Psalm 127.3
“Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.”
This was a very difficult and painful devotional for me to write. No doubt it will be equally painful for you to read.
Because the President was successful at getting Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh appointed to the US Supreme Court, liberals are very concerned that the 1973 Roe v Wade federal court decision will be overturned by the Court at some point in the near future. For that reason, there has been a strong push by liberal activists and politicians to expand and strengthen abortion laws in several states, most recently New York and Virginia.
America needs to courageously address the hard truth about the brutality of abortion. We must actively stand against the deceitful politics of the left to expand abortion rights.
In 1946 the English novelist George Orwell wrote an essay entitled “Politics and the English Language,” that described political speech and writing as “largely the defense of the indefensible.” Orwell astutely observed that, “Political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness. Politicians turn to strange phrases in order to “name things without calling up mental pictures of them.”
This is precisely what is happening in our time with respect to abortion. Advocates of abortion rights use a host of euphemisms in an attempt to hide the ugly reality that abortion is the brutal killing of an unborn child.
First, let’s be clear what the word “euphemism” means. The dictionary defines a euphemism as: “A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.”
Next, consider the euphemisms that abortion advocates use. They claim that a fetus isn’t an unborn baby; rather, it is the “product of conception.” In fact, they rarely call the killing of a fetus or unborn child an abortion; instead, it is grouped in with notions of “the right to choose,” “reproductive rights” “reproductive health” or just “women’s health care.”
I went to the Planned Parenthood website to read first-hand their euphemistic description of the abortion procedure. Here is it what it says:
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They will insert a thin tube through your cervix into your uterus.
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They will then use a small, hand-held suction device or suction machine to gently take the pregnancy tissue out of your uterus
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They may also use a small surgical tool called a curette to remove any tissue that’s left in your uterus, or check to make sure your uterus is totally empty.
Finally, let’s confront that the awful reality of what actually happens in an abortion. In early term abortions, the unborn baby is sucked out of his/her mother’s womb by means of a vacuum. In later term abortions, the baby is brutally dismembered and crushed with scalpel, forceps, and scissors.
Here is how one abortion doctor described the procedure: “The fetus can’t come out intact. We haven’t dilated sufficiently for that. The fetal parts are soft enough to break apart as they are being removed.” In other words, he has to dismember the fetus inside the uterus and pull it out, bit by bit. He uses an ultrasound scan to guide him.
Even then, some body parts are too large to come out whole. To illustrate what happens, the doctor gripped his thumb between the surgical forceps and squeezes gently. “Those parts are the skull and then the spine and pelvis, and in fact they are crushed. But,” the doctor said, “women hardly ever ask for details.”
This is the horrific reality of abortion.
One wonders what decision pregnant women would make if Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers told the women the uncomfortable truth about how abortions are performed without resorting to euphemism. Advocates of abortion call themselves “pro-choice,” but they are not helping women make an informed choice.
“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.” (Jeremiah 1.5)
In order to change the hearts and minds of the American people with regard to abortion, I think one of the actions we can take is to require that the truth be told. It should be mandatory for abortion providers to tell women exactly what happens in the abortion procedure. No euphemism, no attempt to disguise or minimize what happens to the baby.
The second thing we can do is educate people about the linkage between two US Supreme Court cases: the 1857 Dred Scott decision and the 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to deny citizenship rights to all African Americans living in the United States — slaves as well as free persons. It also invalidated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thereby permitting slavery in every federal territory. The verdict in the case inflamed regional feelings over slavery and served as a precursor to the Civil War.
The majority decision was written by Chief Justice Roger Taney. He wrote that the framers of the Constitution believed that blacks “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it.”
Referring to the language in the Declaration of Independence that includes the phrase, “all men are created equal,” Taney’s distorted reasoning was that “it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration. . . .”
The Dred Scott case was the most shameful decision ever made by the US Supreme Court. Then came 1973 …
The 1973 Roe vs Wade case was eerily similar to the Dred Scott case. Also a 7-2 decision, Roe vs Wade denied unborn children the right to life, just as the Dred Scott case had denied citizenship to blacks. Apparently the same twisted thinking that was used in 1857 case was used in the 1973 case. In 1857 the court argued that blacks “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” In 1973 the court argued virtually the same thing with respect to the unborn, ruling that unborn children have no right to life. It was the Supreme Court’s decision that babies in the womb had no rights which mothers or physicians were obligated to respect.
When people today read about the Dred Scott case, they are mortified at the racism, injustice, and hard-heartedness of the Supreme Court and American culture in 1857. At the same time, they are blinded to the reality that Roe v Wade reflects the same kind of injustice and hard-heartedness. America needs to awaken to the reality that denying the civil rights of the unborn is profoundly immoral and unjust. America today is fiercely protective of civil rights for everyone … except the unborn!
“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. My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16)
