OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (BP)–There are no screams, even though the victim is brutalized. Limb by limb, the victim is torn from its home. There will be no decent burial. This person has no rights and no standing. Tiny, defenseless and voiceless, the human remains are thrown away as medical waste. The death toll since 1972 now inches ever closer to 50 million.
What is so amazing is that this silent holocaust continues under protection of the Congress, state legislatures and the Supreme Court of the United States. Today in America the most dangerous place is a mother’s womb. Millions have been aborted in the name of freedom and choice.
I have watched the debate in America move from a focus on facts to the arena of one person’s rights over another’s. Indisputable medical evidence tells us the unborn are fully human and separated from the rest of us only by a period of maturation. Of course, America’s history has been marked by such debates. Although our forefathers sought to give life and liberty to all, we have chosen to discard some, viewing them as less than human. Even during our nation’s founding, slaves were seen as property rather than human beings worthy of respect and honor. Today, we have drawn the same conclusion regarding the unborn. They are the property of the mother to do with as she pleases. She can decide the thumbs-up or thumbs-down for the unborn child. Death or life is in her hands.
Something is missing in the soul of a nation that chooses systematically to destroy for convenience the most defenseless, voiceless and helpless among us. More than 1 million unborn children die each year. Each one is made in the image of God. Each has been formed in the mother’s womb by the loving hand of our God. Not one was a mistake. Yet our laws allow for the mother to choose to remove this “inconvenient” person from her life.
Abortion is an abomination in the sight of a holy God. It is an offense to all who understand the sanctity of human life. Doctors, philosophers, judges and legislators cannot change the fact that God sees every life as precious. He sees the child in the womb and superintends the very maturation of that child from conception. There is no such thing as disposable human life in the heart and mind of God.
The debate continues. We must not be silent. We must continue to fight for elected officials and judges who respect the sanctity of human life. We must never be silent while the unborn are thrown away as trash. Let the church declare openly and unreservedly that every life is sacred and every person born or unborn is worthy of life.
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Anthony Jordan is executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.
