproductive implications of both the act and marriage. Marital sex is seen as intimately involved in God’s design for the universe, and as something profoundly important that involves a person’s mind and spirit as well as their body. Many Christians continue to believe that artificial contraception is wrong because: it is against ‘natural law’; it breaks the natural connection between the procreative and the unitive purposes of sex; it turns sex into a non-marital act; it gives human beings the power to decide when a new life should begin, and that power belongs to God; it leads to widespread immorality; it damages the institution of marriage; it reduces male respect for women; it gives human beings the idea that they can have complete power over the body. Many Christians believe that the Pill started our culture on a slippery slope to where we are now in terms of the blatant disregard of human life.
C is for Children: Societies that don’t honor and value children will sooner or later not honor any stage of human life. When unborn babies, the most vulnerable of our children, are seen as a nuisance, an inconvenience, an added expense, then the death warrant of that culture has been signed, sealed and delivered. Creator God hates any type of dishonoring of children, any type of treatment that shows an unwillingness to accept the eternal value of children. Every child is made in the image of God, and so is a sacred human being. In the Judeo-Christian faith, children are honored, held up as valuable and treated as such. Jesus reserved one of his starkest warnings against those who would harm children. There was a special punishment reserved for those who harmed children in any way. Jesus even gave a recommendation for anyone who mistreated children: It would be better for you to have a huge boulder, a giant millstone, tied around your neck and be thrown into the deep blue sea, a punishment that is richly deserved. The devaluing and mistreatment of children today is rampant in our society. We could include many grotesque facts about how we are treating our children that are in the spirit of child sacrifice, including abortion (70 million and counting), pornography (1 in 5 teens have a porn habit), child abandonment (7,000 abandoned yearly), pedophilia and child abuse (7,000 abuse cases yearly), child sex trafficking (last year, over 500,000 men shared child sex videos, with the majority of those offenders averaging 13 victims each), fatherlessness (1 in 4 kids in U.S. are fatherless), surrogacy (newborns suffer a life-altering neural wound to the brain when separated from natural mother), and inadequate education for poor children. This is without delving into other enemies of children in our society, such as what the social media is doing to the mental health of our youth; the addictive qualities of video games; the presence everywhere of sexual confusion; the indoctrinating and grooming efforts of queer theory and gender ideology; the normalization of what used to be “abnormal,” such as drag queen story hours and Pride parades; the beckoning presence of mind-numbing screens to weaken their imaginations, lower literacy, and decrease their attention spans; the growing horror of gender-mutilation transitioning and the surgery and hormones that accompany that form of child abuse. We have treated children abominably as we continue to devalue them in contemporary times. To highlight this current problem of undervaluing children, there are now (2024) over 500,000 unaccompanied minors who have been released at our border into the country as immigrants, and 325,000 of them were handed over to unvetted sponsors and are now unaccounted for! These children are extremely vulnerable to traffickers and cartels selling them to the highest bidder. All of this places the children in high-risk situations. It seems that wherever we find adult evildoers in our society, it’s the women and children who are paying the price. How and when did children become a curse instead of a blessing in our country?
D is for Death Wish: The American society has evolved into a culture of death. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks once stated that one of the most powerful and dangerous of all human drives is the death instinct.” (Covenant and Conversation: Numbers). Rabbi Sacks goes on to say that this death instinct, this inner impulse for self-destruction, overrides our pleasure instinct. The United States is unmistakably surrendering to that death wish as our society is accepting to the point of callousness the acceptable presence of human death. The evidence is overwhelming: Abortions (70 million and counting); Suicides (over 50,000 last year alone); Homicides (over 25,000 last year); Drug Overdose (over 107,000 last year); Morbid Obesity (called “slow suicide,” more than 300,000 from complications); Assisted Suicide (also called “Medical Aid in Dying” and “Death with Dignity” (legal in ten states, causing over 5,300 deaths thus far, and increasing); Frozen Embryos from IVF (untold millions of conceptions). When innocent blood is shed, the land is defiled, and “the sound of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.” (Gen. 4:10). Wherever the sanctity of human life is violated, human society becomes contaminated. A culture that tolerates the taking of innocent life is morally polluted and will not be able to sustain healthy life. This seems to be a principle built into God’s creation. Ungodly death is like pouring toxic chemicals onto a nation’s spiritual ground, rendering the land barren, fruitless, unable to sustain life. When human life is not valued or protected, holy ground becomes unholy. The life-giving potential of a land is in jeopardy when a nation is stained with innocent blood. In his commentary on this passage from the book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible, noted scholar and rabbi Jonathon Sacks has this to say… “Since the human person is the image of God, murder is not merely a crime; it is a sacrilege. It defiles the land. It desecrates something holy, namely human life.” He goes on in his commentary to quote a famous rabbinic teaching on the profound importance of a single human life. “Anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world, and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.” Taking America’s death trend to the logical conclusion, consider the growing environmental movement entitled, ”Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.” To some radicals, human life is not valuable or sacred, it’s basically expendable and worthless.
E is for Euthanasia: Euthanasia is the practice of ending the life of a patient to limit the patient’s suffering. In times past the “patient” in question would typically be terminally ill or experiencing hopeless pain and suffering. But now the person may not be a patient at all, and not suffering from any pain. The word “euthanasia” itself ironically comes from the Greek words “eu” (good) and “thanatos” (death). There are many euphemisms for euthanasia, including the right to die, mercy killing, death with dignity, physician-assisted suicide, and now the more common “Medical Aid in Dying.” The M.A.I.D. system in the Canadian national health care program accounts for 1 of every 5 deaths there. Euthanasia is the 5th leading cause of death in Canada, and the numbers continue to climb. Plans are in the works now for the mentally impaired to be eligible for MAID, and can the physically disabled be that far behind? We have ten states in the U.S. that have legalized M.A.I.D., resulting in 5,300 deaths thus far. One shudders to think if any momentum travels from Canada and then grows in America. We hope that there won’t be the day in the U.S. when the elderly or infirm in our hospitals and nursing homes have to post a friend or relative bedside to keep the medical staff from pulling the plug.
