Apologetics - Why Abortion Exists
By Dr. Art Mirek
Executive Director
Michigan Christians for Life

Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, M.D., a former abortionist turned pro life advocate narrated a 10 minute video called the the Silent Scream.  The video shows a 12 week suction abortion.  In this video, a baby is seen dodging the suction instrument, over and over again, while its heartbeat increases in rate.  When this developing baby is  finally caught, and  its body begins to be dismembered, its tiny  mouth opens wide, screaming in pain, as its life is taken away, all too soon.

I am writing this report on the 26th anniversary of the infamous 1973 Supreme Court Decisions in Roe v Wade and Doe V. Bolton. Since that time over 36 million babies have been killed in the womb and never given the chance to contribute to society as you and I have. God may have intended to use one of them to lead a nation or discover a cure or perhaps just be there for that one who needs help. Abortion is always fatal.

In this report I will present the highlights of the history of Abortion from an apologetics standpoint, in other words, why I and millions of others oppose abortion on demand. To be sure there are many events that will be left out but the ones I offer should give the reader a  feel for what led a nation to accept a procedure that takes the life of those most dependent on others and has been a major cause of the cheapening of life in America.  Abortion is not about "choice" it is about civil rights being denied to those who cannot defend themselves.

Being an ordained Christian minister, I must make the following statement before beginning this report. I trust it shall dispel any thought which might say that I am trying to judge others. It is very important to know that abortion, inspite of its ramifications, is not the unpardonable sin.  As Christians  we serve a living and forgiving God.  Because He is living , He understands our needs, as well as our problems and because He is forgiving, God gives us hope.

Abortion is a great sin because it denies a person their God given right to life. The basic meaning of all sin is rebellion against God. The only way to end this rebellion is to trust and obey God. We do that through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I am reminded of the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. Under Jewish law she was to be stoned to death. A group of men were enlisted to attend to this task. Before they began on of them asked Jesus for His opinion. He told them that  whoever was without sin should cast the first stone. They leave, beginning with the oldest, one by one and then Jesus turns to the young woman and says, "where are your accusers", she answers,"all of them are gone" and Jesus then says, "Go and sin no more".

Please notice two things; 1. The men repented of their sin and 2. The woman was told to sin no more. Saying yes to Jesus, and no to sin, will put you right with God.

Anyone who had an abortion and anyone that encouraged one, are sinners. When any of them turn to Jesus Christ and repent of this sin, or any other sin, the Bible says they are forgiven. Former first lady, Nancy Reagan was once laughed at for saying, "Just say no to drugs", but in reality that is what it takes to end the habit.  Saying "no" to sin works.  When you say no to sin, you will see what I mean.

People should never become self righteous or judgmental with regard to those who have participated in an abortion. We should, as the saying goes, "walk a mile in their shoes" first.   When enough people find out that abortion kills people, the laws will change but in the meantime we must tell others. When you do be kind, be nice and be understanding. We are all sinners saved by God's grace through Jesus Christ.

There are millions of people who do not know how serious abortion is. I am a good example of this. I was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, on the radio, in person and in print. I was performing marriages and conducting baptisms when I first found out that abortions were allowed throughout a woman's 9 months of pregnancy. This awareness came 23 years after Roe v Wade!  My point is not everyone is well versed on the issued of abortion. A knowledge of something always brings responsibility to react.

Now let me take you back in history to show  how abortion on demand was developed, how it progressed over the years and how it became legal in a nation that used to care for its most helpless people.

Prior to Roe V Wade babies in the womb were considered human beings and protected under law.  The Declaration of Independence states, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness..."

Abortion was a crime because babies in the womb were rightfully considered real people and all people had a right to life. Then, abortions were being performed illegally, not in back alleys as has been told but mainly by some physicians in secret. Their motivation was money plain and simple.

In the middle to late nineteenth century, opposition was so great to abortion, that it was common for newspapers to correctly refer to it as killing babies. It is important to know that the emphasis was exclusively on the baby when being reported in the newspapers.

As the 20th century began, the emphasis began to shift from the baby to the mother. An ugly shift had taken place. There should have been a shift to both the mother and the baby. Because the baby was left out of the reporting it slowing became a non entity. The stage was set, all that was needed were the players. There was money to be made from abortion and those who were engaged in this practice began to put into place the things which would help to overturn the laws protecting life in the womb.

