A Voice for the Voiceless

My heart pounded as I stood on the sidewalk, holding a laminated sign. My fingers were cold. It was sprinkling. And I felt so out of place.

I looked over at my sister. Her eyes were closed in silent prayer. The nervousness wracking my body was not evident anywhere in her face. A car drove up to the clinic, and she stepped up to offer a brochure. The driver pretended not to see her. Despite the rejection, she stepped out again and again, each time a car pulled up.

People honked and gave us the middle finger. Others screamed out their windows. A few encouraging people told us to keep up the good work.

At the end of our shift, I got into my sister’s car and asked her, “Does this even make a difference?”

She smiled. “Former abortion workers have said that when people pray on a sidewalk outside of an abortion clinic, the no-show rate is seventy-five percent.”

For the next four weeks, my sister, myself, and a small group of friends prayed outside of this same abortion clinic every Saturday afternoon. Standing outside an abortion clinic to pray for the unborn scared me. We were in a sketchy area of town, in a very pro-abortion state with constant rioting and turmoil in certain cities. But praying where I knew babies were dying changed something inside of me. No longer was the abortion issue something “out there.” It was happening in my city, before my very eyes, and I could no longer look away and think, someone else will do something.

As Edmund Burke is attributed with saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”¹

The protestant church has been silent on this issue for too long. It’s time for the church to speak up so that good triumphs over evil.

However, even within the church we have arguments over whether abortion is a sin, and if it is, at what point is abortion a sin?

As Christians, we all agree that murder, or taking the life of another human being, is sin (Exod. 20:13). But when it comes to the issue of abortion, the cause of our disputes around calling abortion murder all boils down to one question: when does life begin?

Genetically, there is an answer to this question. A zygote is formed when an egg from a woman is fertilized by a man’s sperm. Twenty-three chromosomes from the mother and twenty-three from the father are combined to create a completely unique individual with his or her own set of genes.² This zygote has the same genetic makeup as the baby, the child, and the adult he or she will become further on in development. Dr. Suess said it well: “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”³ Life begins at fertilization.

Biblically, there is also an answer to the question of when life begins. One of the best answers is found in the gospel of Luke.

Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.” Luke 1:39-45

When Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, came into Elizabeth’s presence, John leaped in Elizabeth’s womb. Why is this significant to the abortion debate? Well, if we look at Luke 1:26, we see that the angel Gabriel came to announce to Mary the coming Messiah in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Luke 1:39 says Mary went “with haste” to go see her cousin, Elizabeth, and Mary then remained with Elizabeth for three months, presumably until John was born (Luke 1:56). This means that when Mary came to see Elizabeth, she would have been a few days along in her pregnancy!

Not months. Not weeks. Days.

If the presence of the Lord Jesus was recognized as life in Mary’s womb a few days into her pregnancy, who are we to say that a fetus is not alive until the child can survive outside of the womb or until a heartbeat is detectable?

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that human life is valuable to God. This is why He instituted the death penalty for those who willfully take another human’s life (Gen. 9:6). God created us in His own image, as the pinnacle of His creation, and He calls us fearfully and wonderfully made (Gen. 1:26-31; Psa. 139:14). Jesus demonstrated that human life was valuable at all ages and regardless of people’s disabilities by welcoming children into His presence (Matt. 19:14), by touching and healing the sick (Matt. 8:3), and by making the good news of the gospel available to all who will call on His name, for we are saved by grace and not our works (Eph. 2:8-9).

Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His godly ones. Psalm 116:15

Life matters to God from womb to tomb. And we should heed the words of Proverbs 6:

There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

God hates murder; therefore, God hates abortion. Yes, abortion is a sin, regardless of what stage the pregnancy is willfully terminated. And the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.

But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

Sin separates us from God. The unholy cannot come into the presence of the holy. Murderers cannot come into God’s holy presence and live. Neither can liars. Or idolaters. Or the cowardly. None of us can stand before God’s holy presence and live, for we have all sinned and deserve God’s righteous wrath (Rom. 6:23).

But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. Psalm 130:4

There is forgiveness for the sin of abortion in Jesus Christ. Christ’s death and resurrection secured the eternal life of all who would call upon His name, and His blood can cover all our sins—our lies, our idolatry, our cowardice, and our abortions.

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; Acts 3:19

If you have been complicit in the act of abortion, whether as a doctor, the mother or father of the unborn, an extended family member pressuring a loved one into “taking care of the problem,” or through voting to support “reproductive rights” (which is a fancy term for abortion through all nine months of pregnancy), then it’s time to repent. It’s time to come before the Lord in humility and allow the blood of Christ to bring times of refreshing. And it’s time for something new.

Christians in the early first century were known as the baby savers. Infanticide was legal in Rome from the beginning of its founding, and unwanted babies would be thrown into trash heaps and left to die. But the early Christians knew that all life was precious to God, and they would seek out these abandoned infants and care for them, either adopting and raising them as their own or tenderly caring for them in their final moments of life.⁴

What are we known for today, Christians? Are we known for our value for life? Are we known as the people who will support mothers with unexpected pregnancies? Are we known as the people who champion families? Who respect and care for the elderly and dying? Who spread the good news because there is a life beyond this one that matters for all eternity?

Seek the Lord and ask Him how you can be a voice for the voiceless today. Maybe that’s through praying on a sidewalk, or through voting in alignment with godly principles. Maybe that’s through financially supporting a pregnancy resource clinic in your area or donating old baby things to a family in need. Whatever the Lord calls you to do, be faithful to do it.

May we stop being silent in the face of evil.

With love,

Kelsey

P.S. If you want to take this topic deeper, check out my interview with Louise Hall, RN on my podcast Wholeheartedly with Kelsey Lee here: Is God Actually Pro-Life? with Louise Hall, RN | Wholeheartedly with Kelsey Lee

References:

Quoteresearch. “The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.” Quote Investigator, February 21, 2021. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/. ↩︎
Mitchell, Tommy. 2008. The New Answers Book 2. “When Does Life Begin?” Master Books, Green Forest, AR. ↩︎
Dr. Seuss, 1954. Horton Hears a Who! Random House Inc. ↩︎
Earlychurchhistory. “Infanticide in the Ancient World – Early Church History.” EARLY CHURCH HISTORY -, May 9, 2017. https://earlychurchhistory.org/medicine/infanticide-in-the-ancient-world/. ↩︎