This Is Abortion
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On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court issued its ruling for Roe v. Wade.
As Richard John Neuhaus recently wrote, it was "the most consequential cultural and political event in American history in the past half century," establishing "an unlimited abortion license that wiped from the books of all fifty states any legal protection of unborn children."
This video shows some of what that decision has wrought.
As Richard John Neuhaus recently wrote, it was "the most consequential cultural and political event in American history in the past half century," establishing "an unlimited abortion license that wiped from the books of all fifty states any legal protection of unborn children."
This video shows some of what that decision has wrought.
posted by JT at Sunday, January 21, 2007
28 Comments:
Justin,
Thanks for posting this to your site.
My hope and prayer is that just as the pictures of piles of dead holocaust victims made us cover our mouth in horror and the way pictures of white policemen unleashing german shepherds on young black protesters during the 60's made our nation react in revulsion so will this effort to force people to see the actual bodies of dead babies create a moral outcry to stop this and repentance for having ever let this murder happen daily while we remained numb and dumb to it.
Kelly
Oh, please. You come up with these ridiculous and gruesome images to scare people. What I find most interesting though is that the so-called pro-life folks seem only to care about life inside the womb. When a child is born your Christian compassion ends.
bloggernista,
This is a tired and worn response.
http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2006/09/for_shame.html
Stick to an argument.
http://www.str.org/
If we are serious about reducing the number of abortions, then we have to get serious about reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. That means comprehensive sex education in schools, increased availability of condoms, birth control pill, IUDs and other technologies. Unfortunately, those who oppose a woman's right to choose, also tend to oppose sex education and birth control.
Bloggernista,
ridiculous and gruesome... I think you got it right. How ridiculous and cruel it is that something so gruesome is happening in our world. do think that video was made to scare people? what are strange word to use. Scare. watching that video clip makes me want to genuinely burst out in guttural sobs. I honestly would like to know what kind of emotion you feel after seeing tiny body parts strewn about?
I really would like to hear what a person with your positon truly feels when you when you see footage like that? I am serious. not what you think about pro-life, but what do you think about those images?
Bloggernista,
I disagree with your assessment of the problem. As John Piper has said, education simply teaches people how to sin more creatively. Sure, birth control pills, condoms, and sex education may solve the problem of unwanted pregnancies for a season, but they will certainly not solve the ultimate problem of sin. They will not save souls. And, they will not give people hope for a way out of perverse lifestyles. The only way to avoid an unwanted pregancy is to abstain from immorality. I am definitely in favor of that type of education. However, it is Christ alone who sets the slave free. It is Christ alone who can solve the sin problem. Also, generalizations about Christian compassion are a bit useless. Any genuine Christian will admit that when you look at him, he will always fail. That is the point of the doctrine of justification. What we could not do, Christ did. We are not perfect, nor do we claim to be. Yet, we all long to do better.
Thanks for your response,
James Gordon
Bloggernista,
That idea that Pro-Life people don't care about children is a ridiculous and gruesome generalization. I just had a wonderful time watching MLK's I Have Dream speech with two of my boys, who happen to be adopted. They were inspired and began to dream about what their lives may be used for.
I am so glad that two mothers in hard situations chose the courageous path of carrying these children to full term and giving them the right to life they themselves enjoy.
I am so glad for friends like Justin and his dear wife who adopted two beautiful children. I am so thankful for the 250 children adopted through an adoption fund at our former church.
I am so glad for the friends who have served street children and orphans around the world.
I wish you knew some of the pro-life people I know whose compassion inspires me.
This is so horrible and grievous! Thank you for helping make people aware! I pray that God will use this tool to open the eyes of the deceived!
Jennifer L
Thanks for posting this. And thanks, John Erickson, for a wise and gracious comment.
May God forgive our inaction and give us wisdom to know how to act. Thanks James Gordon for your reminder
Michael
Let's ask our leaders to show this film at the next "Together for the Gospel" event or at "Passion" conferences. Imagine if Christians were actually trained within the church to defend pro-life views--instead of having to go to outside sources.
