This sermon was delivered right before the 2008 Presidential election. It draws from several other sermons listed here on Sermon Central.
Abortion
by Scott Bayles, pastor
First Christian Church
With the upcoming presidential election many of you have undoubtedly been watching the presidential debates, the interactions, the dialogues, and the conventions. To be honest, I’m really not into politics. I don’t have an overwhelming interest or opinion on the economy, rising gas prices, tax legislation, or even the war on terror. Quite frankly I make my political decisions based primarily on one criterion and criterion only. Does the candidate support or oppose abortion?
Sarah Palin, for example, has been crucified by the media elite because of her strong opposition to abortion. On the other hand, in March 2003, registered nurse Jill Stanek submitted a statement to the Illinois Senate Health and Human Services committee in which she reported that infants who survived abortions at an Oak Lawn hospital were sometimes “taken to the Soiled Utility Room and left alone to die.” Stanek was lobbying the committee to approve the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002, which would have recognized any infant who survived an abortion as a human being deserving legal protection and medical attention. Barack Obama, who was then the committee chairman, opposed and defeated the bill, denying babies who survive partial-birth abortions any medical treatment or care. As to why Senator Obama opposed the bill, he said this in Senate hearing on March 30, 2001:
“What [this bill is] saying is, in fact, that they [babies who survive abortions] are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be given to a child—a nine-month-old child—that was delivered to term… the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this [a baby who survives and abortion] is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion statute. For that purpose, I think it would probably be found unconstitutional.”
My purpose this morning isn’t to talk about Sarah Palin, John McCain, or Barack Obama, or to tell you who to vote for. And I know that some of what I have to say this morning is going to make some of you a little uncomfortable to say the least, but my purpose isn’t to be politically correct or to placate to any particular ideology or political party—I’m simply here to share what’s on my heart and in God’s Word.
Abortion is one of the most critical issues of our generation. Christians need to consider carefully what the Bible has to say on the subject. Sadly, most political debates or discussions surrounding the subject of abortion, fail to ask the only question that really matters—is an unborn fetus a living human being? If not, then a woman certainly has the right to choose what she does with her own body. But if so—if an unborn fetus is, in fact, a living human being—then abortion, for any reason, is nothing more than the painful killing of an innocent human life and can never be morally or ethically justified.
• First, we have to recognize that an unborn fetus is a living human being.
In an age of scientific enlightenment we now know that the embryo even at its earliest stages fulfills the criteria needed to establish the existence of biological life. It has metabolism, development, the ability to react to stimuli, and cell reproduction. We know that even a zygote is a living organism with a distinct genetic code, different from the mother’s. So, while the unborn fetus is fully dependent on the mother, it is not part of the mother—it has a distinct and unique genetic makeup, its own DNA. Human personhood does not depend on size, location or level of dependence. By the time most abortions can be performed, the baby already has a beating heart and identifiable brain waves. The baby living in his/her mother is as distinct and unique a human being as you are from me. Numerous philosophers and scientists have shown conclusively that the fetus is a human being from the moment of conception. In Woman and the New Race, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood (which is the largest provider of abortions world-wide), tacitly acknowledged this point when she wrote: “The most merciful thing a large family can do for one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Modern science only serves to confirm what any student of God’s Word should already know. The Bible says, “God created human beings in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). God himself told Jeremiah, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5 NLT). And don’t forget that Psalm 139 tells us that God created our inmost being, he knit us together in our mother’s womb and that all the days ordained for us were written in his book before even one of them came to be. In short, God created humanity and each member of it in his own image, with not just a body but a soul. Even while that baby is in the womb, he or she is in God’s image. Even while we were still in the womb, God had a plan and a purpose for our lives. While the Bible does not mention abortion specifically, it is clear by implication that abortion is murder.
Not only that, but it is a painful murder in that the methods employed to kill an unborn baby involve burning, smothering, dismembering, and crushing. And such procedures are executed on live babies who have not been administered any anesthetic. Abortion at any time during the pregnancy is tremendously painful to the baby as pain-sensing nerve endings are generated during the earliest stages of development, but by far the most horrific procedure is that employed by doctors performing partial birth abortions.
I realize that this might make you squeamish; but after the mother is given medication to induce labor, the doctor reaches into the birth canal and turns the baby so that it will be delivered breached (feet first). The baby is then delivered completely except for the head which remains in the birth canal. The entire body of the baby is outside of the mother. The baby’s arms and legs are moving. Then the doctor takes a pair of scissors and punctures the base of the infant’s skull inside of the mother’s birth canal. The baby jerks, becomes stiff and then becomes limp. The doctor then removes the scissors, and put a suction tube into the baby’s skull, vacuuming the brain out, thus collapsing the baby’s skull. This is done for two reasons. One to make sure the baby is dead and the other is to ease the delivery for the mother. And all of this is perfectly legal.
