Kermit Gosnell, 72, is an abortionist on trial in Pennsylvania for murder and infanticide. Here are 9 things you should know about the Gosnell case:

1. Gosnell was arrested in January 2011, charged with eight counts of murder: one patient who allegedly died under his care after a botched abortion, and seven infants supposedly born alive whose spinal cords Gosnell allegedly severed with scissors.

2. According to prosecutors in Philadelphia, Gosnell catered to minorities, immigrants, and poor women, and made millions of dollars over 30 years performing illegal and late-term abortions in squalid and barbaric conditions. Gosnell took extra precautions with white women from the suburbs, according to the grand jury report. He allegedly ushered them into a slightly cleaner area because he thought they would be more likely to file a complaint.

3. Women paid $325 for first-trimester abortions and $1,600 to $3,000 for abortions up to 30 weeks. The clinic took in up to $15,000 a day, said authorities. Although abortions after the 24th week are illegal, Gosnell allegedly aborted and killed babies in the sixth and seventh months of pregnancy and charged more for bigger babies.

4. According to the grand jury report, the clinic reeked of animal urine and the furniture and blankets were stained with blood. Medical instruments found in the practice had not been properly sterilized. State officials have failed to visit or inspect his abortion clinic since 1993. Prosecutors also claim that Gosnell is not certified in either gynecology or obstetrics.

5. Prosecutors say that none of Gosnell's staff, including his wife, were licensed nurses or doctors and that a 15-year-old student performed anesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics.

6. A woman who worked for Gosnell testified that she was called back to a room at his abortion clinic in Philadelphia where the bodies of aborted babies were kept to hear one screaming amid a shelf-full of dead babies. "I can't describe it," says the woman. "It sounded like a little alien." She says the body of the child was about 18 to 24 inches long and was one of the largest babies she had seen delivered during abortion procedures at Gosnell's clinic.

7. On January 31, 1998, a then 15 year old Robyn Reid sought an abortion from Gosnell's clinic. Once she was in the clinic, though, Reid, an 87-pound teenager at the time, told Gosnell she changed her mind about the abortion. She claims Gosnell got upset, ripped off her clothes, restrained her, and repeatedly told her, "This is the same care that I would give to my own daughter." Reid regained consciousness 12 hours later at her aunt's home, with the abortion having been completed against her will.

8. Gosnell's arrest and trial have received almost no coverage by the national media. During the early part of the trial ABC, CBS and NBC did not cover the trial at all, yet gave 41 minutes and 26 seconds of air time to the story of Mike Rice, the Rutgers basketball coach who was fired for verbally and physically abusing his players.

9. The 3801 Lancaster Film Project is an ongoing documentary series about Kermit Gosnell, the Women's Medical Society, and the cover-up by state and local oversight agencies.

(Warning: The video contains graphic images.)

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1. Planned Parenthood Federation of America has 95 affiliates and 865 health centers, according to its latest annual report, which covers the 2008-09 fiscal year. They require that at least one clinic per affiliate must perform abortions. PP performs over 320,000 abortions a year.

2. The motto for this year's gala is "Our past is our prologue." Part of the past the organization will be celebrating includes its founding by the notorious racist and eugenicist Margaret Sanger. Sanger wanted to control the reproduction of immigrants, the poor, certain religious groups, and anyone else she thought was from an "unacceptable" heritage. Sanger referred to such people as reckless breeders who were "unceasingly spawning a class of human beings who never should have been born at all . . ." In 1939 Sanger started the "Negro Project" and attempted to get Christian ministers to aid her effort. As she wrote in a letter to a fellow eugenicist, "we do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

3. Last year PP reported excess revenue of $87.4 million and $1.2 billion in total assets. Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood's CEO, makes nearly $400,000 a year.

4. The amount of taxpayer money PP got in 2012 ($542,000,000) equates to $61,836 an hour, 24 hours a day for 365 days.

5. PP has repeatedly and consistently turned a blind eye to reports of statutory rape.

6. PP strongly opposes sex education that focuses on abstinence and has gone so far as to file lawsuits against school districts that have decided to implement abstinence-only programs. The organization claims to offer "value-neutral" sex education. (As an example, on their website aimed at teenagers, they include an article ("All About the Anus") which teaches kids that, "Some straight couples use anal sex as a way to preserve the woman's virginity.")

7. Last month a Planned Parenthood of Florida lobbyist, testifying against Florida's Born Alive Infants Protection Act, told lawmakers that if a baby survives an abortion, it is debatable whether that baby should live or die.

