It started with legalising a women’s right to
kill her baby in 1973. Since that decision, until 2008, 50 million abortions[1] have been performed, just
in the United States of America. That means that, just in the United States of
America, 3 innocent little babies were murdered, during every single minute, of
every single day, of every single year, for a total period of 36 years. Who would have imagined the huge number?
In 1973, the year that abortions were
legalised, about 744,600[2] abortions took place.
Twenty years later, during 1993, the number of abortions had increased to
around 1,495,000[3].
The number of babies killed was more than twice that of the year that abortion
was legalised.
Admittedly, the number of abortions
performed each year in the United States of America has declined slightly since
1993, but not significantly. During 2008, approximately 1,206,000[4] babies were killed in the
United States of America. That is still 62% more than in 1973.
Expressed as a percentage, 2.1%[5] of all women in the United
States of America, aged between 15 and 44, elected to kill their babies during
2008. Effectively this means that 22%[6] of all pregnancies in the
United States of America ended in an abortion.
The Guttmacher Institute predicts that, based on the current abortion rates in the United
States of America, 10% of all women will have an abortion by the age of 20, 25%
by the age of 30 and 33% by the age of 45.[7]
There can be no doubt whatsoever that, since
legalising abortion in the United States of America, the number of abortions has
continued to increase significantly. The growth in the population of the United
States of America, from 1970 to 2010, was only 1.4% per annum. Yet, at the same
time, the annual growth in the number of abortions, from 1973 to 2008, was 135%
greater, with the average number of abortions increasing by 3.3% per annum.
Despite the promised benefits of sex
education, today at least 53% of teenagers are having sex in the United States
of America compared to 32% in 1971.[8] That is a 66% increase in
the percentage of teenagers having sex.
Let us of course not forget about the
promised benefits from the increased availability of contraception? Even this has
done little to reduce the number of abortions. But, have we learned the lesson?
It seems not!
In much the same way as the drive to legalise abortion began, advocates
of “assisted dying” – “killing of the old, sickly, costly and unwanted,” to call it by
what it truly is, are continuing to campaign for legislation to legalise the killing
of certain people. Just as
happened with abortion, they will continue to chip away continuously until they
get what they want.
Yesterday, in the United Kingdom, the “Commission on Assisted Dying”,
chaired by Lord Falconer, released a major report,
which recommended that: “MPs should
consider changing the law on assisted suicide to allow some terminally ill
people to end their lives at home with the help of their doctor”[9]. Here are some of the
terms under which the commission felt that a person should have the right to be
killed.
The person would have to be over
18 and be terminally ill to be considered for assisted suicide.
The person would have to
have less than 12 months to live.
The person should use own
physical abilities and not be assisted in anyway.
The person should also not
be mentally impaired in any way.
Even if some may think that this initial proposal is reasonable, which I definitely do not, experience of abortion has shown that this will simply be the
thin edge of the wedge. Today perfectly healthy babies, quite capable of
surviving completely on their own, outside of their mother’s womb and completely
independently of her, are being killed in the United States of America.
The killing of these babies used to be done
in a practice that was once referred to as a “partial birth abortion”. Partial
birth abortion refers to the method whereby a baby is only partially delivered,
just until the head or part of the body shows. The baby is then killed, before
being extracted completely from the mother’s womb.
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 was
passed in the United States of America to put a stop to this practice. But this
has not stopped babies, capable of surviving completely on their own after
birth, from being killed by their mothers and by medical personnel.[10] This is because now abortion
providers have “adopted the practice of
injecting the fetus with lethal drugs before all late-term abortions.
Typically, a concentrated salt solution is injected directly into the fetal
heart using ultrasound to guide the needle. Even though these providers do not
perform intact dilation and extraction procedures, they feel the broad wording
of the ban compels them "to do all they can to protect themselves and
their staff from the possibility of being accused."”[Sic][11]
This is a clear example of how, even though
laws are enacted to protect the innocent and maintain a just society, people
for reasons I cannot begin to comprehend, continue to do whatever they want to
do, even kill, in order to achieve their own selfish objectives.
Assisted suicide, euthanasia, or whatever
you choose to call it, will bring more sadness to this world than we could even
begin to imagine. It will, without any shadow of a doubt, one day make Hitler
seem like a saint.
It is time for all Christians to take note
of the fact that God alone is the Lord of life. We have no right to take that
role. We Christians can also not permit anyone else to take on this role. Neither can we stand by and do nothing. The sin of omission is equally as serious as the sin of commission. We have allowed the killing of innocent children to be legalised and now they are killed indiscriminately, just like The Holy Innocents were killed at the time of the birth of Jesus. Are we now also going to allow people to be put to death, before the end of their natural lives, just as our Lord was put to death.
“Human life is sacred because from its
beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a
special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the
Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any
circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human
being.”[12]
Apparently China, in a similar period has killed 450 million babies. Add to the 50 million from the USA. 500 million innocent babies killed. That's 26 babies being killed every single minute just in the USA and China.
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