‘Sanctity of Life Sunday’ and the tragedy of abortion
January 10, 2006
Jan. 15 is “Sanctity of Life Sunday” throughout the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) and I hope every pastor will take this Sunday or another in January to preach on this timely subject.
I say timely because Missourians will likely decide in November whether to amend the state constitution to allow embryonic stem cell research, also known as cloning. An endeavor such as this is reprehensible because it requires the destruction of human life (the human embryo). It is based on questionable science and unlike adult stem cell research, which does not require the destruction of human life, has yet to produce a cure for any disease. Conversely, adult stem cells have been used to successfully treat a variety of maladies and it would be far more productive for taxpayer dollars to go to — and medical scientists to focus their time and effort on — this far more promising research.
I say timely for another reason as well. Gov. Matt Blunt has proposed three pro-life bills for the 2006 session of the General Assembly. He wants tax credits for crisis pregnancy centers, protection for Missouri pharmacists who may be forced to provide the deadly “morning after” pill and the elimination of public funds to teach sex education in Missouri public schools for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. All three are needed and deserve our prayers and support.
The bill that would eliminate funds for the teaching of sex education is a particularly good piece of legislation because it will hit Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, where it hurts the most: in the pocketbook. Planned Parenthood, in what ought to outrage every taxpaying Christian, receives millions of federal dollars each year. Without federal help, this despicable organization would go out of business. One Planned Parenthood clinic in Sarasota, Fla., recently disclosed that it must do nine abortions a day just to break even on its budget. In 2002, 1.29 million abortions took place, with Planned Parenthood conducting about 20 percent of those. The amount is sure to increase as the number of abortion clinics continue to decline, a trend that began in 1983. In the most recent period studied by the Guttmacher Institute, 1996-2000, the number of abortion providers declined from 2,042 to 1,819. There are only two abortion clinics in Missouri (in St. Louis and Columbia) after another abortion facility in Springfield closed in 2005.
Varying theories have been offered as to why the number of abortion clinics continue to decline, but I think Chuck Colson has offered three of the more tragic reasons:
“First, since pro-choice women aborted their daughters, those daughters didn’t grow up to advocate for abortion rights. Meanwhile, pro-life women have taught their daughters why it’s wrong to kill unborn children.
“Second, today’s college kids know that some of their sisters and brothers are missing because their mothers had abortions – and they know that, under different circumstances, they themselves might have been aborted.
“Third, women who abort are breaking through the media blackout to tell their stories … telling young women how their bodies were damaged. They’re talking about the proven link between abortion and breast cancer (and) about the higher suicide rate among women who abort.”
Let us work and pray to see the day that abortions, now responsible for the deaths of more than 48 million babies since 1973, will be no more.