8. Some Planned Parenthood clinics have demonstrated a willingness to partner with pimps and sex traffickers to exploit young women instead of safeguarding their health and safety.

9. While in the Illinois state senate, Obama worked with PP to determine how he should vote on a partial-birth abortion legislation. With Planned Parenthood's blessing, he voted "present" to protect his "100 percent" record on pro-abortion votes.

Recent posts in this series:

9 Things You Should Know About the Boston Marathon Bombing

9 Things You Should Know About Female Body Image Issues

9 Things You Should Know About the Gosnell Infanticide and Murder Trial

9 Things You Should Know About Edith Schaeffer

9 Things You Should Know About Duck Dynasty

9 Things You Should Know About the Papacy

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All of these excuses came crashing down on a Saturday morning in Nashville, when the story of the Good Samaritan was opened to me in a new light. Gregg Cunningham, executive director for The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, was in town for a one-day seminar. My mom knew Gregg and wanted me to meet him. The trip I'd scheduled for the weekend fell through. The tiny Baptist church hosting the event was a few blocks from my apartment. So I went. In fact, I was almost the only one who went, but the sparseness of that gathering has been a frequent source of encouragement ever since. Gregg could have packed it in and not bothered with such a small crowd. But he didn't. And here I am.

Central to his presentation was the story of the Good Samaritan—a story originally prompted by an incredibly significant question: "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" When a lawyer asks him this question, Jesus in turn asks him what's written in the law. When the lawyer inquires about who his neighbor is, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise." (Luke 10:25-37)

Who is my neighbor? The nameless, unconscious, socially despised stranger on the brink of death. What does it mean to love him? To physically intervene on his behalf, even if it costs time, money, safety, and prestige. Jesus builds his narrative on neighbors so different, so detached, so disconnected that it becomes impossible to classify anyone as a non-neighbor. And though it's a relatively extreme example, it illustrates how far genuine love for neighbor is willing to go. When we understand the story of the Good Samaritan, not as an extraordinary act of kindness but as an application of normal, neighborly love in extraordinary circumstances, we're on the right track. But it still won't hit us as it should if we demonize the priest and Levite. When we view them as self-absorbed villains, it's much easier to escape conviction. When we see them as normal, busy, distracted people, the story hits much closer to home.

Reasonable-Sounding Excuses

Jesus doesn't tell us what the priest and Levite were thinking, but it's unlikely these spiritual icons were so hardhearted that they could look on a beaten countryman without feeling compassion. Nor is it hard to imagine the excuses that probably went through their heads. I'm on my way to the synagogue. I can't become ceremonially unclean. Mercy ministries aren't my calling. I'm not a doctor. Someone else will help. I might be attacked and robbed myself. He's probably dead already. I'll pray for him as I go. Having used variants of these same excuses myself, I'm well aware how reasonable they sound in the moment. But Jesus makes it clear that feeling compassion and showing compassion are entirely different things. It doesn't matter what they felt; it matters what they did. And since they did nothing, they stand condemned.

In his talk Gregg suggested most Christians respond to abortion like the priest and Levite responded to the beaten man in the street. They feel bad but pass the victims by. His assessment was certainly true of me. Like so many others, I thought mental opposition is enough. As long as I knew abortion was wrong and didn't endorse it myself, everything was fine, since that's all I'd be held accountable for. But what's the underlying warning in the Good Samaritan story? It's not what we feel; it's what we do. We can act without love, but we cannot love without acting. Loving my neighbor is not a special calling; it's a response to those in need around me. And it's worth noting that the story's hero wasn't wandering around looking for someone to help. He was on his way somewhere else—but he stopped to help a neighbor in need.

How does this story connect to abortion? The parallels are many. Just like the man left for dead in the street, children threatened by abortion are utterly helpless. If someone doesn't intervene, they'll die. They have no capacity to communicate, to beg for help. They are socially marginalized strangers in a culture programmed not to care about them. And just like the persons passing by on the Jericho road, we may be innocent of the crime, but Jesus still expects us to intervene. The violence of abortion isn't as visible as a man lying beaten on a road, but it surrounds us every day. In the story of the Good Samaritan, Christ teaches us the significance of the insignificant. Even a nameless stranger on the brink of death is worth our time, labor, and love.

Editors' note: This excerpt is adapted from Michael Spielman's free eBook Love the Least (A Lot): Extending the Love of Christ to Abortion-Vulnerable Women and Children (2013). Spielman is the founder and director of Abort73.com.

