When I heard about the law recently passed in New York State allowing late term abortions up to the point of birth, I was both appalled and grief-stricken. New York Governor Cuomo celebrated the passing of the bill and said, “it is a victory for all New Yorkers.”
But I wonder what God thinks about it? Is the continuing and increasing abortion rights propagated by some lawmakers a victory for mankind or is it an abomination in the eyes of God?
Some who approve of abortion, even up to the time of birth argue that life does not begin until the baby takes it’s first breath. Before that, it is simply a fetus; not a living being. They propose therefore, that “Human life begins when the baby starts breathing.”
But, what does God say about the beginning of life? From Scripture it appears that life begins at the moment of conception.
- “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the One who formed you from the womb, ‘I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading out the earth all alone . . .'” (Isaiah 44:24, NASV).
- “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works and that my soul knows well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (Psalm 139:13-16, NKJV).
- “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5, NIV).
- But when He who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through His grace . . .” (Galatians 1:15, RSV).
- “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit…[saying] ‘As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy'” (Luke 1:41, 44, NIV).
- Know that the LORD Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3, NASV).
*Scriptures copied from Focus on the Family Website
If, indeed life does begin at the moment of conception, as the Bible indicates and science supports as well, then that embryo conceived in the womb of the mother is a living being. Accordingly then, the aborting of that embryo or fetus would result in the killing of an innocent human life.
According to American Life League, there are 2,899 abortions performed in the US every day. That means that there are 12o abortions every hour; one performed in the United States every 30 seconds.
For these who honor the sanctity of human life and uphold the rights of the unborn, these are horrifying and heart-breaking statistics. If so for us, I wonder how it must be for God who is the Father and creator of all life?
We get an answer to that question from the way God reacted to the pagan nations in the Old Testament that practiced child sacrifice. In the eyes of God it was an abdominal and sinful practice, one for which He judged those nations. (Leviticus 18:21, 24-30, 20:2-5; II Kings 16:3; II Chronicles 28:3, 33:2)
God hates murder. One of the Ten Commandments says, “Thou shalt not murder.” Abortion is murder. It is the snatching of an innocent living being who has no voice of its own from the womb and casts aside to die.
My heart goes out to the mothers who have been victimized in the whole premise of these unholy practices by our culture. We are accountable as a society for failing them also.
*Artist Duane Bryers