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Yesterday marked the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade, a landmark supreme-court decision that not only legalized abortion on demand but also started a culture war that has become a defining issue of our times. To think four decades ago, 8 people with the stroke of a pen made a decision that has translated to be a death sentence to 50 million babies being killed in their mother’s womb is something that makes my stomach churn. Since then, this issue has become something that people find themselves being confronted with either personally or through the fabric of human relationships that we all belong to. Such was my fate a few years ago when what had seemed a distance issue that some people have to deal with came so close to me that I had to confront it.
I can remember like it was yesterday one day six years ago when a friend of mine approached me and told me she was pregnant. It shocked me, but not as much as what followed as the conversation continued. Up until this time in my life, the unwed pregnant girls were always someone else’s friend, someone else’s sister but never my friend or my sister. This however was not the case this time around and what I had deemed “others” problem was so close to me now that I truly didn’t know what to think about it. The “others” problem was now my problem. After the initial shock, I pulled myself together and I started using the usual statements I’d heard growing up from my parents and the people I knew when it came to describing pregnancies. I was repeating the usual; “it’s a blessing and I am happy for you,” while at the same time trying to withhold my judgmental attitudes. I was surprised at how quick I had changed from thinking ‘I can’t believe people get pregnant so recklessly’ to thinking ‘I guess everyone makes mistakes.’ When it came to people I didn’t know, my verdict was reached without any consideration to human weakness, but when it came to my friend, I was less objective. I still thought it was wrong, but I trended so carefully to maintain my friendship. But obviously, that was not the whole story and now to go back, what followed next caught me so off guard that was it a punch, it would have knocked me out in one blow.
My friend proceeded to tell me that she had made an appointment for an abortion. All the problems she was having from betrayal by her boyfriend who was the child’s father to the rejection by her family had brought her to this point. I really hadn’t contemplated the whole debate about abortion, but without any hesitation I told my friend that that would be the wrong path to take. I knew in my heart of hearts that it was fundamentally wrong to end a human life even at its earliest developmental stages. At 19yrs, my simplicity had not been clouded by the culture and my arguments were pretty simple. I simply asked her how old her mum was when she had her, and it turned out that she was 19. At this point, I proceeded to ask her what if her mum aborted her and since she was also 19yrs I considered my case closed. Now, this argument doesn’t always work especially when people are in distress and not thinking clearly, but grace from God coupled with proper disposition of heart can get people over the edge. After a long talk of me trying to reassure my friend of the goodness of God and inject some hope in her seemingly hopeless situation, we parted. I left with an ache in my heart convinced that she would go ahead with her appointment the next day.
Fast forward six months later and I got a call from her having lost contact since that night. She went ahead to tell me that she had just given birth to a beautiful baby girl and proceeded to tell me how her family and boyfriend had turned around and that they were back together and even thinking about marriage. She revealed to me that the night we talked, she was not only about to get an abortion, but that she was also contemplating suicide, and our conversation helped her to decide against both. I rejoiced in the fact that reason had trumped distress and grace had conquered death and affirmed life; both of the mother and the baby. This experience gave me a whole new perspective about life and abortion
The abortion issue is no longer a distance problem that other people can deal with. It became a personal issue for me since every time I look at my friend’s daughter and think about how close she came to having her life ended before birth, it gives me a new courage to combat this unfortunate evil that we have become accustomed to in our society.
Now to bring into perspective the question of whether proponents of abortion are subject to madness or are simply ignorant, I dare to propose that it’s both and. With the many arguments used to justify abortion, any logical and reasonable person can see right through them and only come to a conclusion that to be able to attend to such an act, one has to be out of the realm of reason, be extremely ignorant or have a heart that has been so hardened by sin that all light is extinguished from it. I tend to be of the mind that the latter is where most people fall. When you look at what brings people to the doors of abortion, you can trace a line of violations to the moral law which we also call sin that have been committed. Like St. Augustine put it “sin darkens the intellect.” In this line, their intellects are so darkened that sound reason is deemed mute.
A good example would be a pregnant mother who has an accident going to the hospital to have an abortion and the baby in her womb is killed. The person who caused the accident can be convicted of man slaughter for the baby’s death while only a few minutes later if the accident didn’t happen, an abortionist and the mother can participate in the killing of the same baby and there are no consequences to their actions. Logic tells you that something is wrong in this case, and the double standard applied here goes to show you the injustice of such a law. When the idea of choice is brought forward, we can answer with the fact that the baby doesn’t choose to be killed. To quote Ronald Reagan, “is it not funny that all those who support abortion have all been born?” The answer is yes. But now what do we do.
As a society, we should protect these most vulnerable among us without leaving their fate to the unscrupulous minds that would see to their extermination, forgetting that their position was once theirs. This brings me back to the events that took place on the eve and the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade decision, where thousands of people took part in the march for life rally trying to bring about respect for life back to its proper place and hopefully bring about justice. As individuals, it’s usually simple to remain indifferent to abortion and say that it is no concern of ours, but we do it at the risk of our own detriment since life is the foundation on which stands the fate of humanity and to ignore its violation is like ignoring a crack in a building that grows big enough to bring the whole house crashing upon our head. This is the immensity of this issue and we should all work together to bring about the only change which will see to its end; that is the change of peoples hearts. May God grant us the courage to do so and have mercy upon us for the sin of abortion and all other sins that violate human dignity.