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They watched as two women were taken away in ambulances. Paramedics hand-lifted one of the patients down the back stairs into the alley where a gurney waited beside the dumpster. The other woman was brought out in a wheelchair, her face covered by an oxygen mask.

Based on the women's testimony and the photographs they took, local pro-life leaders asked the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) to investigate the clinic. For a couple of months, it seemed like nothing was going to happen. Then, on Good Friday, April 6, 2012, the ADPH published a shocking 76-page "report of deficiencies" found at the New Woman All Women Clinic.

As it turns out, the two women removed in ambulances had been given an excessive amount of Vasopressin, a drug that limits blood loss. The nurse who had drawn up the syringes mistakenly gave them each 2 cubic centimeters instead of 0.2 cubic centimeters.

The report also stated that clinic administrators failed to ensure that "the clinic staff was properly trained to provide safe quality patient care" and had no policies in place to respond to medication errors. Examination of medical records revealed not only that were records sloppy and incomplete, but also that some were falsified. Apparently clinic employees had a habit of filling in the records ahead of time, evidenced by the fact that the records of both women taken away in ambulances said "ambulatory discharged in no distress." The nurse who signed the records did not even work on the day of the medication overdose.

There is one patient, described on page 56 of the report, who I can't get out of my mind. Patient #43 was a 17-year-old girl, which means she couldn't have an abortion without parental consent. She filled out the required questionnaire, which included these questions:

3. Do you think having this abortion is in your best interest?

4. Are you sure you want to have this abortion?

5. Do you think you will most likely be able to go on with your normal activities without emotional or psychological problems because of the abortion?

To each of these questions, Patient #43 checked "No." In answer to the question, "Why do you want to have the abortion?" she wrote, "Because my mother want me to."

On May 18, 2012, the New Woman All Women clinic relinquished its license. On the third Saturday of May, I joined the group that had been meeting there for prayer since 1994. This time, we met for praise. Someone inside the clinic turned on the sprinklers, but the seasoned pro-life activists had brought their umbrellas. (Only at abortion clinics is it routine for the sprinklers to be pointed at the sidewalk rather than the grass.) As we sang our songs of praise, a woman with long grey hair left the shelter of the umbrellas and danced in the spray of sprinklers. It was a joyful day.

Need for Regulation

Abortion is a distasteful subject. Fear of intruding on a woman's right to choose along with fear of making a painful situation worse can make us keep our distance and pretend it doesn't exist. Since many doctors will not perform abortions, some women go to sub-par facilities like the New Woman clinic or the one run by Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia. These clinics exist for profit, and they are frequently staffed by abortionists who fly in from out of state and provide no follow-up care for their patients.

In the case of the New Woman clinic, the Alabama Department of Public Health could have justified turning a blind eye to violations because of the clinic's history, for it was the one bombed by Eric Rudolph in 1998. A security guard died and a nurse was seriously injured in that horrific bombing. But I'm thankful to say that our public health officials didn't let the clinic's history place it above the law.

This was not the case in Philadelphia. The "House of Horrors" run by Kermit Gosnell went 17 years without being inspected. Department of Health official Janet Staloski told a grand jury that the state chose not to inspect abortion clinics to avoid "putting a barrier up to women" who sought abortions. The message that women should be allowed to do whatever they want with their own bodies over time evolved into the reality that doctors could do whatever they want to those women without oversight.

Just this month, the governor of Alabama signed into law the Women's Health and Safety Act. This new law requires that a physician must remain present at an abortion clinic until all of the patients are discharged.  It requires clinics to meet the same building code standards as an ambulatory surgical center. It requires that doctors who perform abortions in Alabama must have admitting privileges at a local hospital (something that Bruce E. Norman, the doctor present when the Vasopressin mistake was made, does not have).

A standard defense of Roe v. Wade is that women will have abortions whether they are legal or not. If they are legal, at least we can regulate them, the logic goes. But the same people who make this argument have protested the Women's Health and Safety Act as a back-door effort to take away access to abortion. Planned Parenthood has gone on record as saying that the act (which, remember, requires doctors to remain present with their patients and admit them to the hospital when necessary) will not improve the health and safety of women. Clinic administrators argue that creating extra-wide doorways that can accommodate gurneys will place an undue financial burden on clinics, forcing them to close.

Story Isn't Over

Sometime in early 2013, activity at the New Woman Clinic resumed. The clinic's website advertising abortions had never been taken down. Someone was again answering the phone. And Dr. Norman was seen coming and going from the clinic.

On March 26, the Alabama Department of Health filed a civil complaint against the clinic, which, according to the complaint, continued to offer "abortion services to the public without a license."

