The Abomination of Abortion
By Milburn Cockrell (1941 - 2002)“And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive” (Exodus 1:22).
“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men” (Matthew 2:16).
These Scriptures disclose two of the greatest atrocities ever committed by earthly rulers against the human race. The abominable and outrageous slaughter of Pharaoh and Herod is recorded in the Bible to their everlasting shame and contempt. Both of these committed a bloody and barbarous piece of work. But I fear that modern abortionists are not a wit behind these two men. The only difference is Herod and Pharaoh killed the infants after they were born and abortionists of today murder them before they are born.
COURT CORRUPTION The U.S. Supreme Court after two years of deliberation by the justices, issued a ruling on January 22, 1973, which barred the states from interfering with the decision of a woman and her doctor to end pregnancies within the first three months. The ruling came by a 7 to 2 vote.
The decision overruled laws in all but four states - Alaska, Hawaii, New York and Washington - which already had liberalized laws. In some states the court’s decision was well received, especially in Arkansas and Virginia.
The decision removed much of the social stigma associated with the operation and has taken abortion out of the hands of the backroom abortionists and brought them into the mainstream of the modern medical profession. Abortion has now been made a constitutional right. We have now come, in America, to a day of abortion on demand.
Justice Blackmun, who wrote the majority decision, said on the point of fetal personhood: “The unborn have never been recognized in law as persons in the whole sense.” The court specifically decided that in the early stages of pregnancy a fetus is not a person entitled to human rights, but in later stages he is entitled to some human rights. This was in opposition to many state laws which had recognized that human life and personhood existed from conception.
Women of today have taken to abortion like ducks to the water. Abortion is rapidly becoming the world’s largest growing industry. In New York where the operation has been legal since 1970, some shocking facts come to light. In 1972 New York State had the honor (dishonor?) of killing more babies before their birth than they permitted to be born. Official statistics released by the State Department of Health revealed that in 1972 there were 252,278 babies born and 278,000 murdered by abortions.
What has the world come to when a state murders more babies than it gives birth to? Has the world become possessed with a spirit of murder as was Cain of old? Are not such murderers walking according to the course of the one who was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44)?
The major cities of America are becoming the centers of mass murder. Atlanta, Georgia, has 7 abortion clinics, some of which perform 100 cases a week. Detroit, Michigan, has 22 abortion clinics.
The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that expenses for abortions are tax deductible. This means added tax burden to all the people, and who in a sense must help pay the murder bill.
ENGLISH EMBRYOLOGY In England and Wales abortion topped 100,000 in 1971 and went to 160,000 in 1972. It is estimated the number will soon reach 250,000 annually, or about one-third of the birth rate. Gynecologists are making a financial windfall out of abortion over there. Some in London do nothing else and net $12,000 per week in cash.
HOODLUMS IN HUNGARY The bloody knives of the Communists enforce abortion in Hungary. This has been the case since the October 23, 1966 Hungarian Revolution. In the 16 years following the revolution, child abortion has reached the 3 million mark. The result of this slaughter of the unborn is terrible and tragic. In Hungary the majority of suicides are women, Hungary leads the world in female alcoholics. Under the Communist regime the home-loving Hungarian women are deprived of their children, kill themselves, or drink to forget their deep sorrow.
FACTS ABOUT THE FETUS When does life really begin? at birth or conception? Is the human fetus a pawn or person? Is it to be disposed of according to personal convenience? The medical, philosophical and theological experts have debated this question for years.
The human fetus is human life. Even at conception an embryo contains the full potential of a human being. About 16 days after conception, the heart begins to beat. In a matter of weeks, human features are recognizable from fingers to toes.
In 8 to 10 weeks of age, the human fetus moves its tiny limbs. It propels itself around the womb by feet and legs. It can respond to pressure and touch. It can be startled by noise. This is no placid, dependent, fragile vegetable developing quietly in preparation for life that starts at birth! This is no inanimate jelly to be sucked out by a vacuum pump through a narrow bore tube to be thrown away
At birth the main thing that changes is the baby’s environment. It has been alive and active many months before this. If a man has the right to destroy the life in its early stages of the process, who can say he cannot do so at any stage? And if at any stage, then why not after birth?
LIFE AT CONCEPTION The medical profession and philosophers may argue about when life begins, but the theologian has no business doing so. The Bible plainly teaches that life begins at conception. The Scriptures reveal that the moment of conception the total human being is present. The Psalmist cried: “In sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). Notice the “me” existed at conception. Job 3:3 reads: “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.” Observe again the man existed from conception. In Luke 1:36 the angel told Mary: “Thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her. . .” John the Baptist was considered a son from conception, and he is said to have been filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15).
The innocent unborn, unwanted life is recognized by God as human life if not by the Supreme Court or in the heart of its mother. The unborn fetus is a real person and should be entitled to the protection of the state as much as a person who is born.
THE RIGHT TO LIFE The Bible teaches man’s life is holy, and that it should be in the hands of God only. Psalms 68:20 declares: “Unto GOD the Lord belongs the issues from death.” When someone usurps God’s authority and kills an innocent person, God’s justice is offended. The only way it can be satisfied is for the offender to forfeit his life in exchange for the murder victim. God told Noah: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6).