Many thanks to John Piper for his courageous stand on behalf of life. We need many others to follow, however.
Based on what I read here on your blog, I wrote a piece on my blog specifically for the South African environment called "A Day of Infamy!", playing on the words of FDR after the Pearl Harbour attack.
William
I have not been able to get abortion off my mind since I watched (only half) of the video. It is richly convicting. When I saw Amastad at the theater abortion was what came to mind. How could we have rationalized away the humanity of Africans? How can we rationalize away the humanity of the unborn.
Very convicting.
I have to confess, I can't even bring myself to watch the video of this: the picture is horrid enough. As it happened, today my wife had her first check up on her third pregnancy, and this reminds us of how fully formed the little life already is.
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you..." (Jer 1)
Abortion is quite evil. May the Lord have mercy on us. Amen.
I remember standing outside an abortion clinic, and holding a sign that said Abortion Kills Babies.
People would drive by and become incredibly angry.
A man stopped and asked me, "Do you really belive that?"
I said, "Yes, don't you?"
He then began to cuss me up and down. He went nuts.
There seems to be extra nastiness envolved in contneding with this particular sin. Evene with some who picket can become very nasty toward the doctors and nurses. And it's from seeing what abortion does to children, but we still need to love the abortionists, and pray that God would have mercy on them.
Thanks for sharing this video, I will share it with others.
May we stand together against this murder that our nation condones. Let’s continue to get the facts out there. Thank you Justin for being a part of that.
-Mark Jicinsky
I don't know how anyone can watch that video and be okay with abortion? Thanks Justin for posting it - my prayer is for those women who really are struggling with this decision. I don't want to be ignorant to think that they have an easy situation they are in, but I know that many don't have the full information before making a decision. This is not to scare people, but to show facts - prolife is not anti-choice, but making a choice based on full knowledge and morality.
As my wife and I spent two months in going back and forth to the hospital after the premature birth of our son, I couldn't help but think of the contrast of the life-saving Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the life-taking abortion clinic that is right down the street. Oh, I wish we could walk these mothers through the NICU so they could see that these children are beautifully and wonderfully made. The day before my son was born, he was not just a piece of tissue!
While I fully agree that abortion is horrid and sinful, and that Roe v Wade should definitely be overturned, I do not agree with the way many Christians are going about trying to convince others that it is wrong. It wasn't too long ago that we, Christians, were incredibly angry with the Hollywood left and many liberal activists who were picketing and marching against Mel Gibson's "The Passion." Many of them were peaceful in expressing their views, but the fact that they were even holding signs and yelling their beliefs "at" us without considering our point of view seriously--this made me go against their side of the story even more. They get their points across in movies and television using shocking and horrid images that disgust and offend us, as Christians. Do we actually believe that doing the same exact types of things to get our point across in this abortion debate is going to convince them? Of course not! Sure, it's our right to free speech to be able to do these things, just like it is for the other side. But, is it Biblical? That's a debate for another day--but is doing this the best way to spread the Gospel in this day and age? I don't think so.
In my opinion, we shouldn't be holding signs, we should be figuring out ways to get into these communities where this is happening and get to know these women who are more likely to make these types of choices. Our children could be in the schools making friends with these girls to love them and serve them like Jesus would have. I was blessed to have been able to do just this for one of my classmates in high school. After finding out she was pregnant, she confided in ME, of all people, because she knew how compassionate I was. I listened to her desire for freedom from this situation and cried with her! Then, I was able to share the Gospel with her and help encourage her to have that baby and consider adoption instead of abortion. She did it! She had the baby boy and found a loving, Christian family (like Justin's) to adopt him. Instead of hovering in our little Christian corners preaching at everyone in picket lines and in sermon after sermon, we, and our saved children, should be out there loving people for the glory of God and His Gospel! While we are fighting for those little lives in these women's wombs, we should also be fighting for these mothers' eternal lives...by truly loving them. This is the most "shocking" thing we could do in this society, in my opinion, to get God's message across. Thanks for reading my long response and may God bless each of you as you serve your local community.
