Is abortion child sacrifice? And what is sex for? Read on.
NOTE: Mississippi House representatives voted 79-30 last Thursday to ban abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy; Mississippi already bans abortion after the 20th week. Meanwhile, the US Senate on Jan. 29 failed to pass the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" to require all states to ban aborting any unborn child capable of feeling pain, which science has verified begins at 20 weeks.
Below, longtime state pro-life advocate Jerry Beavers argues that abortion is very similar to ancient child sacrifice and that sex is to be enjoyed, but is foremost a means to procreate as a man and woman perpetuate the "continuum of life."
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As a Christian, I believe there are biblically based reasons for taking an anti-abortion (or pro-life) position even though abortion per se is never addressed in the Bible. (The closest reference would be Psalm 139:13-16 which says, in part, that God "formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. ... I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
Nonetheless, all through the Bible back to Genesis God condemns child sacrifice. Throughout the scriptural accounts, child sacrifice is abhorred by God, who demanded that his chosen people avoid such practices that were common in the surrounding hedonistic ancient cultures.
Even when Abraham obeyed God and showed a willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, God ultimately stayed Abraham’s hand and provided a more adequate sacrifice in the form of a ram.
One thing that makes Christianity (and Judaism before it in the Old Testament) stand out among other ancient religions is that child sacrifice is not practiced. But can we say that today about our American culture?
Primarily for the sake of convenience, a large segment of American society (and the world in general it seems) has decided that “child sacrifice” (abortion) needs to be an approved option for modern-day women to avoid the burden of having to tend to children that they have conceived unexpectedly due to promiscuity or a “mistake in family planning."
Over 50 million lives have been snuffed out--or sacrificed--on the altar of convenience and modern family planning. This is the number of "legal" abortions performed since the passage of Roe V. Wade in 1973.
A person’s existence begins at conception. It is actually a continuum of the life of two individuals who come together in sexual relations, whether married or not. Both people's lives are conjoined to further a continuum of life manifest in the child. To intentionally destroy that embryonic entity, regardless of what elemental stage it may be in, is to kill “someone."
Many argue that a woman’s womb is her own and that she should have the right to disengage herself from something she doesn’t want. I respectfully disagree! She has already participated in the creation of “someone” whether intended or not and the choice to abort is a choice to end “someone’s” life. In my opinion, a woman has no more right to “kill” that creation than a deranged man or woman has the right to drown his or her “unwanted” children in a bathtub.
Abortion advocates long ago created a formula for justifying abortion to the American people. Pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood don't want Americans to think that an unborn life is the logical result of sex. Sex has to seen only as a pleasurable experience that should be enjoyed by the greatest number of people the greatest number of times. PP and other pro-abortion groups don't want sex to be seen as fundamentally the means to procreate. First and foremost, sex is how a baby is made.
So what do they do?
First pro-abortion leaders “de-humanize” the fetus as something that is not alive or if it is, it is not “human." By all means, call this entity a "fetus," not a "baby."
Next, convince people that a fetus has no more value than a “glob of spit” (a quote from a local Mississippi pro-abortion advocate).
Finally, convince people that the “well-being” of the woman is more important than the welfare of her defenseless fetus regardless of whether it is human or not; if the woman decides to kill the living entity inside her womb, she should be able to do so.
I realize there are numerous situations that can create the dilemma we refer to as "unwanted pregnancies." Rape and incest are two examples that must be handled with great compassion and care. But for a woman to destroy her baby because she just doesn’t see how she can care for it, or because she wanted the pleasure of sex with no consequence, is more troubling than her wanting to kill herself because life is hard and she doesn’t see how she can cope with it.
Of course, the biggest problem that pro-abortion folks have is that there is no rational way to conclude that a fetus is not a living thing. The fetus is a continuum of the life of the man and the woman which, from the moment of conception, possesses all the DNA and accompanying necessities for life. All he/she needs from that moment is time. There is a heartbeat by week 4, brainwaves by week 7, and movement in the womb by the 8th week. There is life.
Perhaps this explains why so many abortion clinics do not actually want a pregnant women to see sonograms due to the personalization and natural attachment to something that moves around and sucks its thumb. In fact, many pregnant women who are considering abortion avoid viewing sonograms for the same reason.
I can understand that it’s easier to deny the reality of the fetus’s humanity in the early days of conception, but it has gone far beyond that in today’s world, even to the point of being able to deny the humanness of the fetus right up to seconds before birth (partial-birth abortion).
Finally, there is a blatant and usually successful strategy by the pro-abortion advocates to focus completely upon the difficulties and unfairness of the consequences of the pregnancy upon the mother. The difficulties of raising children and the stifling effects of poverty and dysfunctional family environments should not be minimized, but in my view there are alternatives that are vastly better than destroying a life.
Mississippi's leads the nation in recognizing that every child should be protected, both those outside the womb who are stricken by poverty; those who are in abusive environments; and those within the womb. Perhaps one day, Mississippi will be the first state to ban any abortions, just as it outlaws of the murder of anyone living outside the womb. Then the continuum of life will be unbroken in our state.
State pro-life advocates will hold 40 Days for Life from Feb 14 - Mar 25. They call it "a Peaceful Prayer Vigil being held outside the last abortion clinic in our state." The clinic is in Jackson's Fondren neighborhood. For more information, contact Pro-Life Mississippi at 601-956-8636. All who oppose abortion are urged to join the vigil at any time.