In response, the lawyer for Norman made an unexpected defense. Scott Morro told The Birmingham News that so long as Norman performs fewer than 30 abortions a month, the clinic doesn't need a license. Brian Hale, deputy general counsel for the ADPH, said that the issue will have to be settled in court.

At the time of this writing, the website for the New Woman Clinic is still advertising abortions. Presumably, so long as the clinic owner can find a loophole in the law to keep from being regulated, they will continue. If there is another medication error, Bruce Norman or whoever else is minding the sedated patient will have to call an ambulance and take her out the back door and through the alley.

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And yet, on the surface, it would not necessarily appear that way. The episode captured the strain, isolation, and fear that accompany an unwanted pregnancy. It did not make the decision to abort look easy; and it did not suggest that abortion was the only alternative. At one point, as Drew and Amy wait at a Planned Parenthood clinic, a nervous young girl sitting near them gets up and walks out, ostensibly deciding to forgo abortion. This was no light treatment; it was layered, complex, and emotionally nuanced. And that is precisely why it was so disturbing.

How We Deal

How television chooses to portray abortion holds important clues to how broader society understands and deals with it. Broadcast networks face a lot of pressure to portray controversial subjects in a way that will not alienate their audience. They sit under the judgment of advertising dollars and viewer ratings. While scriptwriters may push a certain agenda, as right-to-life groups believe the recent episode of Parenthood did, they can only push so far—push farther and they'll lose their audience. Lose their audience and they'll lose their show.

For the most part, network television has avoided abortion. In the past 40 years 55 million babies have died in abortions, but only 16 television plots dealt with the subject. In more than half of those cases, the mother either ultimately chose to keep her baby or suffered a miscarriage before she could abort. And we know Hollywood doesn't avoid abortion because they're queasy about all controversial topics--single motherhood, teen sex, violence, and homosexuality have been plot staples for those same 40 years. You can joke openly about any of those topics—but not abortion.

Television reflects the conflicted attitude of the American public. Abortion may be problematic, perhaps even tragic, but we aren't willing to make a moral judgment. Of course, the lack of judgment is judgment; the unwillingness to decide, a decision. It may feel appropriate for television to portray abortion as nuanced and multi-layered, but we're not so much seeing the heightened sensitivity of the American conscience as the slow, subtle suppression of it. Even as we're disturbed by abortion, we're unmoved to do much of anything about it.

Primary Victim

It would be easier to see how we suppress our conscience about abortion if television depicted women triumphantly celebrating their right to take life. But we see abortion in a cloud of moral chaos. It does not take place in ambiguity—in the absence of morality—but in ambivalence--in the conflict of dueling moralities. Because in order to suppress our conscience, we must first feel it. In order to push it aside, we must acknowledge that at some level it bothers us.

You can see how this process plays out on television. By not normalizing abortion or using it as a topic for humor, Hollywood tacitly acknowledges that we are still troubled by the practice. We cannot approach it except with delicacy and a certain amount of angst. We haven't yet reached the point where a woman killing her unborn child is funny or typical. And yet, given our current moral hierarchy, we are also unwilling to deny a woman the right to do what makes us uncomfortable.

Even more tragically, abortion advocates leverage this angst to inoculate the practice from judgment. Setting up the choice to abort as difficult and morally layered, as the Parenthood episode did, positions the woman—not the child—as the primary victim. Because she is caught in a swirl of doubt, confusion, and fear, we sympathize with her and cannot judge her decision. Nor can we call abortion murder, because in our common understanding murder requires malice and evil intent. If a woman doesn't want to make this choice; if she wrestles with it; if she makes it under duress, she simply can't be doing what pro-life advocates say she's doing to her own child.

Not Enough

A troubled conscience is not enough. Simply struggling with an issue and acknowledging the moral complexity does not equal repentance or progress. As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 7:10, "worldly sorrow" by itself ultimately leads to death. Apart from repentance and grace, we can only resolve our conflicted consciences by suppressing them. Apart from Christ, we can only survive our moral confusion by shutting it down. And so bit by bit, episode by episode, we slowly suffocate our conscience in a blanket of relativism and doubt.

When a woman unexpectedly learns she's pregnant, her world fills with complexities. And in these complexities we find opportunities to the extend the love and grace of Christ in practical ways. But we must not confuse the complexities of an unexpected pregnancy with the shockingly simple cry of conscience against killing unborn children. Instead, we need hearts that respond quickly and decisively when the Holy Spirit convicts. We need hearts that sorrow over sin and do not shroud it in layers of moral ambivalence. And ultimately we need hearts that proceed with appropriate fear, earnest passion, and zealous desire to protect "the least of these" even when others will not.