F is for Fatherhood: America is suffering through an era when fathers are missing in action, and the result is the current “Fatherless Generation.” Men who abandon wife and child are practicing a passive form of child abuse. There are currently almost 20 million children living in a home without a father, 19.5 million to be exact. That means that one out of every 4 children in the U.S. are not living with a father. There are millions more children who live with emotionally distant but physically present fathers. The fathers who disconnect from their child, whether physically or emotionally, deeply harm the child and are doing that child no favors. Boys without fathers are 4 times more likely to live in poverty, 4 times more likely to commit a crime, twice as likely to drop out of school, and twice as likely to end up in prison. Girls without fathers are 7 times more likely to get pregnant as teenagers. 90% of homeless/runaway children are from fatherless homes. 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. Children without fathers are more likely to face poverty, abuse or neglect, have behavioral problems, and abuse drugs/alcohol. There are 17.7 million school-age children living in a home without a father. Our Father in heaven must be grieving over this form of child abuse. Fatherhood is a privilege and a duty and a labor of love. Nothing in life brings more joy and fulfillment than fatherhood. Men! Man up!
G is for Gender Transition Surgery: There is a growing horror show in the U.S. that has the full approval of the American Medical Association… the practice of gender transition surgery. Dr. Martin Makary says too many pediatricians falsely believe their young patients might commit suicide if they don’t get the gender reversals they request. “The worst thing you can do in science is to tell a parent or a patient something with such absolutism, saying that it’s scientifically supported, when it’s not,” he said. “Turns out that the increased suicide risk is driven not by the gender dysmorphia diagnosis that’s assigned to the child, but rather the underlying mental health disturbances.” Even minors are involved in this legal form of child abuse and mutilation of vulnerable teens, with some estimates at 10% of gender reassignment being done to minors. There, is of course, the usual re-naming of this procedure to make it acceptable to the public, such as gender reassignment, gender affirming care, the cure for gender dysphoria, the innocent changing of one’s gender identity from what has been one’s sex assignment since conception. Here is what is being done to young people not old enough to make such permanent choices: Boys who choose to become girls experience breast enhancement, female hormones to round the hips, pitch the voice higher, castration of genitalia, reduction of muscle mass, laser removal of facial hair, irreversible puberty blockers that delay development of natural hormones, and even the creation of an artificial vagina. Girls who choose to become boys receive heavy doses of male testosterone, facial reconstruction, vocal surgery to lower pitch of voice, irreversible puberty blockers to delay female development, breast removal, artificial penis and testicle construction using vaginal tissue, a hysterectomy to remove the uterus and ovaries, a vaginectomy to remove the vagina, and the addition of hormones to increase muscle mass. Doctors are now performing double mastectomies on girls as young as 12 years old. This macabre experiment in gender theory is now seen by many as a ‘social contagion” with vulnerable teens who are easily seduced by the idea of it if their friends do it. There were 12,000 gender surgeries in 2020, and in 2021 there were 42,000 children and teens who were “expertly” diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Between 2016-2020, there were over 48,000 gender surgeries. The truth is that this is mutilation done with the approval of the medical system that sees dollar signs in the whole business. The fact is that all the desperate minors and adults who subject themselves to this operation of their bodies need counseling and not permanent surgery. For the most part, gender reassignment is an abusive solution to a temporary problem, since a vast majority of those teens diagnosed with gender dysphoria freely accept their natural gender after puberty. Thank God that many have now publicly regretted their decision, but tragically they don’t have any easy path to undoing what was done.
H is for Home Life: “How fortunate, how happy are you who fear the Lord, you who are filled with reverence for Him. All of us who follow His ways are to be envied, because God Himself will bless us! You will enjoy the fruit of your labor and be fulfilled in your work. How joyful and prosperous you will be! Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous newly planted olive trees as they sit all around you at the family table. This is all the Lord’s blessing for those who fear Him, for those who are filled with awe and reverence for Him.” (Psalm 128:1-3). There is no greater joy than when home life is treasured and given the highest calling in an adult’s life. A stable nuclear family, with mother and father and children, is the building block of society. The world is designed to be family centered. Psalm 128 describes the happy home, in which a supreme blessing of God is to enjoy the fulfillment of being surrounded with family, with a husband, a wife and children around the table. Unhealthy societies, on the other hand, view the family as unimportant and the children as a curse. The anti-family culture in which we live now in America is bound to fall flat on its face. Marriage has become an afterthought, and children are seen more as a curse, not a blessing. Happy homes are centered on the family table. Sharing a meal together is a sacred time of family fellowship. The family table is like an altar in the domestic church, a place where God’s love is the centerpiece of the home. Psalm 128 totally ignores ambition of any kind. Instead, we are called to “enjoy the fruit of our labors,” and not seek our primary fulfillment in getting ahead, acquiring wealth, collecting possessions, becoming powerful, or any other earthly measures of success. Instead, we are presented with a heavenly view of what constitutes success. The ideal of enjoying the modest blessings of a productive job and happy home are held high. There is no room in Scripture for human sacrifice in the form of sacrificing the life of spouse and children for fulfillment outside the home. The Judeo-Christian tradition is that home life comes first in cooperation with the Lord. God has designed each of us to find our greatest achievement in establishing a happy home. If God blesses a married couple with children, whether by fostering, adopting or naturally, there is no greater responsibility and sacred trust.
I is for Infanticide: It has been traditionally defined as the killing of a child within one year of its birth. A relatively new term, Neonaticide, is now used to refer to an infant being killed within 24 hours of its birth. Infanticide, neonaticide, is unthinkable to civilized people, but the U.S. has a very spotty history regarding this grotesque way of denying the right to life of a newborn. The infamous case of “Baby Doe’’ in 1982 was a situation in which a newborn with Down’s Syndrome was rejected by the mother and allowed by the medical personnel to place the baby in another room and left alone to die of starvation. The case was brought to the County Courts, and they approved of it. And then it was brought to the Indiana State Supreme Court, who once again approved of that act, making it perfectly legal to commit infanticide. At that time, a doctor was quoted as saying that it was not at all uncommon, with many prestigious hospitals allowing newborns with a disability to die, a passive infanticide. This highly immoral act was brought to the surface once again in 2019 when Virginia Governor Raph Northan calmly explained how he approved of the infanticide of an impaired newborn. He was a pediatric surgeon of all things, and he saw no moral problem with denying life-giving care to a newborn. To this day in 2024, there are seven states that have legalized late-term abortions up to the point of birth, and each year there are a reported 13,000 deaths of preborn babies due to late-term abortions. We would have thought that modern science would have complicated things for him and many others… Surgeons are now able to perform life-saving surgery on unborn babies while still in utero. So on the one hand, a doctor can offer heroic surgeries on unborns, but on the other hand the doctor can simply sit on his hands and watch a newborn starve to death. Apparently, if a baby is wanted, it has inherent value, and save the baby at all costs. On the other hand, if the baby is not wanted, the baby has no value, and just let it starve and throw it out with the trash. And still on the other hand, a person responsible for the death of an unborn child within the pregnant mother will be charged with manslaughter. And science raises another question in this matter… If a viable unborn is delivered, no matter how many months of development, is it considered infanticide to perform an abortion on that baby?
