1.22.2005 | 32 years

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court, divided though they were, discovered a new right: the right to abortion. Getting past all of the legalese and the huckster talk of radical pro-abortion "feminists", what we now have is the presumption of a "right" that is on a par with freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion.

Oh. Sorry. We don't really have freedom of. We seem to have freedom from religion. But that's a subject for other diatribes. We now have the cult of abortion on demand, where even the minimalist restrictions on the horrendous partial-birth abortion (hey, would you like to see your child's brains sucked out?) are considered an infringement on basic constitutional liberties.

I am not without sin myself, but that was before I was reborn in Christ. And now I repent, and urge all to "choose life, so that you and your children may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19). More to the point, the believer must know that God has formed us in the wombs of our mothers.

Scripture is, as usual, a better guide than the various secular groups with their agendas. A few rather pointed quotations from the Giver of Life:

• Psalm 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb



• Isaiah 44:22 This is what the LORD says- he who made you, who formed you in the womb



• Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you

The picture is clear, just as surely as it was to the early church. Just as surely as it must be to the church today.

It is one of the great shames of the Reformation that many, many, mainline Protestants have been leaders in the rush to kill the unborn. Kill is the correct, unvarnished word. Let's also be clear that not every child is thought a blessing by their parents. Far too many children enter the world unloved, unwanted, only to live short, miserable lives.

It is up to us to reduce to the absolute minimum that misery, to provide loving homes where possible. However, we must also not forget that we are a fallen species, and often must suffer on this side of the great divide. No one should suggest that a child's suffering can be a good thing. But it is what we have. The argument, often made by pro-abortionists, is that we should not let children be born who will be unloved. What they don't accept is that all of us are loved. By God, if not by our fellow man.