How can anyone justify this? This is cold-blooded murder in the worst kind. Has our society become so corrupt that we would send someone to jail for killing a litter of kittens, but would do nothing to protect the lives of unborn human babies?
• Furthermore, a lot of people may agree with me about abortion but just don’t see it as being as important as some other issues.
For instance, I know a lot of people would like to see our troops in Iraq brought back home. I understand that and I sympathize. But let me just say, as much I hate hearing about American soldiers being killed overseas, there’s a big difference. Fist, our soldiers had a choice—they enlisted of their own free will. They also have a fighting chance—they’ve been trained an equipped for battle. The children being aborted all across our nation have no choice, no fighting chance. And I don’t think most American’s understand how pandemic abortion has really become.
In 1973, the year that abortion was legalized in America, Planned Parenthood reported 744,600 abortions. Today, there are approximately 2,000,000 abortions every year and organizations like Planned Parenthood receive nearly a billion dollars annually in government funding. There will be more children aborted this year alone than the total number of American soldier who have died in every single battle ever fought since the American Revolution.
That’s 60,000,000 babies since 1973. (1/3 the US population)
That’s 28,000 babies every week;
That’s 4,000 babies every day;
That’s 1 baby every 20 seconds;
That’s 120 babies during the time that I am preaching this sermon.
Honestly, does how much you spend when you go to the gas station seem relevant in light of the countless lives being snuff out every day? When we choose to vote and elect leader who preserve abortion laws and defeat bills attempting to ban abortion, we become responsible for each one of those lives.
• Finally and thankfully, we’ve got to realize that in God’s economy there is hope for those who have experienced the ravages of abortion.
Statistically, nearly one in four women have had an abortion. These women need to know that there is help and healing in God’s family. We’re not going to look down on them or shun them or treat them like second-class Christians. We have a God of second-chances. After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband in cold-blood, he prayed.
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51 1:-10 NLT)
David’s prayer was answered; he discovered, like so many before him and after, that God’s grace really is amazing.
Norma McCorvey was the “Roe” of Roe vs. Wade. In 1969 she found herself pregnant and on the streets. She sought an abortion, but could not get one in Texas because of the strong pro-life laws in Texas at that time. She found help in an ambitious young attorney named Sara Weddington. Sara convinced Norma to lie and tell the courts that she had been raped. (This means that the abortion case that destroyed every state law protecting the unborn was based on a lie).
In 1972 that case, Roe vs. Wade, was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court and in January 1973, the Supreme Court reversed not just the laws banning abortion in Texas, but in all 50 states. Before the case even went to the Supreme Court, Norma had already had her baby and given it up for adoption.
In 1989, she came out of seclusion and announced to the world that she was the Roe in Roe vs. Wade. The pro-abortion movement recruited her for their cause and a TV movie was made about her life. She then went to work for an abortion clinic in the Dallas area, where her life would change forever. She was killing babies for money and she knew it. But one day Operation Rescue moved in next door to the abortion clinic.
Norma said that she would watch the women handing out pro-life literature, that the pro-life people were always smiling and she was very curious about that. She began talking with the pro-life Christians and they began witnessing to her.
Norma remembers a young mother named Rhonda who had two little girls. Emily was 7 and Chelsea was 3. Rhonda had become pregnant with Emily soon after marrying and her relatives tried to convince her to have an abortion. They said “Well Rhonda, that’s no way to start a marriage: with a problem.” Rhonda had seen the results of abortions that some of her friends had and she refused to abort her first baby.
One day Norma was looking out of the abortion clinic window and saw little 7-year-old Emily take some literature and just walk up to women and say, “I would like you to have this information and please don’t go in there and kill your baby.”
Norma began talking with Pastor Flip Benham, director of Operation Rescue. She was lead to Christ in 1996 by these pro-life protesters next to her abortion clinic and by a little 7-year-old girl named Emily. What if Rhonda had aborted Emily? Would Norma’s heart still have been touched and would Norma still have been saved?
Today Norma is a Christian working with Operation Outcry, trying to reverse the Roe vs. Wade decision that she had been a part of so many years ago. God can forgive and change anyone who has committed an abortion or been part of the pro-abortion campaign. Not only can they receive God’s forgiveness in the here and now, but they can look forward to the ecstasy of reuniting with their unborn loved ones in eternity.
Invitation:
In just a moment, we’re going to sing our invitation song, but this isn’t exactly an alter call; rather it’s an invitation to think, to consider the choices we make and leaders we choose. And if you need someone to talk to about it—I’m here.