J is for the Just War: Despite at one time being a pacifist, I have come to accept the idea that I would fight and kill if I had to for self-defense and defense of my family. In this age of terrorism, the Just War theory needs to be accepted. Down through history Christians have been everything from fierce warriors to passive doves, from soldiers to pacifists. What does the Christian faith embrace when it comes to fighting a war? Here are some quotes from G. K. Chesterton, from his book Orthodoxy. “Christianity had established a rule and order, but the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild. The Crusaders were very fierce, and the saints were very meek… Love and wrath both burning. There was room for wrath and love to run wild. Both passions were free because both were kept in their place. It is true that the Church told some men to fight and others not to fight. And it is true that those who fought were like thunderbolts, and those who did not fight were like statues. They existed side by side. Pure gentleness and pure fierceness.” So are there moral guidelines that help to keep the fighters “in their place?” When was war acceptable in the eyes of the Christian faith? Passionate fighting could not run so wild that it was outside of Christianity’s “rule and order.” Sure enough, down through history, many thoughtful Christians have tried to give moral direction to warfare, and the result is the “Just War theory.” These guidelines provide a reasonable way that persons of any faith could fight in good conscience, if the Lord was leading them to fight in the first place. If a particular war did not meet the following conditions, the war was unjust and thus immoral. The following are the traditional guidelines for moral warfare and the methods of warfare: 1. For national self-defense; 2. As a last resort after all else fails; 3. When formally declared, to give fair warning; 4. To secure peace, not national honor or conquest; 5. When bloodshed involves military only, not civilians; 6. When all prisoners, and those who surrender, are spared; 7. When fought to provide justice and protect the innocent. Clearly, indiscriminate bloodshed is not a moral option, nor is any bombing that takes the life of innocent civilians. But for many of us, all bets are off when it comes to defending oneself or one’s loved ones, whether a dangerous neighborhood bully or a bloodthirsty terrorist bent on your destruction. The Just War theory is a pro-life idea.
K is for Knowing the Facts: Sorry to say, but the pro-abortion crowd has very little imagination. There are so many time-worn cliches and empty slogans thrown around by anti-life proponents that fact-checking them is important so that we don’t accept them without thinking. When we hear phrases that are obviously questionable and possibly untruthful, it’s time to tackle them with clear thinking and common sense. In examining their slogans, we need to follow the science with moral reasoning. So much of what is said is obvious spin, is not grounded in reality, and does not make logical sense: “My body, my choice!” In truth, the whole point of a pregnancy is that another entirely different body is growing inside the woman. The unborn baby is dependent on the pregnant woman, but the baby still maintains its own autonomy as a separate human being. The baby has its own DNA, genetic framework, and everything from conception that makes the baby develop its own body. No, it’s not the pregnant woman’s body, it’s the baby’s body. “Don’t worry about it, the fetus doesn’t feel a thing!” The latest fetal research reports that the unborn baby is already forming pain receptors at 7 weeks that are fully linked to the brain by 12 weeks. The fetus is sensitive to touch at 13 weeks, and at 15 weeks the brain’s hemispheres are connected with the nerves in the spine to signal pain and a stress response to anything invasive. So, yes, the fetus does indeed start to feel pain quite early in its development. “But we don’t even know when a human life actually begins!” Everything that makes us human began at the fixed point of conception. Science has no doubts when human life begins, but so many still wonder as if it’s a grand mystery. At conception the fertilized egg is given its DNA Blueprint, the genetic instructions that determine everything from gender to skin color to blood type to even hair/eye color, and perhaps even to height, weight, personality and future health. After conception, just provide nutrients and protection and this little human being grows from one stage to another. At conception, the human identity has officially begun. Besides, allow the unborn to develop, and what do you have… a fish? A turtle? A bird? “Reproductive Freedom!” At what cost? Do we have the freedom to harm or destroy another innocent person for our own benefit? Are we free to give someone else a death sentence who can’t speak for himself? Does “pro-choice” mean we have the freedom to choose life or death for another person who has a natural right to life? Reproductive freedom for the woman has resulted in the baby’s freedom completely and permanently taken away. “The abortion procedure is simple and natural health care.” Not to the baby it’s not. (Warning: The following is true but is not for the faint of heart). The major abortion procedures are: (1.) Aspiration Abortion: During the first 12 weeks; a high-power suction tube is inserted into the uterus and proceeds to tear apart the baby’s body parts and suck them through a hose into a waste container; (2.) D. and C. Abortion: Up through the 12th week; a razor-sharp knife is inserted into the uterus and cuts the baby’s body apart into small enough pieces to be sucked out of the womb and placed in a waste container; (3.) D. and E. Abortion: Up through 18 weeks; a forceps is inserted into uterus, and the doctor dismembers the baby’s body parts by twisting and pulling out the dismembered parts, at which time the head is crushed in order to remove it; (4.) Saline Abortion: Between 4-7 months; a strong saline solution is injected into the uterus through the woman’s abdomen, which burns the baby’s skin off, dehydrates the baby, and eventually the baby dies from salt poisoning; (5.) Late-Term Abortion: The doctor injects Digoxin into the unborn baby’s heart, causing immediate heart attack and death. The next day the woman takes Misoprostol to stimulate contractions. The 3rd day, the woman delivers her dead baby; (6.) Partial-Birth Abortion: Performed by the doctor up to the time of delivery and sometimes during delivery; the unborn baby is placed feet-first in the breech position, at which time the doctor delivers the baby intact outside of the womb, leaving just the head in utero. The doctor then sucks out the brain matter from the baby’s cranium, crushes the cranium, and then delivers the dead baby’s body. There is no getting around the fact that abortion is grotesque, inhumane, and a personal affront to the God who created that baby. But of course abortion’s effects on the mother is equally important. Research on post-abortion women conclude that there is a greater risk of breast cancer, of future child-bearing, and the psychological impact that includes depression/anxiety, PTSD, guilt and regret, shame, and even suicidal thoughts as the woman has to endure many fluctuations of hormones in her body. The latest report on medical abortion-related deaths claims that there are at least 12 deaths yearly, though that figure is inaccurate because deaths go wildly unreported. There is still one more abortion procedure, chemical abortion, which is explained in “M” below.