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Imagining a concrete picture can bring abstract truth to life. To help us understand what this month's 40th anniversary of legalized abortion in the United States means, one Care Net website offers this picture:

[I]magine Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, and Miller Park in Milwaukee filled with fans. Now consider this: to host more than 55 million people, all three of these stadiums would need to fill to capacity 290 separate times!

We cannot undo this human tragedy, this dark undercurrent in a culture marked by an inflow of countless material things and an outflow of discarded life. To be specific---more than 55 million discarded human lives since Roe v. Wade was decided in January 1973. Many, though, are helping invade the darkness with the light by pursuing these actions, which we can aim to pursue more faithfully every passing year, along with God's people and by God's grace.

1. Remember

For many, the reality of abortion breaks in only every now and then. For so many others, though, abortion is a personal, ongoing reality. As Albert Mohler reminds us in a thought-provoking article (responding to Time magazine's January cover story), at current rates one out of every three American women will have an abortion by age 45. That means a huge percentage of the women with whom we attend church, shop for groceries, work, exercise, and raise children carry painful abortion stories inside them. Men carry them as well. Many of these stories are not yet resolved.

This issue should seem to us as real as a deep, bleeding cut on a friend's hand: we'll notice it. . . . it will affect the way we reach out our hands. . . . it will make us aim to help heal.

2. Pray

In the Bible, healing involves prayer. Abortion is hard to pray about, in a way. Often Christians pray that God would "heal our land," claiming the beautiful promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14. That promise, of course, was originally directed to the nation of God's people, and so we sometimes struggle to understand how it applies or does not apply to nations like the one Americans inhabit today. We can know for sure, though, that those words speak to God's people. We can be certain that we are called to humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face and turn from our wicked ways.

We can start by praying for the people around us in Christ's body, the ones with whom we worship---and the ones whom we would like to bring into the church. We can get to know the women God brings into our lives and share their ongoing stories. There's nothing like ministering to real people to make us pray.

3. Offer Gospel Hope

As believers, we know the gospel is the "ground zero" of healing. Counseling in general can prop up a woman or a man, but counseling that tells the truth about who Jesus is and what he has done for us offers the only lasting hope. Counseling that offers the food of the Word of God feeds people with what they need to live---and to choose life over death. Many Christian pro-life clinics these days offer not just pre- but also post-abortion Bible-based counseling, aiming not just to stop the taking of babies' lives but also to offer eternal life in Christ to all who will hear. Women and men in life-and-death crises often have open ears to hear.

Even if we're not involved directly in such formal counseling, we are all involved in daily conversations with needy people---usually more needy than we ever realize. What if we were more ready to offer biblical words of hope and encouragement? What if we were a little less fearful? A few years ago, in a talk to college students, I addressed this topic of abortion with some trepidation. The dramatic response by both female and also male students took me by surprise. The Spirit and the Word do their work to open avenues of gospel healing and hope.

4. Add Concrete Action

As we realize the depths of this tragedy not only in our own nation but also globally, we can help in other ways, as God leads us. We can support passing restrictive laws, as many have been doing in the last few decades---with such good results that Kate Pickert, author of the Time article, sounds an alarm and rues the fact that abortions are increasingly difficult to obtain. Requiring parental consent for minors, waiting periods, and basic communication about the baby's development have slowed down and even stopped many an abortion process in recent years. We can find, support, or start pro-life clinics that help pregnant women choose and nurture life. We can support adoption and celebrate its dramatic growth among Christians. We can give financially to help those working to these ends.

Pictures help. The picture of those packed stadiums filled to capacity hundreds of time over is a powerful one to keep in mind. I wonder what all of this looks like to God. I wonder about his plans for all these little lives, in eternity. Perhaps amazing children's choirs filling heaven. There's a picture. In such an anniversary month as this, it is good to stop and ponder such pictures---and to do what we can, by God's grace.

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The message is desperately needed. Last week, The Daily Herald reported that an Illinois high school soccer team had sodomized rookie players as part of a hazing ritual that had apparently been going on for many years. In my hometown, Knoxville, Tennessee, we are awaiting the retrials of the men who, in 2007, carjacked, kidnapped, violently raped, and murdered a young couple while out in the early morning hours.

It's rampant.