Human government exists to protect life and property. When ever a government legalizes the murder of the unborn, she displays great degeneracy and disorder. There is no life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness to an aborted child. When a government fails to recognize the right to live, she has ignored man’s greatest fundamental right.
Our permissive society is taking the prerogative to interfere with the right of life. The value of life has become relative. Now the mother decides whether or not her baby lives or dies. Defenders of abortion contend the slaughter of the unborn is a highly personal decision to be determined by an individual’s conscience, not by the dictates of church or state. Some doctors believe it is obscene and immoral for a woman to have a child she doesn’t want.
Such reasoning displays a depth of depravity unexcelled in human history. By the same reasoning we could say that it is obscene and immoral for a woman to feed and bring up an unwanted child after it is born. What is the difference in killing a child before it is born and killing it after it is born?
Does the state or individual have the constitutional right to dispose of the chronically ill, the physically handicapped and mentally deranged whose lives can have far less potential than an unborn child? How can people speak of the civil right of a mother to murder her unborn babe, and then allow no rights whatever to an unborn infant? How can the liberal religious crowd favor the elimination of capital punishment and favor abortion on demand at the same time? How can doctors who are under oath to preserve life deliberately take the life of an unborn child?
THE HARM OF ABORTION Abortion is legalized murder. Matthew 19:18 says: “Thou shalt do no murder.” This forbids us doing anything hurtful or injurious to health, ease, and life of another person. It certainly does forbid the brutal murder of unborn children. Anyone who asks for an abortion or performs the act does not believe this Scripture. They have no business belonging to any Christian church or society in the world. They belong in the camp with the bloody Communists and the inquisitionists of the thirteenth century.
What would have happened to the nine justices of the Supreme Court if their mothers had been aborted in a safe hospital? Where would our country be if the mother of George Washington had demanded an abortion? Where would the world be today if Mary had aborted Jesus Christ three months after conception?
EASY MORALS Easy abortion encourages easy morals. If a woman gets into trouble today, she knows the solution is just around the corner. If present trends continue women will come to look on abortion as being physically and mentally no more serious than having a tooth out. School girls will look upon sexual intercourse as the normal behavior after finishing their homework. An age of fornication and adultery such as the world has never seen is soon to take the world by storm.
IRRESPONSIBILITY IN MEN Abortion has the effects of increasing irresponsibility in men. Many of the male sex favor abortion to shed their responsibilities. Marriage and supporting a family takes hard work, and this is something more than a few men are afraid of. Many men (I like to have said mice) do not want to be responsible to a woman, or a child, or the state, or least of all to God. Nevertheless, God has made man a responsible creature. Man and woman are responsible to plan their families and avoid promiscuity, rather than shift the penalty to the innocent if they fail in their task.
LIBERAL DOCTORS One of the tenets of the Declaration of Geneva, drawn up by the World Medical Association, says: “I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception; even under threat. . .” Abortion has made this a meaningless oath. It has made the doctors of medicine damnable murderers like Herod and Pharaoh. How can any man believe this oath and murder an unborn child?
If doctors are going to be subjected to abortion on demand, soon conservative minded individuals who are Christians will gradually disappear from the medical profession. Christian nurses who find abortion repugnant will quit nursing. This is to eventually leave the medical profession in the hands of godless men and women who are too liberal to be trusted. Who wants to go to a doctor who murders unborn babies? Who wants to put his life in the hands of one who has no respect for life?
ABORTION NOT SO GOOD Doctors confess that abortion is a blind procedure. You can’t see what you are doing. You can perforate the uterus without knowing it and then have to go back and repair the damage you have done. If the suction curette gets outside the uterus, intestines can be sucked out. Abortions are no method of contraception.
In the salting out procedure, the doctor injects 150 to 200 cc (about a half pint) of saline solution into the uterus through the abdomen. The solution kills the baby in the womb. Then the mother must go through labor and finally, 24 to 36 hours later, exhausted, she delivers a dead baby.
I can see how such procedures can prevent the mother from a self-inflicted miscarriage and save her life, but I am unable to see how it does anything for the unborn babe who dies in the process. Abortion, in most cases, just permits the mother to get rid of her child without killing herself at the same time. The Supreme Court and the doctor cannot keep the mother from crucifying herself with guilt feelings after the murder is performed.
CONCLUSION I, for one, believe the mother who permits her unborn child to be slaughtered is no better than the Israelites who offered their children in burnt sacrifice in the Old Testament (II Kings 16:2-3; 17:17, 31; Jeremiah 32:35; Ezekiel 16:20- 21). These people have no respect for life, especially the life of their own flesh and blood.
Thank God that many Christian doctors oppose abortion and refuse to perform them in spite of the decision of the Supreme Court. Thank God for those in the medical profession who are crying out against this slaughter of the unborn.
Every Christian in America should join with the National Right to Life Committee in their attempt to push for a constitutional amendment in Congress to guarantee the right of a fetus, thereby nullifying the Supreme Court’s decision.
===================== [Editor: Christopher Cockrell, The Berea Baptist Banner, February 5, 2006, pp. 261, 264-266. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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