L is for the Least, the Lost, and the Left Out. This phrase by Dr. Joel Green summarizes a pro-life lifestyle. Any person who values life will instinctively remember the “blessed forgotten,” and will advocate for those who are in danger from those who are intent on death. A pro-lifer is one who wants to remain a refuge and shelter for men, women and children who are powerless and in need of protection. A pro-life activist helps to dismantle unjust systems of power, and who works behind the scenes to change laws that defy the value of human life. It is to bring public awareness to the plight of those who are in harm’s way. Pro-life lifestyles include caring for the ‘least of these,’ remembering those who have been forgotten on the margins of society, and rescuing those who have lost their way, whose needs are largely ignored or misunderstood.
M is for Mifepristone and Misoprostol: The at-home abortion pill, also known as RU-486, was legalized in 2000, and now makes up 54% of all abortions in the U.S. This procedure is known as chemical abortion, as opposed to medical abortions or surgical abortions performed in clinics or hospitals. This abortion conveniently done in the privacy of the home, generally during the first trimester of the pregnancy, involves two chemicals: Mifepristone and Misoprostol. The first chemical is a synthetic steroid that blocks the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the fetus’ blood and nutrient supply, and eventually kills the unborn baby through starvation. Misoprostol is also synthetic, and is ingested 2-3 days after Mifepristone, inducing contractions and forcefully expelling the dead fetus in an early delivery. Pro-abortion proponents claim this chemical abortion to be completely safe but that is simply untrue. There have been at least 24 deaths reported, literally thousands of injuries to the pregnant women, and its complication rates are 4 times higher than a surgical abortion. These harmful effects of chemical abortions are now being documented: 10% of women reported a continuing pregnancy; 29% reported an extreme bleeding event with fever; 43% needed to quickly seek subsequent medical help from a qualified medical professional; 18% of women required a subsequent surgical abortion. In all cases, there are common abdominal pains for several days, and the heavy bleeding usually lasts between 9-16 days afterwards. 8% of the women reported the severe bleeding to last at least 30 days. There are many, many women who require hospitalization because of the acute hemorrhaging and the risk of infections. The truth is, chemical abortions at home kills the unborn baby and is a danger to the mother as well.
N is for the Natural Right to Life of Children. This is what it looks like to honor children, to value them, and to protect their God-given right to life, from conception to adulthood: What did Jesus mean when, after taking up a child into His arms, He said that whoever welcomes one of these little ones in His name in fact welcomes Him? (Mark 9:36). It seems to me that Jesus might be saying: Here’s the bottom line, people… I love children. I knit every one of their little bodies together in the womb, I strung together their DNA, I wired each nervous system. I breathed their first breath through my Spirit to each and every one of these children! I invented each personality, fashioned each child from scratch, and then danced a jig to celebrate every birth. I designed each child to represent much of what is true of my Kingdom: simple and transparent, playful and straightforward, relational and curious, zealous and dynamic, dependent and trusting. Children, all of them in general and each one in particular, are my pride and joy. Unfortunately, each one of my prize packages is also vulnerable in this fallen world of mine. So they have my heart, and I have their back. I’m like any devoted parent, only more so. I take personally whatever happens to them, as if it happens to Me. I’m like the parent who screeches “ouch!” when the child falls on the sidewalk. I identify so closely with my children that when a child is bullied, I feel the humiliation. When a child is victimized, I feel the shame and revulsion. When a child is harmed in any way, I head in the direction of justice for that child. On the other hand, when a little ragamuffin kid is received with kindness and respect, I feel like I’m being received that way too. When parents graciously open their hearts and home to be blessed with a child – as an act of faith and trust – they had better set an extra plate at the table for Me. When schools welcome students into their classrooms as honored guests made in my image, they’d better get an extra desk for Me. Whoever welcomes a child welcomes me, the Lord of children. And into this process arrives the Father, from whom all fatherhood gets its name. I become a household name whenever love for children is a natural outgrowth of love for Me, whether the child is sick or healthy, athletic or awkward, academic or artistic, passive or exuberant, a rock star or someone who is easily lost in the shuffle. I especially root for those underdogs, because I know what that feels like. I was once an unknown child, often dismissed as being “just a kid.” As I grew, I was considered a fool and a misfit. I remained a child at heart, even though I was judged and abused as an adult. I know what those children feel like in an adult world. So, by all means, by every means, welcome My children into your embrace, and you will find that you’d better open your arms a little wider, because I’m right there with you. Make room in that embrace for Me too. And don’t even think about mistreating my children. I have a millstone waiting.
O is for OB-GYNs: The good news is that there are thriving organizations in the medical profession that are choosing to be witnesses to the dignity of human life at all stages of growth. These include the American College of Family Medicine, and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. AAPLOG, for instance, has been operating since 1973, and continues to add to its membership of many thousands. Its stated mission is “to encourage and equip medical practitioners to provide an evidence-based rationale for defending the lives of both the pregnant mother and her unborn child.” Also, it is encouraging to hear of so many primary care physicians who are starting their own pro-life practices, such as Benedict Medicine, a primary care clinic that is driven by “the best of today’s medical knowledge within a context that sees each person as made in the image and likeness of God.” These lights in the darkness partners with the American College of Pediatricians, and maintains a large network of pro-life physicians. Their medical ministry is a noble and righteous one that are done on the front lines of pro-life concerns, and deserves our prayers and support. The bad news is that in the mainstream medical field, there are so many pro-abortion organizations, such as the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the nation’s premier obstetricians and gynecologists professional organization, the “American College of OB-GYNs” (ACOG), which has even gone to the extent of barring pro-life doctors at ACOG’s national conference recently. Why? Because the pro-life physicians “believe in the equal sanctity of all human life.” The anti-abortion doctors were planning on sharing science-based information about life in the womb, and evidently that was going too far for ACOG. In a medical profession that has taken a sacred oath to “First, Do No Harm,” abortion seems to be the opposite of what one might think. Scientists are refusing to follow the science Go figure. Pray for those medical professionals who are faced literally every day with life and death decisions regarding both the needs of pregnant women and the life of those unborn babies.