Abortion has its roots in Birth Control advocates. One of the pioneers in this movement was a woman by the name of Margaret Sanger. She was born in 1879 into a poor irish catholic family of 10 boys and girls. Her biographers tell us she was an advocate of sexual freedom and birth control even as a young woman.

In 1902 she married and had three children but later left both husband and children to further pursue her interest in sexual liberation and birth control. In her quest to promote her lifestyle and interests, she traveled extensively in europe. She promoted infidelity and promiscuity and sought others to affirm her lifestyle. She became friends with such notables as H.G. Wells, Julian Huxley and Havelock Ellis.

Her second marriage was to J. Noah Slee, a millionaire and oil baron. It was a marriage of need that allowed her to pursue her interests. She opened a birth control clinic in 1916 and began to publish a magazine called the Birth Control Review .
Sanger founded the American Birth Control League. She declared that abortion and forced sterilization might be necessary for those whom she considered unfit to reproduce. By the late 1930's one of her goals was to produce a "race of thoroughbreds" by eliminating those whom she considered "non productive". These  included the poor and certain ethnic groups which she felt were inferior.

Sanger's American Birth Control League later became the Birth Control Federation of America. In 1942, when her "thoroughbred" project began to resemble the one Hitler was proposing in Europe, one of her consultants, D. Kenneth Rose suggested changing the organizations name to Planned Parenthood Federation of America.  Mr. Rose reasoned that the name change was needed to create a better image as people were beginning to identify "birth control" with some of the things the Nazis were doing in Germany. Reluctantly she agreed.

By the 1950's Planned Parenthood Federation of America was beginning to be perceived as a "respectable" organization. They were even allowed to teach sex education in the schools as part of their "birth control" program.  At that time,  economist and social analyst Jacqueline Kasan said this about Planned Parenthood's sex education programs:

"The objectionable feature of these programs now being promoted by Planned Parenthood is not that they teach sex, but that they do it so badly, replacing good biological education with ten to twelve years of compulsory consciousness raising and psycho sexual therapy,and using the public schools to advance their own peculiar world view". (emphasis added).

Today, Planned Parenthood Federation of America is one of 90 national affiliates of the International Planned Parenthood Federation that is head quartered in London, England.  Two thirds of its funding comes through tax dollars. It concentrates its efforts on abortion, contraception, and sex education. In 1988, Planned Parenthood in the United States had 5 regional offices, 187 statewide affiliates,729 clinics and 60 abortion facilities that killed 98,849 babies. Its total cash flow was estimated to be one half billion dollars.

Another pro death organization that helped influence abortion on demand is the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), founded in 1966 by Lawrence Lader.

Originally they were called the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws. Lader reasoned that to make killing babies legal they had to increase their influence in the media. To do that they had to give the press something to write about. They did this through deception. For example, they claimed that abortion should be made legal because 5,000 to 10,000 women died every year from illegal abortions. A study by Creighton University School of medicine later revealed that the actual number was an average of 250. They also inflated the number of illegal abortions. NARAL claimed that it was 2 million a year when in reality it was 98 thousand.

Today the abortion rate averages one million, five hundred thousand , instead of reducing abortions as they claimed legalized abortion would do, they have instead increased.

Because of the influences of the Planned Parenthood Federation, the National Abortion Rights Action League and other pro death groups, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Roe V Wade, that abortions could be performed through the 9th month of pregnancy. In addition, in Doe V Bolton, the same court allowed a "health exception" that, in effect, allows abortion on demand for any reason whatsoever.

Margaret Sanger, who died in 1966, would have been proud. Not only was her dream realized for abortion on demand but in 1973, America was in the middle of a sexual revolution, a lifestyle she had promoted some 50 years earlier.

The reason why abortion is so bad is because it is completely opposite of God's plan for mankind. The very first book in the Bible, Genesis, which means "beginnings", illustrates one of several reasons why.

Genesis, chapter one, verse one says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth", and goes on to give God's order of creation and, as if to save the best for the last, verses 26 through 28 say;"So God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing. So God created in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

Here we discover that God created us in His own image, gave us dominion over His creation and told us to be fruitful and multiply. We were represented by our first parents, Adam and Eve. When they fell from Grace through their sin, it was passed on to the rest of us, but God in His tender mercies promised to send us a Savior (Genesis 3:15)  in order to redeem us. We know that Savior is Jesus Christ. (Gal. 4: 4-7).

