On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, which recognized that the constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions — including the decision to have an abortion.  Forty-four years and 60 million abortions later, this “landmark” decision continues to divide women, physicians and politicians based on their belief about how old a child needs to be in the womb before it is considered a viable human-being.  In other words, does abortion kill an innocent human being? If not, then there is no moral or ethical problem. If however, abortion represents the killing of an innocent member of the human family, it is immoral, unethical and cannot be justified. There is no such thing as a right to kill innocent people.  So the question is, at what age, or at what point after conception is a baby considered an “innocent member of the human family”?

As a Christian, the answer is an easy one: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  (Jeremiah 1:5)  The Lord is speaking to Jeremiah in particular here, but the implication is for any and everyone…

The Lord knew us before we were even conceived!

It also alludes to the fact that God had a purpose in mind for all of us before we were even conceived.  Let that sink in.  Every single human being has a purpose that fits into God’s Big Story before we were even conceived.  Our journey after birth is discovering our place in God’s Story!

What an adventure!

And yet…

Since the Roe v. Wade decision, 60 million little ones never even had a chance to discover their purpose and place in God’s Story.

Let me try to paint a picture so you can visualize in your minds what it means to lose 60 million little lives of potential forever.  If you read my post from the other day: “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!” about the Women’s March world-wide, there are estimates that four to five million women protested around the world and in Washington D.C. alone there may have been close to five hundred thousand.  These women, as you know from my post, were marching for pro-choice rights (the right to abort), as well as spewing profanities at the current government(s).  Most of them wore pink-knitted toques (I’m Canadianizing them a bit), but they were supposed to represent women’s genitalia.  I know, pretty disgusting.  So, picture the streets littered with all those toques lying side-by-side had the women chosen to cast them aside like trash.  It would have been quite a sight!

Now picture 60 million little knitted baby caps like they give to all the newborns in the hospitals.  Pink for girls and blue for boys and gender-neutral colours of yellow and green.  Picture them littering the streets cast aside like trash.  60 million little caps, representing 60 million little babies who never got to wear their cap.  60 million little souls who never got to experience life and find their place in God’s big wide world.  60 million children who never got to play, sing, and experience the wonders of Creation around them.  60 million teenagers who never got the chance to work, to love, to grasp the realities of life.  60 million people who never got to discover who they are and who they could be in God’s Big Story.

It is too tragic to comprehend.