A mother’s womb is an incredible place. In this warm and nutrient-rich environment, a tiny egg is fertilised, and 40 weeks later a beautiful, fully formed human emerges. No wonder the word miracle is so often used by parents to describe the birth of their child.
Given how fragile life is through these nine months, the womb should be the safest place on earth. But in recent decades, tragically it has become the most dangerous.
Abortion is now the leading cause of death worldwide. Around the world each year, some 56 million pre-born babies have their lives cut short. 70,000 of them would otherwise be raised by Australian parents.
“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”—Gandhi
Without doubt, some women who choose abortion have faced harrowing circumstances. A recent study, for example, has found that pregnant women who suffer violence are much more likely to seek an abortion than those who haven’t. The only humane response to someone who sees abortion as their only option is compassion and care.
Compassion and care are also desperately needed for expecting mothers, so they’re well supported when they choose to carry their baby to full term in the face of great difficulties.
But if all this is so, then surely compassion and care are needed most for the unborn, who are truly the world’s most vulnerable. Rightly did Gandhi say that “a nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members”.
“The only humane response to someone who sees abortion as their only option is compassion and care.”
How we treat the unborn hit global headlines again recently, when the state of New York passed a law legalising abortion up to birth. Buoyed by this, in following days the Governor of Virginia even called for infanticide to be legalised.
But these latest developments aren’t just taking place on distant shores. In South Australia, the Greens have introduced a bill that seeks to make abortions available without medical reason, without a doctor, and up to birth.
It is difficult to see how any of this could be called progress.
Progress is what happened 2000 years ago when an unpopular religious sect opposed the wisdom of the Greco-Roman world—and many other ancient cultures besides.
“A pre-born baby can feel pain and hear your voice by the sixth month of pregnancy.”
Those early Christians believed that every human life must have equal and intrinsic worth if we’re all made in the image of God. And they walked Rome’s streets and scoured her trash heaps to rescue the babies that had been discarded by a people who didn’t know better.
Within centuries of this revolution, Emperor Valentinian, a Christian, had outlawed infanticide—setting a precent that has profoundly shaped the western world since.
Until recently, that is.
See, unlike the ancient world, we do know better. And it’s not just our collective conscience, shaped by the Judeo-Christian ethic, that informs this.
“Every human life must have equal and intrinsic worth if we’re all made in the image of God.”
Modern science—which was also heavily influenced by the Christian worldview—tells anyone who cares to listen that a pre-born baby can feel pain, hear your voice, and will survive outside the womb by the sixth month of pregnancy.
Even simple logic exposes where we’ve gone wrong. In Queensland, for example, a drunk driver who kills an unborn baby can be charged for homicide. But in one of the state’s abortion clinics, the same victim can be deemed a non-entity and be quietly disposed of.
Humans deciding each other’s worth in such an arbitrary way should disturb us. Do other human rights even matter if one’s right to life isn’t first protected under the law?
“As you try to make sense of these contradictions, take a moment to be thankful.”
But despite ethics, science and reason, in 2019 great swathes of the media and political elite seem intent on a return to the status quo of the ancient world. All, ironically, under the banner of progress.
So wherever you are, as you try to make sense of these contradictions, take a moment to be thankful. Outside of the womb, you live in the safest place on earth.
Then spare a thought for the little ones who haven’t joined us here yet.
Dear Kurt,
What I cannot understand is a bit more of a simple comparison.
Baby or person?
If society allows abortion for any and all particular reasons, then why do people get upset about euthanasia? As a nurse, I often wonder if we are not kinder to our pets or animals in great distress or illness. However unborn babies are indeed under some great distress at times. These people get robbed of their life on the outside.
Some are so sadly misformed or unable to survive outside of the womb, that I do think there are very perplexing decisions for people to make 8n these circumstances. Some decide due to the mothers health. And some because it is a womans body that will change.
Abortion is a type of euthansia is it not. Chosing to end ones own life. Or in this case, someone else choses to end the life growing inside them. The mother is euthansing the person inside her womb.
This could be for many valid reasons. However, it is not without great emotional turmoil. When I have cared for patients who have had legal termination of preganancy, nearly all wake up from their anaesthetic crying. Then as they become more awake some show a sense of relief. But I am then crying on my insides. If only I could have offered them support. If only they had been able to give the person up for adoption. A real person,not a cute tiny baby that is not welcomed with great joy into the world. But a person who will never meet their potential. Never breathe on their own. Never share their thoughts, ideas, dreams and lives. If only I could help women and men not get accidently pregnant in the first place. If only men could see these people they are creating in their own image. If only so many things. No doubt my words cannot be published as they may offend.
However you are friends with a person whose mother chose not to have an abortion. Whose grandfather assumed the mother had already sorted out the problem of an unplanned pregnancy. And whose grandmother rejected that granddaughter for many years because of the grandmothers own grief of giving up her own son many years before.
But by the grace of God, a faith that was real but not so sure footed, made a decision about a person. Lorinda came into the world. Not a mistake, perhaps slightly unplanned for that time by her parents. But definately not a mistake. Could you imagine the world without my beautiful daughter, Lorinda?
My story is real. Two of my friends aborted their first unborn babies. I had to forgive myself for getting pregnant in an unconventional way for a christian of only 3 years maturity. But I never once needed to forgive myself for the decision I made. To allow the beautiful baby her chance to shine. And she has certainly out shon anything and everything I could have imagined. I was lucky to have the freedom to choose life and feel supported enough to continue with my pregnancy.
Abortion is societies answer to a bigger problem. And that is what I am trying to get my head around. The simple issue of not making a baby that doesnt get a choice to live in the first place. Society having the ability to end lives for various reasons.
Abortion is a very sensitive subject. I am condemned by some for chosing to continue my pregnancy. And condemned by some for airing my beliefs. And condemned for not supporting abortion. So you truly cannot win this situation. But every person born has indeed travelled a dangerous road for 9 months.
[…] In Australia, some 70,000+ abortions take place every year. It’s staggering to think that the unborn only have a 1 in 4 chance of making it out of the womb […]
[…] example. In Australia, 70,000+ abortions take place every year. It’s staggering to think that the unborn only have a 1 in 4 chance of making it out of the womb […]