Faith Through the Journey

Last week my husband and I were privileged to visit our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. There’s always something about being in the city where so many decisions that affect our nation are made that causes us to be proud of America, even with all of our flaws. On Sunday afternoon, May 1, my husband and I walked to the Capitol building and the Supreme Court, two revered landmarks of our beloved country. The Supreme Court was very quiet that day, with very few people around the building. We climbed the steps of the building and found a bench and prayed, as many others have, that the holocaust of abortion in our nation would cease, that Roe v. Wade might be overturned. We asked God’s forgiveness on our nation for the more than 50 million innocent lives that have been taken through abortion, that He would heal our land and stop the taking of more innocent lives.

Fast forward 24 hours, and things were suddenly very different! An unethically leaked draft opinion from one of the justices changed the entire narrative in the emotionally charged issue of abortion. On Tuesday, just 48 hours after we had prayed, we walked among protesters who weren’t exactly sympathetic to the pro-life movement! One brave older woman holding a “Pray to End Abortion” sign was surrounded and shouted down by dozens of unfriendly people. Looking into their faces I felt immense sadness for them. Because when all is said and done, these people have been lied to by the father of all lies, Satan himself. They have been deceived, convinced that it’s all about them without thinking of the consequences.

While we might look at this issue as a legal one, it is really a matter of the heart. The enemy of our souls would have us believe that our convenience, our rights and our choices are the most important things. As long as it makes my life easier and brings me what I want, then it’s all good. Except, of course, that there is another life involved, the “invisible” victim who didn’t get to make the choice to live or die. Rather than living in a warm, safe place until he or she is old enough to live outside their mother’s body, they are violently ripped from their mother’s womb and thrown away as “medical waste”.

It is tragic that women who have chosen abortion may not have had the information and support they needed in order to make a better choice for themselves and their babies. Women should always have a choice about whether or not to become pregnant. There are many contraception options available to enable women not to become pregnant. However, that choice MUST be made before another life is involved, the life of an innocent unborn child. When Roe v. Wade came into being, there weren’t sonograms available to women to be able to see their baby, someone with a body that was IN NO WAY pat of theirs. A person with their own heartbeat, their own face, their own DNA and fingerprints. But the women who have bought the lie that their child is just a blob of tissue, an inconvenience to be disposed of, deserve better. Withholding knowledge about the child they carry robs women of the tools they need to make a wise decision about their future and the future of their child. The Bible has this to say in Psalm 139: “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”

Whenever the final opinion is handed down by the Supreme Court, it will not end this debate. The decision, if Roe is overturned, will go back to each state. Some states will make abortion illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually about 6 weeks into pregnancy. Others will restrict abortion after certain other time periods. Still other states will become “abortion destinations”, offering the procedure up to the point of birth, even giving incentives to travel to those states to have abortions. Women who are determined to have an abortion will still be able to find a way to end the life of their baby and rid them of the “inconvenience” of an unplanned pregnancy. The pro-life movement will continue to try to persuade women that there is support for them if they decide to continue their pregnancies and give birth to their child. SOMEONE wants their baby and they have a wonderful opportunity to bless a childless couple who aches to become parents.

I realize this brief essay on abortion is far from exhaustive and I set myself up for a barrage of anger from anyone who disagrees. Women who have had abortions carry scars for the rest of their lives, having to live with the knowledge they ended their baby’s life. God alone can heal and forgive this awful sin, and He is always ready to do so. Any woman who has ever aborted a child can rest in the fact that her baby is safe in the arms of Jesus, who is the author of life.