P is for Planned Parenthood: PP, with over 600 abortion clinics in the U.S., is the nation’s largest abortion provider, performing 354,000 abortions per year, 39% of America’s abortions. It has now found a business bonanza in becoming the leading proponent and provider of chemical abortion pills (see “M” above), as well as the Plan B “morning-after pill” and the Ella “morning-after pill.” PP enjoys tax-exempt status as a 503 (c)(3) non-profit corporation, while at the same time reporting $2.1 billion in net assets. It officially receives $633 million yearly from the federal government, our tax dollars at work. Private funding contributes $597 million on top of that. Congress recently revealed, though, that PP actually received over $1.78 billion from the federal government between 2019-2020, most of that from Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP reimbursements. PP self-reports that abortion is only 3% of their services, but that figure has been largely debunked. The reality is that they perform an abortion for every 8 patients they see. PP also provides sterilization services for both women and men, and a cornucopia of birth control contraceptives to women of all ages. Another source of PP’s revenue is selling the body parts of aborted babies for science research. There is an official statement from PP that it “receives reasonable reimbursements for its tissue donation services.” PP is clearly fruit from a poison tree. Its founder was the notorious eugenicist Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), who was a white supremacist, a racist, an anti-Semite, and she founded Planned Parenthood in order to solve “the Negro Problem.” She was quoted as calling PP her “Negro Project.” Her goal in life was to eliminate all those who were poor, disabled, people of color, the ‘feeble-minded,’ and all those other “undesirables.” She sponsored a program of forced sterilizations that resulted in at least 70,000 victims, and her brainchild in 1960 became known as “The Pill.” After her death, PP continued her legacy and built an abortion clinic in poor, urban areas that were populated by people of color, especially the African Americans whom she particularly despised. To this day, there are PP clinics in black areas of urban centers. New York City currently has more black abortions than births, and PP has been called the leader in the “Black Holocaust.” Finally, the official PP position has recently tried to disavow any connection to Margaret Sanger, and as recently as 2021 has gone on record as stating that they “are done making excuses for our founding,” to the extent that Sanger’s name has been removed from their headquarters. They may have removed Sanger’s name, but they continue much success in those areas of the country full of her “undesirables.” If PP was serious about removing their legacy, they would remove the urban abortion clinics, and might even consider removing abortion from their list of services. But everyone knows their bottom line… Money and financial profit.
Q is for Queer Theory: As defined by queer theorists, they intend to live in a way that “challenges traditional beliefs regarding gender and sexuality.” It holds strongly to belief in a “fluid nature in sexuality outside of heterosexuality.” Queer theory promotes, in their own words, the idea of being “socially deconstructive.” This includes dismantling the traditional view of family and the introduction of sexual preferences in our society. They want to promote “a resistance to whatever is normal, whatever is at odds with normalcy.” Queer theory is “anti-normal,” and seeks that which is “non-normal.” This theory has developed into an “abnormal” lifestyle to those who are seduced by it. At latest count, there are at least 72 genders from which anyone may freely choose. Sexuality is seen as a spectrum that includes at least 15 types of sexuality, including the acronym that is widely known as LGBTQIA+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (or Questioning), Intersex, Asexual, Androgynous, and many more. Just to be clear… Every human being is born into brokenness, we inherited a brokenness that can be experienced in any number of ways. Sexual confusion and the immorality that springs out of that confusion, is not any worse than any other kind of brokenness. The mistaken idea that we can prefer one gender or sexuality over another is a sign of brokenness, and needs to be healed like any other sign of brokenness. I can be born with a nasty temper or a gene that may lead to alcoholism. But that doesn’t mean I’m thus freed to express those signs of brokenness as I live my life. They need to be healed, not promoted or indulged. If I do embrace signs of brokenness, I have chosen to live independent of God’s guidelines. This rejection of our Creator’s standards is probably attributed to our overwhelming hubris: HUBRIS: a Greek word that means excessive pride; exaggerated self-conceit; overwhelming self-confidence; sheer arrogance; in ancient Greece, hubris was a character flaw reflecting a defiance of the gods, when someone would foolishly or maliciously act against the divine order; someone with hubris always has a lack of self-awareness and won’t stop to examine his behavior or consider other actions; people with hubris are generally too full of themselves to question their motives or actions; people who are overcome with hubris eventually bring about their own downfall. As Rabbi Jonathon Sacks once wrote, “If Scripture is our guide, what makes God laugh is a person’s delusion of grandeur.” It seems to me that our Lord God has an ironic sense of humor. He is reported to have deep belly laughs when He looks at mankind and sees how ridiculous we can be. He seems to laugh whenever we humans do things that are laughably absurd. God sees irony everywhere as He observes behavior that is unexpectedly foolish in light of His greatness. God seems amused when He sees the opposite of what one should expect in a God-filled universe. He is aghast at attitudes that defy logic from His perspective. Knowing full well our natural weakness as humans, God isn’t surprised by anything. Is it that we don’t have a high enough view of God? Is it that we have too high a view of ourselves? Both? God scorns our unholy shenanigans, of course, but His scorn is always infused with His mercy, with pity. He knows that we are made of dust and are especially vulnerable to our weak spots as humans, what St. John calls our major temptations: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 John 2:16). Our hubris is a tributary from the river of pride, our decision to trust our own instincts instead of His guidelines for a flourishing life. Like the Father He is, God loves us so much that He rejects whatever might be destructive to us, whatever might come to harm us or our relationship to Him. God’s righteous scorn comes out of His eternal protective instinct. Out of His goodness, God established a moral universe. Since the profoundly tragic fall of mankind, His overall moral universe remains, but for our own good, immorality has to be dealt with and judged. Because of the way God created the world, there are rights and wrongs, the moral and immoral, the righteous and the unrighteous. When we decide to disbelieve in God, or in the traditional biblical world view, then anything can happen since there is no reliable way to make the right decisions. Once we lose our moral compass, human behavior us up for grabs. In the New Testament, the Greek word “porneia” is used to include a wide variety of sexual sins, including prostitution, incest, fornication, sexual activity outside marriage (adultery), homosexuality, lesbianism, promiscuity and pedophilia. Any sexual activity outside the boundaries as stated in Genesis 2:24-25 and quoted by Jesus in Matthew 19:4-6 is considered outside the divine model for sexual activity. All humans are greatly susceptible to these sins, and the blood of Jesus will cleanse any of us from those moral failures. The definitive word from Jesus: “Haven’t you read the Scriptures about creation? The Creator made us male and female from the very beginning, and for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, sticking to her like glue. He will be literally joined with his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Husband and wife will be two persons united into one.” (Mathew 19:4-6). And why is this a pro-life issue? Because healthy sexual practices are vital to the health of a society. When the home life and traditional family is dismantled, the society will collapse and no longer flourish the way God intended. Queer theory has the traditional family unit in its crosshairs, and when that disintegrates, the value of human life, starting with children, is diminished.
