Women who have abortions can be forgiven, and our merciful and loving God will forgive them when they do what he requires for pardon. Spiritually strong people should have compassion for those who get caught up in the frustrations of their sins that cause abortions. But, spiritually strong people should also let their love and compassion work by trying to get people not to do the things that lead to abortion.

Child Abuse

The reports in the mass media on child abuse in the United States are appalling. It is hard to believe that there are some people in our enlightened and educated society that have done the cruel things that they have been doing to children. One of the worst forms of child abuse is abortion. Maybe it is the worst form because evidently in most cases of abortion the child does not even have a chance to cry in objection to his death!

Horrifying Facts

In the Kennedy-Falwell debate at the National Religious Broadcasting Convention in Washington, D.C., on February 5, 1985, I heard Dr. Jerry Falwell say there are 4,000 abortions per day in the United States. Only about one percent of these babies being killed were conceived as the result of incest and rape. So, the argument for abortion based on the fact that some aborted babies were conceived as a result of the sins of incest and rape is not a strong case for abortion. Even if abortion were justified in cases of incest and rape, that would not make it right to kill millions of babies not conceived as the result of incest and rape.

The Supreme Court's Decision

On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion. Since then, tens of millions of unborn babies have been killed in the United States by abortion. Compare this with Hitler's killing of five or six million people!

Fornication Is the Chief Culprit

In our secular, humanistic oriented society, fornication is called love. In the Bible, it is called sin. It is reported that 75 percent of abortions in the United States are abortions of children who were conceived out of wedlock! These children cannot be blamed for this, but the parents are guilty.

There needs to be a massive effort by the government and public education and by all decent people to stop fornication. I am in favor of the good efforts made to stop abortion. However, I am also in favor of teaching people that fornication is not true love, but terrible sin against people and against our holy God.

Is An Unborn Baby Alive?

Of course, an unborn baby is alive unless it has died in the womb. There have been "still births." A "still birth" is the birth of a dead baby. If it is dead at birth, it had died before birth. If it had died before birth, it was alive before it died. Non-living things cannot die! It is as simple as that!

I have a grandson who was born about five weeks prematurely. Had he been aborted five weeks before normal birth time, would he have been a human being that was killed? Yes, indeed! He is no less a human being because he was born five weeks too early! In fact, he is a robust, normal, strong, active baby boy! He was given special care at the hospital for a few days after he was born. We are indebted to the Lord of life and to those dedicated doctors and nurses who made it possible for him to live.

There Are Alternatives!

Let us all tell pregnant women who are thinking they will abort their babies that there are alternatives for them. Tell them they can have their babies and keep them and take care of them. They can get forgiveness of their sins and have their babies and rear them in the way God wants children to be reared. Such, of course, will obviously entail hardships, but these are part of the consequences of sin. Even after forgiveness, one may have to bear the consequences of sin.

Giving a baby to those who want one is an alternative to abortion. Dr. Jerry Falwell said in the debate referred to above that there were five million families in the United States last year who wanted to adopt children. In saying this, I am not trying to get mothers to give their children away, but that is an alternative to abortion. My Margie and I got our fourth child when she was three days old from an unwed mother. That child is now a mother. We love her as we love our other children.

We did not tell that unwed mother to give us that baby. She gave the baby away for what she thought were compelling reasons, and we took the baby.

The babies aborted are human beings made fearfully and wonderfully by God in their mothers' wombs (Psalm 139:14-16). They should not be killed, but cared for as people made in the image of God.