Sacred Life

A child in the womb at 22 weeks - 2nd Trimester.

I was reminded today that this last Saturday marked the 32nd anniversery of the Supreme Court's decision Roe v. Wade in 1973, a ruling which stripped away the rights of the unborn child, reducing its status to little more than "property" and subject to death at the whim of its mother. In a raw example of unbridled legal power, Justice Blackmun wrote in his decision that the state cannot restrict a woman's "privacy" right to kill her unborn child during the first trimester of pregnancy. In the second trimester the state can regulate the process "in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health" - not the child's. Only after crossing the threshold of the third trimester can the child be considered "viable", and a state can choose to restrict abortion or proscribe it altogether, though not many do.

I recall the revulsion and visceral anger I felt on September 11, 2001 when over 3000 Americans were murdered. Yet in grim testimony to the hidden holocaust since Roe, on average 3600 children are killed every day in America, roughly one third of every child conceived. Approximately 1,370,000 children have been killed every year since 1973 totalling over 43,000,000 unborn children slaughtered since Roe v Wade. According to US Abortion statistics:

• 25.5% of women deciding to have an abortion want to postpone childbearing


• 21.3% of women say they cannot afford a baby


• 14.1% of women have a relationship issue or their partner doesn't want a child


• 12.2% of women say they are too young to care for a child and do not want to consider adoption


• 10.8% of women feel a child will disrupt their education of career


• 7.9% of women already have children and do want anymore


• 3.3% of women have an abortion due to the risk of fetal health


• 2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk of maternal health
see stats

Less than 3% of abortions are for issues other an inconvenience to those affected by the birth. These numbers stagger the imagination, and I shudder to think what it must do in the heart of God. For American law notwithstanding, He considers the unborn much more than merely viable. As He declares through the prophet David:

For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when iwas made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.Psalm 139:13-16

In a recent cruel twist of irony, Scott Peterson was convicted of capital double murder in California; for killing his wife Laci and his unborn son Conner. Scott could have avoided the second murder count had he been able to convince Laci to abort little Conner before killing his wife. Such is the demented legacy of Roe v. Wade.

But the embers of hope have been stirred. With the election of President Bush to a second term the nation has a chance of naming Supreme Court Justices who regard life, in all its fragile stages. Recently, Norma McCorvey, the Roe in Roe v. Wade, had filed a petition with the Supreme Court to have Roe overturned. Planned Parenthood and NOW are both losing steam. The winds are changing.

I invite you to pray and take whatever actions you can to see that this great crime be removed from our land. May God have mercy on us all.