R is for Reversal Pill: APR (Abortion Pill Reversal) is the protocol of giving the hormone progesterone to pregnant women up to the 7th week of pregnancy in order to counteract and outcompete with the mifepristone taken in the midst of a chemical abortion at home. (see “M” above). The APR must be administered within 72 hours of that first chemical taken, and before the second chemical misoprostol is taken. Progesterone has been regularly accepted in the medical establishment since the 1950’s for those women susceptible to a miscarriage. According to Heartbeat International, this protocol has already saved at least 5,000 babies from being aborted. As one would expect, the abortion proponents have deemed APR as being “dangerous,” “unsafe,” “ineffective,” “experimental,” a product of misinformation, and “based on unethical research.” Colorado has submitted to this propaganda by making the APR illegal and declaring its use as “medical misconduct.” APR is being promoted, though, by a network of over 7,000 medical professionals who staunchly believe APR as safe and should be available to all pregnant women. “APR rescue is an evidence-based therapy that has saved the lives of thousands of children whose mothers began a chemical abortion but then changed their minds” (Dr. Christine Francis, MD, the CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs).
S is for Sanctity of Human Life: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make humankind in Our image, according to Our likeness… So God created humankind in His own image; in the image of God He made him; male and female He created them… Then God formed a person from the dust of the ground, and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life, so that He became a living being.”(Gen. 1:26-27 and 2:7). Every human person carries God’s holy fingerprint. Therefore all of human life is sacred, and we all participate one way or another in the sanctity of human life. Every person we see is sacred, set apart to represent and reflect a holy God. That person we love to hate is sacred. And so is each of us. We all have a sacred center that can never be fully erased, since we all bear the image of God. Since we are all image-bearers, let us treat each other accordingly. Let’s not limit our perspective of someone to that person’s chosen identity. Instead, each of us can certainly choose to recognize the central identity in each person, the fact that each person is created to resemble God. Let us treat each human humanely, as an image-bearer worthy of respect, empathy and compassion. God is saying to each of us… Every person is sacred to me, you are not to despise, disrespect or mistreat My handiwork! Every person you don’t like, or who is doing something you don’t like; every person you don’t understand, or you don’t want to understand; every person you look down on simply because he/she is beneath you… All of them have something in common: Every person is made in the image of God, a hand-crafted original, breathing with the very breath of the Creator, possessing a dignity above the rest of creation; Each person is individually loved by a personal God, who in fact died for that person. God in the flesh would have sacrificed Himself for that person if s/he was the only living person on earth. Believe it or not, God continues to identify with each person. If we mistreat a fellow image-bearer, God takes it personally. When we disrespect someone else, God objects and is affronted. “Whoever mocks poor people insults their Creator.” (Proverbs 17:5). Likewise, when we show compassion, we affirm our Maker. Loving others is a primary way we show our love for God. When we love other people, we are respecting and honoring the handiwork of God. When we forget that a person is an image-bearer, we essentially are dehumanizing and dishonoring that person. Instead, let us humanize every person before we ignore, demean or judge them. Let us embrace the sublime humanity of each person we meet. To honor the image of God in a person doesn’t mean we endorse what they are doing or not doing. Each and every person is sacred: gay or straight; law-breaking or law-abiding; rich or poor; all races, all religions, all ethnic groups; each gender; every age, old or young; disabled or able-bodied; undereducated or well-schooled; rural or urban; mentally impaired or not; homeless or not; emotionally troubled or at peace; progressive or traditional; promiscuous or chaste; dreamer or realist; weak or strong. Everyone you see is sacred and deserves our honor and respect. Let us learn to identify each other with our common identity, made in the image of Christ, and thus of priceless value. “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.” (C S. Lewis).
T is for Technologies of Reproduction: Many have claimed that the more mechanical an era, the less humane it becomes. Our contemporary age tends to support that theory. Take the IVF phenomenon, for instance. Little does the world know that literally millions of frozen embryos have been discarded or given to science in the IVF process. This is a seen as a profound tragedy to those who believe that human life begins at conception. Research reveals that only 7% of embryos produced in the lab via IVF will eventually survive the process. Evidently, most of the fertilized eggs, which are conceived human beings, remember, die from either the unsuccessful thawing of the frozen embryo, or being forgotten in a freezer after a few years, or a failure to successfully implant in the surrogate’s womb, or are discarded after being rejected because of being at-risk or the wrong gender. The huge increase of surrogacy is another unfortunate case of when an advanced technology went ahead of any moral considerations. In this case, we are referring to the process in which sperm provided by the intended father is used to fertilize an egg from the egg donor which has no intention of remaining that baby’s mother. It has been termed the “rent-a-womb” process, in which a pregnancy is produced in order for the father to enjoy “his” child. The fertilized embryo is implanted into the surrogate mother, and when the pregnancy reaches full term and the baby is delivered, the father will assume parenthood. There is no maternal bonding immediately after birth, and there is no natural mother raising the child as it grows older. Surrogacy denies each child’s right to have a natural mother. Surrogacy is an industry that mistreats children, for many reasons: The baby is deprived of a mother-baby bonding at birth, because of the intentional separation of baby from the surrogate as soon as the baby is delivered. This has, naturally, been known to produce a “primal wound” in the child. This separation at birth has dire consequences, including the recently researched fact that natural mother separation at birth actually alters the structures of the infant brain. Infant separation from mother is very traumatic on the infant and might even produce permanent consequences. As the child grows older, children raised in a home without the natural mother, without that vital maternal love, will experience a gaping hole in the child psyche, because children are created to depend on maternal love as they mature, as well as father love. It is logical too that a child born from a surrogate will have all kinds of identity problems, wondering who provided the other half of one’s DNA and genetic background… I seem to have my father’s nose, but where did I get my hair color? The billion-dollar surrogacy business treats infants as a commodity, something bought and sold, and not a successfully conceived sacred human being. In a worst-case scenario that tragically has repeated itself around the world at a shocking level, there are times when the child is intentionally produced to be trafficked and thus become a money maker. This is nightmare material, and a horror story that has been documented around the world. Believe it or not, surrogate babies are shipped worldwide, with no vetting of interested parents or screening of pedophile backgrounds. The welfare of the children being acquired isn’t even considered by those conducting the business. There are cases of pedophile rings being established this way. This whole business is so easily taken advantage of by those who are warped and evil, that perhaps the whole surrogacy industry should be shut down.