Kate writes:
"In my opinion, we shouldn't be holding signs, we should be figuring out ways to get into these communities where this is happening and get to know these women who are more likely to make these types of choices."
Let's try this approach with spousal abuse and drunk drivers. Instead of graphically depicting the reality of these henious crimes, let's just try to get to know those who do them. Let's try and uncover the underlying causes instead of exposing these crimes for what they truly are.
Any takers?
Kate, I vote for both/and not either/or.
You'll have to forgive me for not communicating this properly. I take full blame for your reaction, Goofy Bill. I am not saying that we should never, ever show these types of images and withhold the truth about what an abortion (or drunk driving or spousal abuse) really is. But, I do think we should show more humility in presenting our arguments. Here's a good comparison: When sharing the Gospel with an unbeliever, should we completely focus on God's wrath and the fire of hell in a loud and arrogant way? No, of course not! Am I saying we should "water down" the Gospel by only talking about God's forgiveness and love? Certainly not! You can't understand one without the other. I am saying that there has to be a balance. The same is true with the problem with abortion. Yes, it's ugly. Yes, it's evil and sinful. But, if we are only focused on that aspect of it, then we will never remember that our sin is just as ugly and horrendous, and more, before God apart from Christ! If we remember that, we will learn to love these women--because THAT'S WHO WE USED TO BE!! In fighting for the lives of these precious babies, we've forgotten about their mommies. Tim summed it up pretty well in one of the last comments. We need BOTH the ugliness of abortion to be shown, but with humility and with love toward the women who are having these abortions. I would type out this entire passage, but I've said quite enough and need to tend to my family. Please take the time to read 1 Cor. 13 as you consider anyone's opinion with which you disagree. I've found that it helps me to read this before speaking my views about anything I feel strongly about.
Kate,
It's not love to be more worried about the feelings of the born than we are the lives of the unborn.
Nevertheless, I appreciate your clarification in your last post.
I didn't say to be MORE worried about the mother than the baby. You must have missed the part in my last comment about balance.
Katie,
My mistake. Thanks for the clarification.
If you now think we should show the reality of abortion, but do so lovingly, you and I agree.
The kindest thing we can do for men and women wounded by abortion is to present the truth so they repent and find healing.
I literally could not finish watching that video. As a new father of a baby girl, my heart breaks for all the butchered babies featured on that video. :*(
metaphysician,
I think we all understand why you couldn't.
Although I watched it, and showed it to my wife, it was excruciatingly difficult to watch such brutality.
God bless.
Kate,
I agree with you so much. It has been on my heart for the past couple years just what you said. The attitude, the attitude, must be one of Christ. He did not try to stone the women at the well, right? Adultery is no less of a sin than abortion (murder) or lying or stealing or whatever. Sometimes I feel like the truth of abortion, that it is sickening and evil, is spoken with little love.
The women are just as important as the babies. Their sin is no worse than my own for which Christ died. Perhaps if we spoke to women by letting them know that abortion is not a "choice". What kind of "choice" is it to have to have your womb, your body that God made special and important, scrapped or sucked out on a cold, barren operating table? It's like the ultimate slap in the face made to look like some sort of solution. It's a lie. And I feel that we need to speak out about this lie, to really appeal to the heart of the woman, because that is showing grace.
I know people might think that I am trying to bypass the atrocity of what is happening to our children, but I am not saying that at all. The point is, people are deceived. Satan has done a wonderful job appealing to the hurt of the women and the treatment they have received in the past and present, to try to get them to feel justified in this action. They have been hurt and used and abused, and we have to address that reality. I think it is important to see that and let her know that we see it. The truth spoken in love acknowledges hurt. It doesn't point fingers. Because we must remember where we have come from. We are no better than a women who believes abortion is her choice. She is deceived and we must point that out in love by acknowleging her pain. Speaking the truth of course, that abortion is murder, but also showing her that we understand her pain and fear and that we love her anyway.
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