Forty one years and 55 million deaths later, we are still facing a crisis in our nation. It was forty one years ago that the Supreme Court struck down the laws that made abortion illegal in our country. In the Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973 abortion became a very real option for women who found themselves pregnant with a child they did not want.
I can't imagine that last statement - pregnant with a child they did not want. How can you not want a child? I don't say that flippantly or without sensitivity to the challenge that a crisis pregnancy brings to the life of a woman or girl. The child might not be "planned" by the couple. The child might be an inconvenience to the life of the couple. The child will change the life of the couple (their lives are already changed by the fact that they have been engaged in a sexual relationship, generally one that is outside the realm of marriage). The mother and the father will never again be the same - whether or not they end the life of the baby.
I have never been in a crisis pregnancy situation. I have never had to face what life would be like having a child that wasn't planned. I do know what it is like to lose a child, as our first child died through a miscarriage. That really caused me to go into an emotional tailspin that only the Lord was able to correct. I also know what it is like to not be raised by my birth parents, to be raised by someone else other than the ones that gave me life. Was I "unwanted"? Would I have been aborted if they had not wanted me because they were having too much trouble in their relationship (I was only 3 when they divorced). I don't have answers to those questions.
We do have a crisis in our nation today. It is a crisis that has led to the death of over 55 million children. The crisis is that we do not follow the Lord in our lives. Abortion is just the end result of not following the Lord. What leads to abortion is a desire to fulfill the desires of the heart - the desires that lead to making the self and self-fulfillment our god. The crisis is truly a spiritual crisis that leads to premarital and extramarital sexual relations which leads to "unwanted" pregnancy and ultimately to the crisis of abortion. It isn't just about the 55 million babies who have been murdered but about the 55 million women who have had their lives affected by a sexual relationship with a man they either did or did not "love" but they did desire (a very small percentage of abortions are done for reason of a pregnancy by rape or incest) at the moment but didn't desire to have a child by him. 55 million men have been affected by an ungodly sexual relationship with a woman who was not their wife and then to have the knowledge (or maybe they didn't even know) that their child has been killed, either with their support or without their support.
The crisis is a spiritual crisis because we are not living our lives in accord with the will of our heavenly Father. We are not following the way He would have us live our lives. That is the real crisis. The death of over 55 million children is only the result of our selfish, self-centered lives that make sex and sexual fulfillment and sexual activity our god.
Today, as thousands of voices speak out for the unborn against the atrocity of abortion, they should also be speaking words of love from God for those who suffer with the aftermath of abortion or those who are struggling with their current situation of life. The love God reaches to all people - the forgiveness of Christ is for all, no matter their sin. We need to proclaim the wonder of the gospel and the new life that it brings to those who are hurting. We cannot forget the 55 million children that are gone. But we MUST also remember the 55 million women and the 55 million men who need to know the love of Christ in their lives.
Will our country ever overturn the legalization of abortion? Probably not. Yet we don't need the government to legislate the truth about the life of the unborn. We, Christians, need to speak the truth in love and proclaim to a world around us that the only God that will fill the void of our empty lives is the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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