Abortion and Amendment 4

Introduction

Leviticus 20:1–5 “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.”

An evergreen concern of the church of Christ in our age is the issue of abortion.

Since the dawn of the sexual revolution in the 1960’s we have fought the battle to end the unjust murder of innocent babies en masse

It seems like every step we take forward we take two steps back.

But we need to keep pushing forward to end our modern day holocaust

Abortion is our great national sin, for which we are currently under the judgment of God

In some sense, I am hesitant to spend an hour talking about abortion.

To do so implies that it is a complex issues with good arguments on every side.

But it is not complex. Abortion is the murder of a human baby and is therefore morally reprehensible.

There are not good arguments on both sides.

The other side has lies and obfuscations and fallacies.

Statistics

In 2017 18% of pregnancies ended in abortion

That is 862,320 babies murdered

This is roughly half of the abortions committed in 1990 when it hit its high watermark.

In 2016, 86% of women who obtained abortions were unmarried women

The end of Roe has not ended abortion.

There seems to be some evidence that abortions have dropped some, but nothing near what one would hope for

Even in states in which abortions are supposedly illegal, abortions are still taking place.

It is criminal for a doctor to perform an abortion, but it is not criminal for a mother to perform an abortion on herself using medications.

Abortions will never really be illegal or criminalized until we prosecute mothers for murdering their own.

The Sin of Abortion

Though the Bible nowhere speaks directly explicitly to the intentional killing of babies in the womb, it has plenty to say about abortion by implication

God Creates and Sustains Life

Gen. 1-2.

Life itself is a reflection of God’s greatness. Jesus tells us that He is the life

In God’s presence is eternal and infinite life

death is a great evil

Man is the image of God in Creation

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Our value is in that we are God’s creation

We are truly and preeminently valuable and dignified in God’s creation because we are His Image

The destruction of God’s image bearer is a calamity

The unjustified destruction of God’s image bearer is an abomination

This is why Gen. 9 gives the death penalty for anyone who kills another man

This is a pro-life law.

Barrenness is seen as one of the worst of calamities in the Scriptures

Proverbs 30:15–16 “The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”: Sheol, the barren womb, the land never satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, “Enough.””

Genesis 30:1 “When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!””

1 Samuel 1:5–7 “But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.”

We are a society than makes itself intentionally barren, living in a miserable curse and not realizing our misery

Many children is one of the Greatest of Blessings

Psalm 127:3–5 “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”

Not only are we foregoing the blessings of God, we are desecrating them and murdering them

Child Sacrifice is an Abomination

Leviticus 18:21 “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.”

Leviticus 20:1–5 “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.”

The Demon Molech is alive and well and worshipped and holds great power today

The Bible Teaches that the life in the Mother’s Womb is a Human Life Created by God

Psalm 139:13–14 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

Isaiah 44:2 “Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.”

Jeremiah 1:5 ““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.””

Not only are these beings in the womb human lives, but they are clearly understood to be human persons

The Scriptures are Clear

Abortion is a great wrong and injustice that will not go unpunished.

God has condemned the unjust taking of life

God has given children as a blessing

God has revealed that children in the womb are human persons loved by Him

We need no more

When Does Life Begin?

Is Abortion really murdering a human being? Or is it merely a medical procedure to stop the development of cells that will potential become a living human being?

If life begins at some stage in the development of a fetus, or if it begins at the moment of birth, then abortion ought not be seen as murder since there is no life which abortion destroys

Its a clump of cells

For a long time, the pro-abortionists argued that a fetus was nothing more than a clump of cells

Life does not begin until a certain developmental milestone has been reached

The human being is not a person until a certain developmental milestone has been reached

Peter Singer goes so far as to say,

“It is the beginning of the life of the person, rather than of the physical organism, that is crucial so far as the right to life is concerned… When I think of myself as the person I am now, I realize that I did not come into existence until sometime after my birth… when we kill a newborn, there is no person whose life has begun.” -Peter Singer

Thus he justifies infanticide. Though the newborn infant is a living human being, it is not a living human person, and therefore may be discarded as you would discard your spoiled leftovers.