U is for Unmasking Pornography: What if someone offered an easy way to get personally involved in an activity that will: (1.) become an addiction that might develop into an obsession that would be tremendously difficult to break; (2.) rewire your brain in such a way that you become increasingly self-centered, distant from others, prone to depression and anxiety, and lose your willpower and self-control; (3.) cause you to think of women as sex objects and not made in the image of God; (4.) warp your appreciation of pure feminine beauty; (5.) make it very difficult to have healthy, self-giving romantic relationships; (6.) give you a flawed understanding of masculinity and manhood; (7.) make it difficult for you to distinguish between love and lust; (8.) increasingly separate you from the ones who love you the most, such as parents, siblings and grandparents; (9.) trade your 12 minutes of pleasure for a lifetime of loneliness, emptiness, and twisted thinking; (10.) give you increasing cravings that still prove to be unsatisfying at a deep level; (11.) enable you to support a billion dollar business dependent on degrading and using women who then lose all sense of dignity as a sacred human being; (12.) make you develop an impure version of God’s great gift of sexuality; (13.) numb you to the glorious reality that surrounds you. This doesn’t sound like such a great deal for yourself, does it? Pornography, which is viewing or reading explicit material intended for the sole purpose of stimulating erotic feelings and producing sexual arousal, does all that and more. Yes, sexual brokenness has been around forever in human history, but why is it so pervasive now? Porn seems to have been accepted now as an innocent, victimless recreational activity because, with the onset of the internet, it is anonymous, private, easily accessible, and culturally accepted at an increasingly younger age. The porn industry rakes in $13 billion a year in the U. S., and one porn site reports 81 million visits per day. The relaxing of laws and guidelines regarding obscenity is only making matters worse. And the slippery slope to depravity has only regressed to child sex videos (in 2023, there were over 500,000 child sex videos shared online), and reports of bestiality sex videos on YouTube. The biblical idea that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak has never been more pronounced. We live in a hypersexualized culture, and the triggers of temptation have never been more obvious. Now with smartphones in particular, we find that 97% of teens have been exposed to porn before the age of 18, with first-time usage as young as 12 years old. It is now a proven fact that the younger a boy starts to dabble in pornography, the more difficult it is to break free from it later on. Over 60% of adults in the U.S. use porn on a regular basis, and 77% of weekly users are unaware of the harm it does to them. Professing Christians are proving to be just as vulnerable to porn as the general population, with 75% of pastors reporting that they regularly minister to believers in their congregation about their struggle with porn. Tragically, only 19% of professing Christians using porn on a regular basis are trying to stop. The harmful effects of pornography on mental health are well-documented, yet the temptations are too much for too many. The demonstrated cultural decline that comes with pornography is obvious. This is another battleground in a spiritual warfare, and every one of us must go out of our way to intentionally combat it. Jesus Christ is the only One who can overpower the enemy, transform hearts, and renew minds. So fervent prayer, biblical counsel, worship, the support of wide believers, and the porn user’s strength of will might be the only way to win this war. God bless us, everyone, as we all combat the great human weak spots of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16 ).” None of us are immune, and we all need each other exercising the power of the Spirit in this increasingly pornographic society. “The eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is.” (Jesus, from His Sermon the Mount, Matt. 6:22-23).
V is for Virtue-Based Values: The most astounding fact in the history of the universe is that our Creator God loves each of us whether or not we believe in Him. The heart of our Creator is purely pro-life, He wants what’s best for us. God has tried to make this obvious through history in many ways, but one important way is that He has shared with mankind would it takes to make us flourish. God’s common grace, His love for all, has laid down the law, so to speak, about what will make true community happen and for any society to thrive. God has provided direction as to what we need for our own well-being through His system of virtues. Virtues are qualities of moral excellence, goodness, character, integrity. Virtues are the guidelines set up by God to enable humans to live together successfully. A society full of people without integrity is like a parking lot without clearly marked parking spaces. A culture containing people without trustworthy goodness is a runaway train without guardrails on each side. A community full of people without solid character is a busy intersection without stop lights. A civilization trying survive without moral excellence is a sports field without established boundaries within which to play. Any society that doesn’t have commonly accepted virtuous guidelines is doomed to collapse, like a house of cards. Every law-abiding culture is basing their life together on virtues, on the people knowing the difference between right and wrong, good or bad, the behaviors needed to sustain it. Every civilization depends on the virtuous living, the civilized behavior, of those who make up the community. God has offered to all of us the moral guidelines needed to flourish and live together in peace. His Word states these guidelines very clearly a number of times. It’s no wonder the Ten Commandments, with its focus on worshipping the one true God and living in honesty, integrity, honoring parents and authority, respecting human life and sexual purity, remains in the Supreme Court courtroom and on many state capitol buildings and federal court houses across the U.S. Civic law, the assurance of a pro-life society, is based on those words to Moses. Time and again God tips His hand when it comes to virtues and goodness. Jeremiah offered his choices for the necessary virtues by mentioning mercy, justice and righteousness (Jer.9:24). Prophet Micah quoted the Lord as being delighted when we demonstrate mercy, execute justice, and walk humbly before Him (Micah 6:8). St. Paul lists some virtues that deserve our focus when he lists truth, honor, reverence, purity, justice, kindness, and graciousness (Phil. 4:8). The Greek philosophers decided to produce a list of the classic virtues of courage, wisdom, justice and moderation. Virtues like that discovered in the Bible or inspired in history, provide the moral compass for any society that wants to maintain itself and enable its people to live in peace together. Sooner or later, though, all these qualities of moral excellence are intended to point to the Source of all that goodness, our Creator God. Everything virtuous is a bubbling stream of live-giving water leading us back to the stream’s source, the eternal goodness of God. Sooner or later, any society that truly wants to help its people to not merely survive but to thrive, to reach their full potential and find ultimate self-fulfillment, must drink from the river of Love, the only human who lived a completely virtuous life, Jesus Christ. God’s Word is clear… All the virtues are summed up in love. It is love that binds together all the virtues: “Dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you. Robe yourself in the virtues of God, clothed in heartfelt compassion as you seek to understand others, showing kindness and humility, with gentleness and patience. Be even-tempered and content with second place. Be quick to forgive an offense, and forgive as quickly and completely as our Master Jesus has forgiven you. Bear with each other, tolerating each other’s weaknesses. Love is supreme, so let love flow through each of these virtues. For whatever else you put on, wear love, the hallmark of maturity. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment.” (Colossians 3:12-14, MSG). Love is the foundation for the pro-life ethic.
