Dec
29
2009
Why I Made a (Small) Year-End Gift to a Crisis Pregnancy Center, and You Should Consider Doing Something Similar
This is heart-wrenching. So be prepared. You may have heard something about this story, but the firsthand account is especially moving.
From the January 2010 issue of First Things, page 70 in Joseph Bottum’s “While We’re At It.” The comments at the end are mine.
*****
It’s hard to keep up the illusion of abortion as a positive good when the ugly reality of it is always lurking just behind the abstract idea. The wall of illusion came crashing down for Abby Johnson when, after working for Planned Parenthood in Texas for eight years, she witnessed an actual abortion on ultrasound. In a television interview, she explained, “It was actually an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure. . . . Any my job was to hold the ultrasound probe on this woman’s abdomen so that the physician could actually see the uterus on the ultrasound screen. And when I looked at the screen, I saw a baby. . . . I saw a full side profile. So I saw face to feet. . . . I saw the probe going into the woman’s uterus. And at that moment, I saw the baby moving and trying to get away from the probe. . . . And I thought, “It’s fighting for its life. . . . It’s life, I mean, it’s alive.”
After some additional questions, Johnson went on to say: “And then, all of a sudden, I mean, it was just over. . . . And I just saw the, I just saw the baby just literally, just crumble, and it was over. . . . I was thinking about my daughter, who’s three, and I was thinking about the ultrasound I had of her, and I was thinking of just how perfect that ultrasound was when she was twelve weeks in the womb. And I was just thinking, “What am I thinking, ‘What am I doing?’. . . . I had one one hand on this woman’s belly, and I was thinking, ‘There was life in here, and now there’s not.’”
And that was it. Any illusion Johnson had about what abortion really is was over. She quit her job and began working with the pro-life organization that protested at her former clinic.
*****
Abortion is not just one issue among many. We are not just arguing about different means to a shared end. We are arguing about the “right,” pulled out of constitutional thin air, to end a life. Abortion is the deepest social injustice because the human is helpless and innocent. It is the gravest tragedy because the procedure Abby Johnson describes is purposefully lethal and perfectly legal.
Lord, haste the day when the collective ignominy our nation feels toward slavery and racism will be felt concerning this evil as well.
And until that day, let every Christian light a candle and curse the darkness that makes its flame necessary.
14 Comments
“Abortion is the deepest social injustice because the human is helpless and innocent.”
I agree completely. And you are right–this is a moving post. Thanks for the reminder. We tend to forget too soon.
So the question is, should all Christians be one issue voters for a pro life candidate only, no matter what?
Thank you for posting this.
You should never vote for anyone who supports Abortion regardless of whatever else they many stand for. And, if you do not have a candidate that you can vote for BIBLICALLY (eg let’s say they are pro-life but also support Gay Rights) then you don’t vote for any of them! If you vote in the lesser of two evils you still voted for evil. God says He honors those who honor Him…not He honors those who support (a little) evil.
That is tragic, yet is simply feels commonplace because we’re told it’s the woman’s right. And thus not immoral. We cannot forget that our nation’s leaders pass laws about what to do to the unborn without having ever defined what the unborn is. You simply cannot create law without defining standards, especially when the most basic right to life and liberty are at stake. Unfortunately that’s what has been done, and that to me is what appears immoral.
Thanks for this post. I plan to place a link to it on my blog.
This is “heart-wrenching” indeed…
Thanks for posting this, Kevin.
Thanks for the moving reminder, Kevin. You prompted me to make extra year-end gifts to local pro-life ministries.
Looselycult,
I’d say yes.
Every issue on which left and right disagree is about methods or degrees — how to best help the poor, what’s the best way to handle international relations, how to manage the economy.
Only one issue is “whether” — whether it’s ok to kill an unborn human being.
If any politician gets that issue wrong, that person’s judgment on every other issue is now suspect.
“…the human is helpless and innocent”
Or should we rather say: the fetus deserves far worse than prenatal destruction? I would expect that some people here feel forced by doctrinal commitments to concede that at least some of these fetuses are under the wrath of God and deserving of hell.
So, perhaps we shouldn’t let our judgments be so influenced by our natural sentiments. Perhaps those who are dismembered in the womb are receiving far less than they deserve. Perhaps abortionists are instruments of God’s wrath upon the unborn. What do folks think?
(Yes, I intend all this to be provocative. Does anyone really believe these doctrines?)
“If any politician gets that issue wrong, that person’s judgment on every other issue is now suspect.”
Chris, please explain why you think that is the case.
CT – Your logic can lead one to conclude something like “perhaps serial murderers are instruments of God’s wrath upon their victims.” Even IF that’s true in even one case, murder is still murder.
Logic is logic, Rae. It’s neither mine nor yours. If, from certain premises, logic leads to an absurd conclusion, then you might want to question those premises.
Now, murder is still murder. You’re safe in affirming that. But where do you want to go with it?
We are blessed to attend a church that actively (with dollars, volunteers and practical gifts) supports our local Women’s Resource Center!
May God forgive us for this national sin and national shame.