Life Begins at Fertilization

Is the embryo a being? Yes

It exists, it isn’t not. It is, therefore, it is a being.

What kind of being is it? A human being

If a being is conceived by human parents, it must be a human being. Not a rock being, a squid being, or a tree being.

Is it alive?

It isn’t inanimate like a rock or a chair. Furthermore, it is growing and developing.

It is a living human being, even from the moment of fertilization

Is it a person?

This is a difficult question because personhood is not a question of biology but of philosophy and theology

How do you prove one is a person or not? What is personhood? How do you prove your husband is a person and your dog isn’t?

Are your sure your husband is a person?

Is there such a thing as a human non-person? No

There is a distinction betwen humanity and person. Angels are person and God is a person, but they are not humans.

Even so, there is no such thing as a human nonperson. If you are a human being, you are also a person.

“I think no one ever conceived of this category (human nonperson) before the abortion controversy. It looks very suspiciously like the category was invented to justify the killing, for its only members are the humans we happen to be now killing and want to keep killing and want to justify killing.” -Peter Kreeft

Argument over

Once it is established that the fetus is a living human person at the moment of fertilization, the argument is over.

There is no justification for murdering and innoccent

The Arguments in favor of Abortion

Rape, Incest, the Life/Health of the Mother

According to the Guttmacher Institute (the research org of Planned Parenthood), only 1% of women who have abortions claimed to have been raped, .5% became pregnant as a result of incest, and no one claimed to have had an abortion to save her life.

Much of the debate camps out here, but this is such a tiny fraction of the abortions that actually take place.

Abortion is wrong, but there ought to be certain exceptions

Rape: The woman never consented to being pregnant and therefore should have the right to end the pregnancy

Forcing a woman to give birth to a child who was conceived in rape is to victimize her a second time.

Pregnancy and delivery is a physically, mentally traumatic experience. No one should be forced to go through that against her will.

Incest: Similar. Furthermore, the child is more likely to have genetic problems

Cases of rape and incest are undoubtedly heartbreaking. One can imagine how difficult it would be for a young woman to carry the child of a man who had sinned against her so grievously.

Furthermore, the difficulty of carrying a child and delivering a child that you were unready and unwilling to deliver.

Yet, even so, the murder of the unborn child is a morally unacceptable answer to the crisis the girl is going through.

The Woman must be cared for by her community (family, church, etc.)

Aborting the child undoubtedly leads to far greater and more long term psychological anguish than bearing the child of a man who has assaulted and violated you.

There are hundreds of thousands of women living with soul crippling guilt over their decision to kill their baby. This is deeply traumatic. For the love of the child and the mother, abortion must not be the answer.

According to one study, out of 51 women who were raped and chose to abort their child, only 1 of them reported no regrets. Of the 133 who were raped and carried their baby to term, none of them reported any regrets.

Ethicist Ken Magnuson makes the point that “bearing the child may heal some of the wounds caused by rape or incest

The man must be punished severely. In the OT the punishment was execution

If we do not deal severely with vicious men, we will continue to see the innocent hurt.

“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” -Adam Smith

The Life of the Mother:

Many will argue that there are complicated pregnancies which require the baby to be aborted in order to save the life of the mother.

But this is not true.

Any complications that arise after 25 weeks can be resolved by an emergency c-section

There are no situations that arise before that with the exception of perhaps 2

Ectopic pregnancy: An ectopic pregnancy may cause serious danger to the mother, but no fetus will survive an ectopic pregnancy. It is a matter of aborting the fetus before it dies of natural causes and seriously harming its mother in the process, or letting nature take its course.