The Bible tells us that life begins at conception; "For thou hast possessed my reins; thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."(Psalm:139-13-16)

God places such an importance on His gift of life that He tells us to choose it over death. In the book of Deuteronomy, a book Jesus quoted from, on more than one occasion, Moses gives his final instructions to the people of God.

Moses days were numbered, and being concerned about his people he repeats those things God has revealed to him. He knows that they will be blessed if they heed the call of God. Toward the end of those instructions Moses quotes this warning from God; "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." Here we find that choosing life creates blessings to a nation.

The Bible also tells us that everyone has a special purpose in His creation. A good example of this concerns God's calling of Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet". In the first chapter of the book of Jeremiah, in verse 5, God says, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

No person born into this world is a mistake. We all have different roles to play but it is how  we yield ourselves to God's Will that produces His purposes. Jeremiah was called to warn God's people of their sins and to tell them about sin's consequences. This was not an easy task, certainly not what Jeremiah would have chosen. The people did not heed the warnings and Jeremiah weeps. (See the Lamentations of Jeremiah)

To make it very clear to those who may have "missed the message" on  the importance of life, God included the following command in the ten commandments; "Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20:13, Deut. 5:17)  The 10 commandments are not 10 "suggestions" and are meant to bless us and not harm us. It is very important to note that these commandments are repeated twice in scripture, as if to stress their importance.

You can "search the Scriptures" from Genesis to Revelation and you will discover that God has placed a premium on the sanctity of human life. Why then, has the church, for the most part, ignored the "silent scream" of abortions for the past 26 years?

Please Note: When I speak of "the church" here, I am speaking specifically to individual members of the body of Jesus Christ. To put it bluntly, to folks who are,  for the most part, Christians in name only. There are many individual churches who represent denominations and congregations who have openly opposed abortions but not enough individual members.

I have often said that if every Christian said "no" to abortion it would end tomorrow. Why do so many ignore the issue or refuse to do anything about it? As I have noted earlier, many christians don't know the facts about abortion. How it is allowed all the way up to the time of birth, that a baby is killed as a result of it and that many people are using abortion as a type of birth control method.

The basic problem why many people, including some that call themselves Christians, are not bothered by abortion is that they don't know the good Shepherd. The discourse of the good shepherd is found in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John. In this parable Jesus Christ tells His disciples in a parable the following; That He is the promised messiah announced by the prophets. That He was introduced by the Holy Spirit and that His sheep would respond. That He was the only way to God and anyonewho enters in through Him will be saved and find the true meaning of life.

Jesus also explained what happens when a person does not focus on Him alone , "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) The thief  Jesus is talking about is the devil. Apply this verse to the abortion crisis and you will understand the reason for it; It is the devil who has stolen the truth about life from many people. As a result, over 36 million babies have paid with their lives and if it is not reversed the world will lose more and more people. Look around today and notice the  population with respect to age, it will tell the rest of the story. The world needs Jesus Christ and we need to tell them.

When you trace back the history of abortion you will find one common thread, sin.  It was carried along by those who lived a sinful lifestyle. At first people objected to their sin, later they tolerated it, much later they accepted it. Finally it was incorporated into the laws of our Nation by the Supreme Court Decisions in Roe V Wade and Doe V. Bolton in 1973.

It does not have to stay that way, there is hope. Michigan Christians for Life and many other pro life organizations in the Nation are asking for a Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This is the best way  to stop the killing. Please pray for our efforts to help bring this about. For your information, I have included the proposed amendment:

RE: Human Life Amendment:

Unity human life amendment

Section 1: The right to life is the paramount and most fundamental right of a person.

Section 2: With respect to the right to life guaranteed to persons by the fifth and Fourteenth Articles of the amendment to the Constitution, the word "person" applies to all human beings, irrespective of age, health, function, or condition of dependency, including their unborn offspring at every stage of their biological development including fertilization.

Section 3: No unborn person will be deprived of life by any person; provided, however, that nothing in this article will prohibit a law allowing justification to be shown for only those medical procedures required to prevent the death of either the pregnant woman or her unborn offspring, as long as such law requires every reasonable effort be made to preserve the life of each.

Section 4: Congress and the states will have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Note: A Constitutional Amendment has been used four times in the past to overturn rulings by the Supreme Court.