These words are eerily similar to a story that appeared in the New York Times in 1871 entitled “The Evil of the Age.” That column strongly denounced abortions that were taking place in New York City. It said, “Thousands of human beings are murdered before they have seen the light of this world.” People in those days had the moral courage to speak out against sin. Even government officials and the media condemned it.
A century later in 1970 the state of New York legalized abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. At that time most states had laws against it. As a result, women from across the nation went to New York to get an abortion. The state became known as “The Abortion Capitol of the Country.” In fact, Sarah Weddington, the attorney for “Jane Roe” in Roe v. Wade, argued before the Supreme Court that women in Texas were traveling there to have abortions. She used the old “They’re going to do it anyway” excuse. The majority of Justices bought into this and other absurd lines of reasoning and legalized abortion in 1973, striking down state laws against it. Since then our country has lost over 60 million children who never saw their mother’s face. A lot can change in 100 years—or much less.
The title of this article actually comes straight from the Bible in the book of Job. After suffering great heartache and pain for days, Job began to long for death to ease his torment. He asked in anguish of spirit, “Why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light?” (Job 3:16). Job believed that unborn children were human beings. This was not the only time that he mentioned life in the womb. Earlier in this chapter he stated that life begins at conception: “May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived’” (Job 3:3). Later he asked, “Did not He who made me in the womb make them?” (Job 31:15).
The patriarchs of the Old Testament knew that unborn children were human and were as precious to God as children who had been born. They did not have ultrasounds. They did not need heartbeat bills. In the early days of the Hebrew nation, Rebekah did not need a medical expert to tell her that “the children struggled together within her” (Gen. 25:22). Children then like now sometimes died by accident in the womb, but Hebrew women did not deliberately abort their little lives. They cherished motherhood far too much to do that.
Saturday marks 49 years of this nightmarish atrocity. We must not grow weary of speaking against it. The Bible plainly teaches that life begins at conception (Luke 1:36). People—even some who claim to be Christians—will say ridiculous things like “This is just a political issue” or “Those babies are better off because many of them would have grown up in a bad home.” But the law of God will always brand this as murder.
Solomon said, “Truly the light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun” (Eccles. 11:7). If anyone deserves this simple joy of life, it is an innocent little child.
Kerry
West End church of Christ bulletin article for January 23, 2022
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