I'm thankful the issues of rape and sexual assault are being addressed, especially on Christian sites like The Gospel Coalition. But I have noticed the influx of articles is generally written by men. And though many men are assaulted, the majority remains female. I wondered why fewer women addressed this topic. The truth is it's difficult to write about sexual assault. First, there's the potential for becoming the perpetual victim. Then there's the real shame of being violated by another human being.

Unfortunately, a seemingly innocent situation can quickly turn criminal and painful. That was the case for me.

I was sexually assaulted in college. I was not raped, but I was assaulted by a stranger. I was with a group of friends on a trip. We were "straight laced," and many were Christians. We all slept in a hotel room together (male and female), but the ladies had the bed and the guys had the floor. An older man who was on the trip but in another room came in to visit. We thought it would be fine (we were naive and young). To say the least, it wasn't okay. He did something inappropriate to me during the night that startled and woke me. Thankfully I was in a room with many people. Others woke up and confronted him immediately. He was kicked out of school and went to jail. During the court hearing I learned that he had a wife and had molested his kids. Just awful.

I was young (18) and immature and found myself in court helping convict a sex offender for jail time. The aftermath in my life was nothing compared to what I imagined for his family's life. I struggled with fear at night and didn't trust men for possibly one full year. God did a work of grace in my heart to forgive the perpetrator, pray for his family, and begin to trust God for my safety and security.

Addressing Abuse

We know sex abuse, rape, and assault are widespread. But did you know that one out of six women in the United States has been raped at some time in her life? Do we realize that our sisters and brothers in Christ may have been victims?

In Rid of My Disgrace, Justin Holcomb addresses these and many other staggering statistics: "According to the Bureau of Justice, women sixteen to nineteen years old have the highest rate of sexual victimization of any age group."

It is easy to throw out statistics or share raw facts. But we must remember that victims are reading---even right now. There is someone, some sister- or brother in-Christ, who, like me, might be struggling with fear or anxiety. And many are struggling alone. No one knows.

Holcomb shares: "According to the FBI, sexual assault is 'one of the most underreported crimes due primarily to fear and/or embarrassment on the part of the victim.' One research report claims that only between 5 percent and 20 percent of sexual assaults may actually be reported." He continues, "Because sexual assault is a form of victimization that is particularly stigmatized in American society, many victims suffer in silence, which only intensifies their distress and disgrace."

Giving Grace

We must address these issues in a way that expresses the love of God for the victims. This includes the debate about abortion for rape victims. We know abortion is wrong, but we must communicate in a loving and gentle way. Communicating in a way that overflows with the grace and the love of Christ may allow a silent victim to come forward. Christ's blood washes away shame. Abuse victims who may feel a sense of dirtiness brought on by another can experience the real power of knowing they are white as snow before the Lord (Isaiah 1:18).

Embracing the victim allows us to emulate God in a tangible way. We who worship the God who draws near to the suffering must embrace the brokenhearted.

There is no better news for a suffering brother or sister than the Good News that Jesus Christ walked this earth perfectly, hung on a Cross, bearing the full weight of shame, sin, and wrath on his back, and defeated death, rising from the grave! Jesus is now---right now---seated on the throne at the right hand of the Father. He is interceding for you and for me (Romans 8:34).

As you challenge others to take action against abuse, remember that victims are reading and listening. They need amazing grace.

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him," lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me." (Psalm 13 emphasis mine)

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The tragedy was not found in the celebrations of elected officials or the concessions of defeat. It was not colored red or blue, and it wasn't wrapped up in meaningless campaign promises.

The tragedy of the 2012 election is that in this land of the free and home of the brave, many people were not allowed to vote. Their voices were silenced. Their votes were not cast. Their opinions not expressed. Why?

Because they were dead.

The great tragedy of the 2012 election is that roughly 33 million would-be voters had been murdered. From 1973 to 1994, roughly 35 million babies were aborted. That's roughly 35 million 18- to 39-year-olds who could not vote from the grave.

This is an unspeakable tragedy.

They did not have the chance to learn what makes our nation so great. They did not have the chance to watch the results roll in with their friends and family. They did not have the chance to rest their heads on a pillow in the land of the free.

But this tragedy is not over.

In 2016, roughly 5 million more voices will be unheard. Why? Because more than 3,500 babies will be killed today. And each day leading up to Tuesday, November 8, 2016. In the three minutes it takes you to read this article, seven babies will have been aborted in the United States of America. Their voices silenced. Their freedom robbed. Their bravery unknown.

Close to Home

This is a tragedy that hits close to home. When I was 19, I chose to end the life of my first child through an abortion. My friend and I were in a scary place, we didn't plan to get married, and we had nowhere else to go. So we opted to end the life of our child.

