Abortion is not legal. It can never be. No matter what the Supreme Court has said, the fact is that the right to life is inalienable.
I hope that by now abortion proponents are sincere enough to admit that we are talking about a life here. At the time that Roe v. Wade was decided, Justice Blackmun talked about what he thought were “vigorous opposing views” on the issue. But today, the evidence is overwhelming.
My wife and I just found out we are expecting our third child and, just last week, we went for the first ultrasound. What a joy to see that little one! At just nine weeks, you can already see his extremities and hear the heart beating at an incredible rate.
With that evidence, even the Roe Court could not disguise its unlawful ruling. As it wrote then: “If this suggestion of personhood is established, [Roe’s] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the [Fourteenth] Amendment.” (Emphasis added).
We pray the Supreme Court will finally admit the great tragedy committed with Roe and that it reverses its unconstitutional ruling.
That said, there is a higher authority that we will all answer to, whether we recognize it or not, even with Roe’s burden still on our shoulders and the fact that we submit ourselves to the governmental authorities, including the Supreme Court.
The Founders knew this. Our founding documents are permeated with that idea. There are certain rights that are given to us by our Creator and no governmental authority can take them away. None more important than the right to life.
So today, on the anniversary of Roe, we pray that we would live up to the ideals of our founding.
We pray for the women who have been the victims of abortion. We pray for their hurt; for the pain of abortion does not go away as women are promised while lying on the abortion table. As the Supreme Court recently recognized in Gonzalez v. Carhart on the issue of partial-birth abortion:
"It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast-developing brain of her unborn child. ..."
We pray for those in contact with women struggling with abortion. It is absolutely heartbreaking to hear of women who went through this horrific procedure because they actually felt they did not have a choice — families putting pressure on them because of the shame, fathers abandoning them because they “did not sign up for that,” some even feel the pressure of an unforgiving church.”
We pray that we become, as a society, a support for these women. We pray that when they feel alone, they can feel a friendly embrace, letting them know that they are not alone and they do have a choice.
Even in the most difficult cases, we pray that women may understand that two wrongs don’t make a right and that there are other ways to minimize the hurt, instead of compounding it with guilt.
We pray for organizations providing adoption services, that they might reach women in need to make themselves available.
We pray for the church to love as God loves, that we receive women in desperate need with open arms and that we keep them as far away from those who seek to profit from their hurt.
And we pray for abortionists. Yes, we pray for a day when there are no doctors willing to perform this horrific procedure. But instead, we pray that an overwhelming interest in saving lives and helping women in need be renewed on the heart of every health professional.
We pray that no doctor believes the lie that they are “helping” women.
As we mark the 38th anniversary of Roe, may we realize that, far from a source of pride, this decision stands as an undeniable black mark on our land. Abortion is as incompatible with our American ideals as slavery. Roe did not make abortion legal. It only delayed punishment for the perpetrators.
God stands above all; may He have mercy on us!