by Pastor Patrick Cho
This past Sunday, January 22, 2012, was the thirty-ninth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade. In that decision, the Supreme Court ruled that it was the fundamental right of women, in accordance with the “due process” clause of the 14th amendment, to terminate a pregnancy in order to protect the mother’s health. The court also made it clear in that ruling that the unborn child is not protected as a person by the Constitution, and so the “right to life” does not apply to the child (Part IX, Sec. A). Roe v. Wade was ruled in conjunction with Doe v. Bolton, in which the court defined a woman’s health in broad terms taking into consideration “all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age.”
Since the Roe v. Wade decision, there have been over 50 million abortions in the United States alone. There are about 3,700 abortions each day in the U.S., and according to the Center of Bio-Ethical Reform, about 42 million abortions are performed annually worldwide. Only about 1% of abortions are performed after rape or incest, and only 6% are performed to protect either the mother’s or child’s health. An overwhelming 93% of abortions occur because of social reasons (i.e., the child is unwanted or inconvenient).
The Bible explicitly teaches that God values the lives of little children. During Jesus’ ministry, He claimed that the kingdom of heaven belonged to those who were dependent like children (Matt. 19:13-14). He even used a child to illustrate the principle of true greatness in humility (Matt. 18:1-6). Psalm 139:1-16 helps us to understand that God is intimately involved in the details of a person’s life, and that those details are in mind even when a child is in the womb.
When John the Baptist was not yet born, he leaped for joy in his mother’s womb when Mary approached (Luke 1:41-44). Even from this passage alone, it is clear biblically that life and personhood begins in the womb. John not only exhibited deliberate human behavior in the womb, but even human emotion. It used to be commonly thought that babies in the womb were insensitive and incapable of feeling pain. However, Dr. A. W. Liley found that a baby in the womb clearly experiences fear and pain:
“When doctors first began invading the sanctuary of the womb, they did not know that the unborn baby would react to pain in the same fashion as a child would. But they soon learned that he would. By no means a ‘vegetable’ as he has so often been pictured, the unborn knows perfectly well when he has been hurt, and he will protest it just as violently as would a baby lying in a crib” (H. M. I. Liley, Modern Motherhood, rev. ed. (New York: Random House, 1969), 50).
As we examined this past Sunday, the greatest example of God’s love for little children is seen in His willingness to forgive their sin and give grace to save them from eternal judgment. Even though Scripture is clear that people are born in sin (Ps. 51:5; 58:3; Eph. 2:3), the Bible also teaches that there is hope for babies that die.
When Job despaired of life and cursed the day he was born, he believed that to die stillborn or even to have miscarried would have brought him rest (Job 3:1-17). Solomon agreed that it would have been better to miscarry than to have a man be fooled by the pleasures of this world without understanding the greater purpose and meaning of life (Eccl. 6:3-5). Neither Job nor Solomon was concerned that a baby that died would spend an eternity in hell. When King David’s child died as a baby, he was comforted by the thought that they would one day be reunited in heaven (2 Sam. 12:23). In contrast to these examples, there is no place in Scripture that explicitly teaches that babies who die are destined for hell because of their innate sin.
My point is that God obviously loves children, and He obviously agrees that life begins in the womb. He loves these children even to the extent that He would freely save them by a special means of grace (not because they are sinless, but because he is gracious and good!). He does not condemn them eternally because of Adam’s sin. He certainly does not dismiss them as some tissue that can be disposed of. And if God would show such love, such care for these children, then we should likewise cherish them and love them.
Any American should appreciate the value of personal liberties, but there are certain principles that take priority over the exercise of personal liberty. This is obvious. I am not at liberty to steal someone else’s property or to take their life without punishment because of the laws and principles of this land. For the Christian, it is evident that the child in the womb is an individual person created in the image of God and valued by God, and God is the one who prohibits the taking of innocent life. The issue of how to view life in the womb is not as much about personal liberties as it is about loving the Lord, trusting what His Word says, and making life choices in response to its principles.