That child would be 16 today. They'd be excited about driving a car and, in just a couple of years, they'd be excited about voting. But they won't be doing any of that. We won't be sitting down together as I explain how to think about policies and the candidates who represent them. I won't be able to tell them about freedom and justice for all. I took that freedom away with my injustice.

I cannot undo what I've done in the past. None of us can. Only Jesus, who shed his blood for sinners like me, can heal those wounds. Jesus gives us great hope in the midst of this tragedy, and all the other tragedies we face in this life.

Refuge in Jesus

If you have committed an abortion, I want you to know there is a refuge in Jesus. He will heal your wounds. There is no sin so great that he cannot forgive and no sin so small that does not need to be forgiven. If you will confess your sins and turn to him in faith, he will wash away all your guilt and all your shame. Come to Christ.

If you support abortion, I encourage you to spend time in prayer and ask God to show you if abortion pleases him or not. Ask a Christian to help you learn what God's Word says. I know you already have deeply rooted ideas. I did too. But I encourage you to take the time to read what God says about life and who has the right to give and take it away. I encourage you to start with Psalm 139.

Difficult Choice

If you are a Christian, be patient with those who view things differently. But also speak truth in love to those who are in need. Find ways to help those who are struggling through unplanned pregnancies. Investigate options for adoption and invest in the lives of those who are facing difficult choices.

I have on my wall a picture of a 3-year-old boy in cowboy boots. He nearly wasn't with us today because his mother was in a difficult place. She was unmarried, pregnant, and scared. But my wife met with her, prayed with her, and took her to a Christian doctor who showed her the baby in her womb through a sonogram. That young mother had the courage to keep her child.

That young boy's smile reminds me that God can save children, one at a time. He does this by using his people to come alongside the struggling to lovingly show them the Christ who can walk them through any terrifying situation---even an unplanned pregnancy.

I believe the only hope to turn the trend of this tragedy is for people to turn their hearts toward the God who made them through the way paved by his Son Jesus. Jesus changes hearts, and changed hearts can change a nation. May God give us grace as a country, and may God give us courage to stand up in the midst of this tragedy so that, if he tarries, many more will cast votes in 2030.

Lord Jesus, we need your help.

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To my great joy, the turnout was above normal---thanks to excellent promotional work by the two chaplains who sponsor the club. I began with a statement of goodwill: "I'm not here to change your mind on the spot, but to simply lay out my reasons for thinking the pro-life view is true and reasonable to believe. I will argue my case using science and philosophy, as well as discuss the two strongest objections to my view---David Boonin's 'desire' argument and Judith Jarvis Thomson's 'violinist' argument. Then, I hope to hear from you. It will be your turn to ask anything you want, and I'll do my best to give your concerns a fair hearing."

By all accounts, the event was a smashing success. Three secular students told a faculty adviser they were rethinking their views as a result of the talk. A dozen students stayed long after the formal question-and-answer session to pepper me with additional questions.

Of course, not everyone was convinced on the spot. During the extended question and answer, a polite female student replied (paraphrase), "I'm against abortion and will never have one. If one of my friends gets pregnant and wants an abortion, I will do everything I can to talk her out of it. But I don't want the government involved in taking away a woman's choice. I guess that's why I'm against abortion and am pro-choice."

The student was hardly alone. She was echoing the sentiments of millions of Americans who personally dislike abortion but do not identify as pro-life. Their beliefs are perfectly summed up in this popular bumper sticker: "Don't like abortion? Don't have one."

Confusing Moral Claims with Preference Claims

Notice the bumper sticker completely transforms the nature of the abortion debate with a single word---"like."

When pro-life advocates claim that elective abortion unjustly takes the life of a defenseless human being, they aren't saying they dislike abortion. They are saying it's objectively wrong, regardless of how one feels about it. Notice what's going on here. The pro-life advocate makes a moral claim that he believes is objectively true---namely, that elective abortion unjustly takes the life of a defenseless human being. The abortion-choice advocate responds by changing that objective truth claim into a subjective one about likes and dislikes, as if the pro-lifer were talking about a mere preference. But this misses the point entirely. As Francis J. Beckwith points out, pro-life advocates don't oppose abortion because they find it distasteful; they oppose it because it violates rational moral principles.

