EDITOR’S NOTE: Sunday, Jan. 17, is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention.
ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)–Fifty million is a huge number. So significant is the number that its very presence makes a huge impact.
If you had $50 million in your bank account you would be financially free. If you live 50 million minutes you will celebrate 105 birthdays.
In similar fashion, the absence of 50 million of anything can have staggering impact. On Jan. 22, 1973 the United States Supreme Court ruled that abortion on demand was legal in the U.S. Since that day, approximately 50 million unborn children have had their lives snuffed out.
The impact of abortion in America over the past 37 years means that 50 million people were never known. This fact is incredibly significant.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor .29 percent of the total American population are medical doctors and .78 percent are nurses. Apply these percentages to the number of babies aborted in the U.S over the past 37 years and there is quite an impact.
If the percentages held true for the babies born between 1973 and 1983 (had these children been born they would now be between the ages of 27 and 37) 40,000 would now be practicing physicians — if they hadn’t been aborted.
Because nurses begin their careers earlier than doctors, if we take the children that would have been born between 1973 and 1988 (these children would now be between the ages of 22 and 37) 158,000 would have chosen nursing as a career.
Currently America is facing a serious shortage of both doctors and nurses. Some contend the situation may soon reach crisis levels. The shortage of health care workers the United States is now facing can be blamed, in part, on the fact that scores of potential doctors and nurses have been aborted since 1973.
The same statistics previously mentioned could be applied to every profession. Abortion has robbed our nation of scores of potential productive members of society.
America is currently facing critical economic issues. Cities, states and the federal government are looking at significant budget deficits. On the state and local level the reason can be traced to a decline in sales and income taxes. Federally, the issue is more complex, and a main reason is few tax dollars are being collected.
While there is no doubt that the fiscal policy of deficit spending has contributed mightily to America’s economic woes, just imagine millions of more consumers and taxpayers contributing to the U.S. economy.
Of course some of the 50 million would have likely turned to crime and others would have died due to a variety of causes. However, the numbers would not be significant enough to mute the impact that could have been made had abortion not been legalized.
Some would argue that abortions would have continued even if the practice had not been legalized. Yes, illegal abortions would have continued. However, they would not have occurred at the rate of 1.2 to 1.4 million a year, which is has been the past 15 or so years. I would argue the number would have been a tiny fraction of that number.
Can you imagine the outcry from the environmental community if 50 million spotted owls had been mercilessly slaughtered over the past 37 years? How about if 50 million polar bears had been brutally destroyed? The clamor from environmental activists and their liberal friends would be deafening.
While birds and bears contribute to our world, their worth does not even compare to the infinite worth of a human being.
Fifty million is a huge number anywhere it is applied. When the number is 50 million babies that have been aborted in the past 37 years the number is not only incredibly significant, it is also tragic.
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Kelly Boggs is a weekly columnist for Baptist Press and editor of the Baptist Message (www.baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
