It’s official. The SCOTUS has published Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization and after almost 50 years, Roe v. Wade is overturned. Naturally, there is an outcry for and against this decision. As a conservative, God-fearing Christian, I am very much in favor of this decision. I have been 100% a pro-lifer. I do understand why pro-abortion choose “pro-choice” as if it ought to be the woman/potential mother’s decision to choose what to do with her body. It’s been a clever choice of phrase for the last 40 plus years.
Unfortunately, it’s also 100% problematic. We are free to make our choices, but we are never free from the consequences of our choices. My friend Kellie whom I absolutely love and respect has shared that she has had not one, but two abortions when she was just a teenager. Decades later, Kellie has shared publicly that she regretted it. She has been blessed with three daughters later, but she often wondered what those two older children would have been like. And after Kellie became a Christian, she found forgiveness and freedom in Christ, but no one ever escapes the “would have, should have, could have”, shameful thoughts.
Romans 8:1 says: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,”. This is a blessed assurance for all women who had an abortion and later became a Christian. In fact, it is true for all sinners; so if you had one, it is NOT the unpardonable sin that keeps you from Jesus. But as I said, it does not mean we are free from the consequences.
Let me say that again: everyone has sinned but in Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation, only freedom and forgiveness.
Days after the leaked draft decisions, I saw this post on LinkedIn. I’ve redacted the names of the man who posted it and his unborn child.
My reaction to this post was shock and anger. Now, I have become even more convinced that abortion is wrong. This is a lie from Satan all over again – to play God. Having researched trisomy 18, it is heart wrenching to learn that your child will have deformities and severe medical problems for the first five years of life and not expected to live past 6 years. But to terminate your daughter all because of a so-called “Christian” love to spare the heartache?
Let’s take another genetic defect – one more common – trisomy 21 or better known as Down’s Syndrome. Who is anyone to say that because your future child will have disabilities, that you should get rid of him or her now? I have had the privilege and joy to meet men and women who have Down’s Syndrome. They are some of the most joyful people in the world; in part, perhaps because they also lacked the ability to learn guile and deception like us “normal” people. To abort them would rob the world of joy and happiness, all in the name of “saving heartache” and “convenience”.
Who is to say what potential this person could have? You might not get Michael Phelps, 5 time Olympian, but there are plenty of para-athletes and those in the Special Olympics.
You might argue: it’s still my right! Maybe, but if you dig a little deeper instead of the superficial 8:00 news segments, you’ll find just how shaky this right is. Here is a very short US Constitutional Law lesson: Roe v. Wade was not the first; there were two other cases before it that paved the way. Until then, abortion and access to contraceptives were private and criminalized. Chief Justice Earl Warren and his courts said something like, and I agree, “you cannot put a policeman in front of every window.” Certain decisions ought to be private – made between a man and his wife.
BUT, here’s where it gets murky: there is no specific right to privacy in the entire Constitution and all 27 Amendments! I challenge you to read it. Take your time. The SCOTUS came up with this term: “penumbra of rights”. Penumbra for those who don’t speak Latin means shadow/cover. The SCOTUS thought (and here is a dynamic paraphrase): “While it never says right to privacy, surely it is implied in the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, plus throw in the Fourteenth Amendment. Yeah, that’s it. We’ll stick the right to decide whether to have a family or not as a right to privacy.”
Then there is Roe v. Wade. As Justice Alito called it in Dobbs v. Jackson, the case was problematic. If you know the history of “Jane Roe”, aka Norma McCorvey, you’ll find that it was a setup from the start. Yes, the late Ms. McCorvey wanted an abortion and claimed she was raped to trigger the exception, only to recant that rape charge. Next, her lawyers were looking for the perfect plaintiff and she gave them enough ammunition even if she didn’t care about asserting a “fundamental right”. McCorvey in a documentary “AKA Jane Roe” claimed she became pro-life and then claimed she was paid by pro-life activists to claim she had a change of heart. The more I learn about the details, the more saddened I am because of this broken woman who has misled millions of others in both camps. Both sides “used” her for their purposes.
If the right is shaky, and the plaintiff flawed, you have to throw in science. Yes, #Science! In 1973, the Court decided on 15 weeks as viability and the cutoff. In the last 50 years, medical science as it comes to the study of the baby has progressed leaps and bounds. You can now see so much more of the fetus well before the 15 weeks! Ask any woman to show you ultrasounds before 15 weeks and you’d be amazed at the life growing inside.
There is no way around it; abortion does mean that: to cut short.
Wherever you stand on this issue – for or against, let me challenge you with this. Abortion is not the worst sin; it is a very serious matter, but it is still covered by the blood Jesus Christ shed for all our sins. It plays God, who hasn’t tried to play God in their lives? That too – pride and idolatry – are also covered by God’s forgiveness.
The case’s origins are shaky – personally, legally, and scientifically – but it did became law for the last 50 years. Yes, the courts must consider case precedents, especially well established ones, but they are also free to overturn bad ones. However, there will be a final court in the future – one which there will be no appeals. It is the one where we will be tried for the things we did, said, and even thought, in this life.
The question is not:
“Did you get vaccinated?”
“Do you support abortion?”
“Did you participate at mostly peaceful protests?”
No, the question has always been: “Is Jesus Christ your Savior and Lord?”
amicusveritae 