Being Pro-Life in the Face of a Culture of Death

I cannot remember when I became consciously pro-life in my outlook on life. I cannot remem-
ber ever wrestling between the pro-life position and the contrary pro-choice position. The dic-
tates of my conscience never allowed me to even consider for a moment the pro-choice option.
I was conducted quite willingly by both my heart and my mind to the pro-life stance. Since the
mid-70s I have never wavered from my convictions. There is no middle ground. Since the Su-
preme Court decision in 1973 legalizing abortion rights, those holding to the two contrary posi-
tions over the issue have been in serious conflict with one another. The primary issues are so
serious that there appears that there is no room for compromise. It is a matter of life and death.

Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973 when I was in college. I do not remember anything
about the decision. But this year I have been going through things I have saved over the years.
I came across some college newspapers in which I had some articles published. I was shocked
to see in the papers a number of advertisements offering abortion services to students. They all
seemed to be conveying the message that abortion was simply a medical procedure to deal with
a minor health concern.

 But I must have had a strong position against abortion. In 1976 or so the wife of a a minister I
was serving with when I was in seminary told me that she had changed to a pro-life position be-
cause I had spoken out so passionately about the sacredness of the unborn and the case against
abortion. In the late 1990s I became involved with Operation Rescue in Boston and participated
in silent vigils in front of abortion clinics. I spent three nights and four days in jail with over 100
other women and men over New Year's, 1990, for trespassing the grounds of three abortion clin-
ics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Charges were dropped on all of us.

I can still vividly remember attending presbytery meetings and hearing Presbyterian ministers
and elders exhorting us to join the fight to keep abortion safe and legal. A dear cousin shared
with me about the time she faced the hostility and ridicule of pro-choice supporters as she and
other colleagues stood in defense of the pro-life position at a presbytery meeting. During the
late 1980s and early 1990s, I sought to listen to and comfort a woman I was very close to deal
with the abortion she had when she was in her 20s. I and other Christians proclaim that Christ's
death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins is a life-giving message to those who feel the
real guilt of past sinful actions, including abortion.

But over the years the issue of abortion has gradually faded from our society's consciousness.
Abortion is not an issue in Canada and Scotland, two countries where I spent considerable
time. In many societies abortion is an entrenched woman's right that must never be revoked.
Meanwhile the pro-life position, most evident in the USA, is mocked and ridiculed as oppres-
sive to women. With my return to the States early last year, I have again been brought in con-
tact with pro-life Christians who take seriously the defense of the lives of the unborn. I have
been meeting with a small group of Christians who participate in silent vigils at an abortion pro-
vider in a nearby city. I have listened to several women share their stories about their abortions
and about the healing journeys they had been on. In a six week exercise conducted by minis-
try to women they experienced forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ.

It is evident that the public sentiment in the USA has moved in a more pro-life direction. But
the pro-abortion ideology still prevails today in our government. There are many in the current
administration who work fiercely to make abortion legal at any stage of fetal development and
at taxpayer expense. Unrelenting political forces seek to make abortion a fundamental Consti-
tutional right. The result has been an expansion of a culture of death and a cheapening of life
in our land. This culture of death aggressively promotes the view that lives that are imperfect,
immature, and inconvenient are disposable and discardable.

Over the past three decades, I have been grieving the relentless momentum of a culture of
death here in the USA.  Recently the breast cancer research and support charity G. Komen
for the Cure decided and subsequently reversed the decision to halt grants to the key abor-
tion provider Planned Parenthood. Upon learning of the charity's decision, Planned Parent-
hood advocates erupted in fierce outrage. The leading abortion provider in the USA normal-
ly refers women for mammograms rather than offering the service itself. The Komen charity
sought to provide funding directly to mammogram providers. But Planned Parenthood at-
tacked the charity. Thus the charity was seen as caving in to the demands of the pro-abortion
movement and the media.

More recently President Obama has sought to cram a contraception mandate down the throats
of the Roman Catholic Church and other pro-life Christian denominations. The primary is-
sue is not contraception, but that of freedom of religion from government interference. Under
the mandate, the federal government demands that Christian organizations pay for services that
are against Christian conscience despite the right of freedom of religion from government intru-
sion. Pro life Christians would be obligated to fund not only contraception, but also for steriliza-
tion and abortifacients such as the morning after pill. Both sides show no signs of wavering.

It is difficult to keep from falling into discouragement and disheartedness in times such as these.
The culture of death and its cheapening of human life seem to be gathering momentum in these
days. In times such as these let us look to the Lord Jesus Christ and join with him in establish-
ing the Kingdom of God.

Blessings to you and yours,

Not Death, But Life for the Unborn

Churches across the USA could choose one of the Sundays of January to observe as Sanctity of
Life Sunday. Some congregations chose January 15 and others January 22. Whatever the date,
Christians across the land remembered the year 1973, when the Supreme Court of the United
States of America handed down the fateful decision regarding a woman's right to legal abortion.
Thirty-nine years ago the majority of justices ruled in the court decision Roe v. Wade that a wom-
an has a constitutional right to abortion. Even though abortion became the law of the land, there
has been unrelenting conflict between pro-choice supporters and pro-life opponents that has not
diminished over the years since the decision. The supporters of a woman's right to abortion view
it as a simple surgical procedure whereas the opponents see it as the killing of the unborn. The
tension has only intensified since the ruling was passed down.

In the USA, abortion has become one of the most common surgical procedures performed on
adults. I have read accounts that one in three women in the USA has had at least one abortion.
In some areas of American cities, abortions far exceed live births. Since 1973 there have been
50 million babies aborted; that is a rate of 3000 aborted children a day in the USA alone. Those
stark numbers represent a lost generation.  The emergence of ultra-sound in Crisis Pregnancy
Centers has presented to many women the reality that the 'thing' within them is indeed a human
life. The younger generations have grown up seeing ultrasound images of their brothers and sis-
ters developing in their mothers' wombs. Therefore, the sentiment of younger generations has
become increasingly pro-life in more recent times.

Yet in the USA, it is the reality that abortion continues as normal. One interpreter of the times
recently referred to abortion as being as American as apple pie. The Pro-life Movement is not
as vocal as it used to be and it has been continuously dismissed by mainstream media. The Pro-
choice people seem more entrenched in their positions. It seems clear that the two positions
are irreconcilable and that there is no room for compromise. It is an issue of two opposite views
of life: Pro-lifers stress that the unborn child has the right to life and the Pro-choice people de-
fend that a woman has an unrestricted right to choose. I stand firm in my Pro-life convictions,
but I do not see a way for this to be resolved in the current era. I will write more in a forthcom-
ing blog.

Blessings to you and yours,