A woman with serious illness like cancer who needs to get chemo or radiation

Women’s Rights

These are the real reasons for abortion and are more widely accepted and argued

Power over her own body

Everyone has a right to control their own body. If an unplanned pregnancy takes place, then a woman must be allowed to end it if she is going to have bodily autonomy

Equality

“Laws restricting abortion so dramatically shape the lives of women, and only of women, that their denial of equality hardly needs detailed elaboration. While men retain the right to sexual and reproductive autonomy, restrictions on abortion deny that autonomy to women. Laws restricting access to abortion thereby place a real and substantial burden on women’s ability to participate in society as equals.” -Laurence Tribe

Abortion is a moral good because it enables the equality of the sexes

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

We deny natural realities, thinking that we can change the fact that women are potential and intrinsic mothers

We murder our young to impose our wills on reality

denying nature always leads to death and misery.

The unborn fetus is an alien invader and must be put to death in self-defense

Even if the child did not choose to be conceived, neither did the mother consent to get pregnant.

The rights of the mother, as a fully developed human being, trump the rights of the unborn child

Therefore, it is an act of self-defense to abort the child and morally acceptable

Consent to Sex is Consent to Pregnancy

When one agrees to have sex, they agreeing to at least the possibility of pregnancy

When a woman finds out she’s pregnant, it is too late to choose. She has already made the choice.

A woman does and should have the right to choose. But she doesn’t have the right to change her mind when it will result in the death of another human being.

Abortion is Murder

Because a human life is created at the moment of fertilization, abortion at any moment of a pregnancy is the murder of a human being created in the image of God

There is no justification for such an act

so what do we do about it

Abortion and Politics

We have a responsibility to preach the truth

We have a responsibility to labor for justice

Proverbs 24:11 “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.”

The Christian’s Role in Politics

We are to be salt and light, seeking to preserve this world and joy to it

Seeking to push back the darkness and shine the light of God’s righteousness in a fallen World

Sometimes this is done by political means.

The Christian’s retreat from statecraft, politics, and culture is an invention of the 20th century. The Christian tradition knows little of it.

The RNC and Abortion

The Republican

The change in the platform

Previously the RNC advocated for a nation wide abortion ban

Now it wants to leave it up to the states

Evangelicals have never driven the bus in the RNC

But the RNC remains our best vehicle for pushing forward to abolish abortion

Amendment 4

No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by a healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.

“Before Viability”

Viability is not defined here. The idea is that viability determines inherent moral value

The fetus at 12 weeks gestation may be a living human person, but it does not have intrinsic moral value unless the mother determines that it does.

When is a fetus viable?

Some babies have been delivered as early as 21 weeks and have lived.

But many abortion proponents would argue that a fetus is not viable until the moment of birth because it is dependent upon the body of its mother until that point.

“When Necessary to protect the Mother’s Health”

Many will read this thinking that it refers to life threatening situations

But it is not.

The Mother’s Life is not in question, but the mother’s health.

Can a mother who has high blood pressure during pregnancy get an abortion?

Even mental stress can qualify as a health issue. What pregnant mother isn’t stressed, nervous, anxious?

Mental health is really what is in view here.

“As Determined by a Healthcare Provider”

One would think that at least a doctor or a psychiatrist would need to sign off on an abortion, proving that the mother’s health is at stake

But this is not the case.

Healthcare provider is not defined. Even the non-medical staff of an abortion clinic or an EMT could qualify as a “healthcare provider” according to Florida Law

“This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

Parents of minors need not give their consent, they need only to be informed

This would make abortion the only medical procedure that can be performed on a minor without parental consent

Beyond resulting in the murder of innocent babies, this will also make sexual abuse and sex trafficking much easier

Fight Amendment 4

This election is a very big election for us

And it is not necessarily because of the choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump

Amendment 4 is a much more important issue than the presidential election

Thank God our governor and most of the republican legislature is fighting it

But we need to do our part

We need to pray

Get the word out

And vote

God forbid we become a abortion destination

God forbid that our beloved state tolerate and promote such wickedness

Pray that God would enable us to go further in our fight for life so that we would totally criminalize the murder of babies in the state of Florida