W is for the Womb as a Sacred Place: “You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother’s womb. I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord. You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place… carefully, skillfully, shaping me from nothing to something. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance. You saw who you created me to be before I became an embryo! (Psalm 139:13-16, a psalm of David; TPT). The mother’s womb isn’t that difficult to define. The womb is the physical organ of the woman that is constructed of muscles and ligaments and blood vessels that encircle the fetus, making a safe place for the unborn baby to grow and develop within the pregnant mother; a protected shelter that completely surrounds the growing child in the womb; a quiet and peaceful refuge, a nourishing sanctuary, and a life-giving haven for the developing unborn baby; the protective barrier that guards the growing fetus from outside danger. Creator God designed a safe place within each woman’s body to offer safe harbor to a growing baby when the woman is pregnant. This womb is of course necessary for a fetus to bond with its mother, to develop in peace, to be enveloped in loving nourishment, to grow in the security and trust needed to develop in a healthy way. This secure shelter within the pregnant woman prepares the baby to grow to the point where it will survive outside the womb. In the womb, the unborn baby is literally surrounded by a divinely designed system to protect and feed and cherish the child within her. The woman’s womb is the sanctuary in which the strongest human bond of love is established, the bond between mother and child. Womb is one of the root words for mercy in the Hebrew Bible. The word “rachem” is translated in Scripture as mercy, compassion, and womb. In the Hebrew mind, the womb is much more than the sacred place in a woman that enables the unborn baby to safely develop till birth. Womb also became a metaphor for mercy because of its linguistic roots. The Hebrew word rachem is intended to mean mercy-womb. God formed each of us with rachem when we were mere unborns, and we were conceived and nourished within His rachem, the mother’s mercy-womb. The baby within the woman is the ideal time to extend God’s compassion to that human being inside of her. The developing baby utterly depends on a mercy-womb. And God wants Himself to be experienced as our womb-sanctuary, our safe place in Him, our refuge and shelter. God Himself yearns to be experienced as a womb of mercy for each of us, a refuge and shelter and safe haven. The purpose of our lives is to live in God’s rachem, God’s womb of love.
X is for the X Factor: Believe it, there is always hope for a turnaround in our society. Sin is always accompanied by a super abundance of God’s grace. So what is the X Factor, that unknown change agent that will challenge this culture of death? What is the powerful influence that will tip the scales towards pro-life? What will make a qualitative difference in our society? Perhaps it will be our living application of salt to act as the preservative in our society, that will keep it from rotting and decaying (Matt. 5:13). Maybe it’s the shining of our light in this world that will apply the life-giving effects of light in a dark society: healing wounds, revealing truth, guiding the way, dispelling the darkness, sustaining life and growth, clarifying a compelling vision of what a pro-life society could look like (Matt. 5:14). Maybe the X Factor is an overwhelming number of individuals and communities who take Moses’ words of wisdom seriously, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death… Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life…” (Deut. 30:19). Perhaps the greatest pro-life act is the simple honoring of human life in lovingly raising more children. The definitive X Factor could very well be God’s Holy Spirit powerfully breathing His life-giving breath across our land, bringing a new Great Awakening, a fresh Jesus Movement. And with this revival of life in our culture, we just may find our culture’s healing and resurrection: “If my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My presence and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” (2 Chron. 7:14).
Y is for Yokefellows in the Cause: There are no Lone Rangers in pro-life activism. It’s a team project, and we’ll find greater strength in numbers. Hard-working oxen sharing the same yoke do whatever it takes to fit into the same yoke together in order to get the job done. They learn to trust each other and make good use of the other’s gifts. Don’t be surprised when you find yourself yoking together with unexpected partners in the cause. The Catholics will be marching right along the Baptists. The traditional housewives will be demonstrating at a pro-life rally with a staunch Feminist for Life. The life-honoring atheist will be amiably discussing these matters with the local parish priest. The life-long Democrat could very well be picketing an abortion clinic with a die-hard Republican. The disabled veteran might be volunteering at the local crisis pregnancy clinic with an absolute pacifist. The politically Independent could be co-writing a pro-life bill with a Libertarian. A single, white 19-year-old will be praying alongside a black 90-year-old grandmother. A rabbi might be leading a pro-life study group that includes a Muslim. The unifying factor in all this healthy diversity is the sanctity of life from conception through natural death. Differences don’t matter as much as the common cause. Pro-life yokefellows learn to support and care for each other despite any difference thy might have.
Z is for Zeal Guided by God: When used in the Hebrew Bible, the word zeal (Hebrew, “qinah”) means intense fervor, a fiery passion, an emotion that is a notch more heated than anger. In the New Testament (Greek, “zelos”) it means spiritually fervent to the point of becoming hot, seething. The root word refers to boiling water, something that is so hot it bubbles on the surface, or a solid material that is so hot it is glowing. As those who hold to the sanctity of human life look around in our society, it might be easy for us to become zealous, boiling mad, intensely passionate. Our insides could be seething as we consider all the anti-life realities right now and the lost lives that result: abortion, infanticide, euthanasia; a war on children and vulnerable women; our fathers are missing in action at the expense of the children; gender mutilation fully embraced by the medical profession; queer theory and its leadership in a moral decline; the immense popularity of pornography and obscenity; the cavalier disposal of frozen embryos; the dismantling of the traditional family and home life. And we haven’t even discussed the horrific reality of human trafficking in the modern era, a $150-billion industry that hideously treats women, children and men like commodities. There are recent estimates that there are about 50 million people being trafficked globally, and in the last five years trafficking has increased by 10 million people. Tragically, our own country of the U.S. of A. leads the world in human trafficking, and we are driving the demand because of our global leadership in consumers of sex. Our own country is the centerpiece of this outrageous evil! Nor have we mentioned other important pro-life matters, such as the horrific reality of domestic violence against women, the ongoing need for racial reconciliation, the plight of homelessness, the rising antisemitism. When we think seriously about all these things that are literally matters of life and death, our fervor could easily reach a fever pitch. We need to step back and remember that our zeal, our understandable moral outrage, needs to be guided by God. Our zeal for pro-life matters must be tempered by the righteous ways of God as we balance mercy and justice. Yes, Jesus was “consumed with zeal” when He forcibly threw out the moneylenders and merchants clogging up the Temple (Matt. 21), but can we trust ourselves to act out of the same completely pure righteous indignation of Jesus? I’m not sure we are able to act out of that same pure motivation. It’s a slippery slope from the righteous indignation of Christ to the unrighteous indignation of people. Yes, God expects us to “defend the defenseless, to give justice to the weak and fatherless, to maintain the rights of the oppressed and needy… to rescue the powerless and stand up for them, to deliver them from all who exploit them.” (Ps. 82). But the ends don’t justify the means. God’s works are to be done in God’s way. Heated rhetoric only leads to increased combativeness, unlike our instruction to “speak the truth in love.” (Ephes. 4:15). Animosity towards opponents is not God’s way, but loving and praying for your “enemy’ is God’s way (Luke 6:27). Demonstrating at an abortion clinic is God’s way, but destruction of property is not. Providing for the needs of a distraught pregnant mother is God’s way, but judging her in self-righteousness is not. Writing a pro-life bill in Congress is God’s way, but using deceit or inaccuracy to do so is not God’s way. One’s zeal for pro-life causes is best done when thoughtfully activated by prayer, scripture study, and the support of our faithful yokefellows.