Imagine if I said, "Don't like slavery? Then don't own a slave." Or, "Don't like spousal abuse? Then don't beat your wife!" If I said such things, you would immediately realize I don't grasp why slavery and spousal abuse are wrong. They are not wrong because I personally dislike them. They are wrong because slaves and spouses are intrinsically valuable human beings who have a natural right not to be treated as property. Whether I personally like slavery or spousal abuse is completely beside the point. If I liked spousal abuse, you would rightly say I was sick! You wouldn't resign yourself to, "I guess abuse is right for you but not for me."

And yet this is precisely what the pro-choicer does. He reduces abortion to a mere preference and then declares, "Hands off! Keep the government out of the abortion business!"

What Do You Mean By 'Keep Government Out'?

Ironically, the pro-choicer fails to recognize two key facts that completely undermine his appeal for government neutrality. First, the federal government is already deeply involved in abortion. In fact, one branch of the government, the federal courts, has completely co-opted the abortion issue---leaving the executive and legislative branches with no say. As law professor Hadley Arkes stated in his testimony before Congress, the courts have exclusive authority to first invent, then broadly apply, the abortion license---leaving the people with no voice on the matter through their elected officials. The American people may talk about abortion all they want, but they have no real say on the matter. Federal judges speak for them.

Second, government neutrality is impossible on abortion. The law either recognizes the unborn as valuable human beings and thus protects them, or it doesn't and permits killing them. By agreeing that human fetuses are fitting subjects for abortion, the federal courts are taking a public policy position that the unborn don't deserve the same protections owed toddlers or other human beings. This is hardly a neutral position; it's an extremely controversial one with deep metaphysical underpinnings. Thus, when people tell me the federal government should stay out of the abortion decision, I take my cue from Arkes and ask, "Including the federal courts?"

The Fix: Ask Why

Here's how I engaged the student at Colgate University. When she said she was personally against abortion but wanted to keep it legal, I asked a very simple question I learned from Greg Koukl: "Why are you against abortion?" When she replied, "Because it's killing, and I personally think it's wrong to do that," I asked: "What does abortion kill?" She was hesitant, but honest: "Um, I guess a human being?"

She's right. If abortion doesn't unjustly kill an innocent human being, why oppose it at all? Then, very gently, I pressed the point home. "Let me see if I understand you correctly---and if I don't, please feel free to clarify. You're personally against abortion because you think it wrongly kills a human being, but you want it to be legal to kill that human being?"

I appreciated her candid reply. "I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out."

Notice two things I did. First, when she essentially said women have a right to choose, I asked her to complete her own sentence: Choose what? Never proceed without spelling out exactly what will be chosen! Second, once she clarified the choice in question, I asked why she thought that particular choice was wrong. That one question transformed the debate from a discussion about likes and dislikes to one about what's right and what's wrong.

Until that transformation takes place, don't be surprised if your friends are "pro-choice."

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Trevin Wax's timely and poignant article "10 Questions a Pro-Choice Candidate Is Never Asked by the Media" struck some nerve with you, our readers. You have viewed it nearly 114,000 times and recommended the article on Facebook more than 18,000 times. We trust the article has sparked thousands of necessary if sensitive discussions about our culture's inacceptable acceptance of abortion.

We're extending that conversation by posing follow-up questions to Jennifer Marshall, director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation. In our new podcast, Going Deeper with TGC, host Mark Mellinger and I ask Marshall about how men should speak about abortion in light of recent attention-grabbing comments on abortion and rape by men running for the U.S. Senate. We also ask her, an expert on public policy, to explain the facts all Christians need to know about the HHS mandate under Obamacare that has provoked lawsuits from Wheaton College, Tyndale House Publishers, and many others. These questions come in a broader context of discussing the first principles that motivate and guide Christian political engagement. After you listen to the interview, be sure to check out her helpful article on this subject, "The Christian Calling to Citizenship," published last week by TGC.

As always, Going Deeper with TGC features an interview by Trevin Wax, managing editor of The Gospel Project with one of the curriculum writers. This week Wax talks with George Robinson, assistant professor of missions and evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, about the challenges of postmodernism and the relationship between God's goodness and Scripture's truthfulness.

Stay tuned to the end of the podcast, which runs a little longer than 30 minutes to fit your listening schedule while working out or driving to work, to hear Mark and me talk about what's in store for next week's post-election edition. We also preview a couple two-part series coming soon to the site. You'll learn more about how we're planning to address the contentious issues of ministry to immigrants and examine the legacy of Thomas Aquinas.

You can stream the podcast below, download the mp3, or subscribe to Going Deeper with TGC on iTunes.

Going Deeper with TGC, 10-31, with Jennifer Marshall

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