Apologetics,  Culture,  Current Events,  Health,  Paul Backholer

Why Abortion is Wrong

How a society treats the most vulnerable reflects a deeper truth of who they are. Many civilisations have deemed some people a problem to be solved. Historically, the elite has always tried to change the definition of personhood to ‘solve the problem’ of unwanted people. Their reasoning was: it’s not unethical to diminish, expel or eliminate ‘the other’ because they’re not really ‘human.’

A civilised society accepts that it’s never right to intentionally take an innocent human life, therefore, more than a century ago, the post-Christian progressives reconstructed the language concerning the unwanted. Darwin also gave early progressives another string in their bow concerning unwanted people – they’re not really human because they are less evolved. Therefore, it’s permissible to destroy life, if it’s not authentic ‘human’ life.

Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish

– Jesus Christ, Matthew 18:14

We live in tangled times, overwhelmed by cognitive dissonance. We’re confused, conflicted and wracked with internal schisms. In a hospital, we can observe a couple in their thirties weeping that they cannot conceive or reach full term, but ten years earlier they celebrated their right to choose. To choose what precisely?

This is the conflict that eats at us inside; what are we terminating?

We witness this in our churches. Young left-leaning progressives have grown up and now feel unspoken tension inside. “It’s my right,” they once said, “but what did I undoubtedly do? I’m looking at my children today and I feel there’s one missing.”

You do not know…how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything

– Ecclesiastes 11:5

At the heart of this conflict remains the manipulation of words to gain power over an innocent life. As long as society talks about abortion using the word ‘foetus’ anything is possible; but when the word ‘baby’ is employed, the story changes. Never, oh dear, never, use the word ‘baby.’ If it’s a baby, we’ll have to ask, “What have we done?” and “What are we doing?”

He took his brother by the heel in the womb and in his strength he struggled with God

– Hosea 12:3

Today, we recognise the importance of respecting the grief of those who have lost a pre-born baby. To have a miscarriage or stillbirth is life-changing and the memory of that grief never goes away. But once again, we experience a conflict. Why is the grief genuine when we call the loss a ‘baby,’ but the destroyed life is not real when we call it a ‘foetus’ and a ‘choice?’

“Semantics, dear Watson,” said Sherlock Holmes. “He who controls the meaning of words controls the minds and choices of others. Truth is sacrificed on the altar of definition.”

There’s nothing more vulnerable than a baby in its mother’s womb. That baby utterly depends on the sacrifice, goodwill and support of its mother, and hopefully its biological dad. When a father abandons his responsibility, a heavy burden falls upon the mother and question arises about choice. Both are equally responsible and society has established this quagmire.

God said, “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn”

– Exodus 13:2

Renowned atheists Christopher Hitchens said, “I believe that the concept unborn child is a real concept, yes, and I’ve had a lot of quarrels with some of my fellow materialists and secularists on this point. I think that if the concept child means anything, the concept of unborn child can be said to mean something, and actually, all the discoveries of embryology, which have been very considerable in the last generation or so, and of viability appear to confirm that opinion, which is, I think it should be innate in everybody. It’s innate in the Hippocratic oath. It’s instinct in anyone who’s ever watched a sonogram and so forth.”

We can’t talk about abortion without being honest about the consequences of the sexual revolution. Men are told there’s an inexhaustible supply of women they can use for their sexual gratification, as long as they gain consent. The lie behind the consent is not addressed. This uninterrupted supply of throwaway people does not exist in God’s view. Every person has value and purpose. Women should be cherished, not used. This is why Paul told Christians, ‘do not defraud your brother’ (1 Thessalonians 4:5-6).

When you use another person and throw them away, it bears consequences. That mistrust passes onto the subsequent relationship and echoes throughout life. Paul says men should treat all women as they desire female family members to be treated, with respect, dignity and protection (1 Timothy 5:2).

Dwell with them with understanding, giving honor…as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered

– 1 Peter 3:7

The sexual revolution fails to protect women; it transforms men from protectors to predators. The player defies his calling; the guardian doesn’t know what it means to be a man. Society fails further to caution young men that there’s a price for their choices. In bars, you’ll find middle-aged men drinking away the shame and consequences of their youth, hoping that their children and former partners will acquit them. Post-Christian society betrayed them with its promise of pain-free promiscuity. Society has forgotten Newton’s third law applies equally to morality: ‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.’

A man reaps what he sows

– Galatians 6:7

The deep foundation of the sexual liberation movement is, “I want the use of your body for my lust, but I don’t want you.” It divorces the spirit, soul, mind, feelings and emotions from the body. This mantra may last for an evening, a few weeks, months or years. “Don’t ask me to marry you, I want to keep my options open,” represents the deeper truth of cohabitation. The foundational truth of their consensual relationship is fraudulent. They are both consenting to a different set of values. Data reveals a significant increase in relationship breakdowns for cohabiting couples and all the consequences thereof.

The Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously

– Malachi 2:14

The sexual revolution has created a breach of communication and trust between men and women. Relationships forged on lust and infatuation have replaced those built on Christian vows, covenants, principles, communication and sacrifice. Society must choose to follow Christ’s path of sacrificial love, or live through a potentially untold number of collapsing relationships fostered on ever-changing values and feelings.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God

– 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

The results of ‘sexual liberation’ are unplanned pregnancies, the breakdown of cohabiting and married relationships, the breach of communication between the sexes, the pornification of society, shocking levels of sexual violence, the sexualisation of children by children on social media and the fashion industry profiting by selling vulnerable teenagers the need for a sexy image. Young girls, devoid of grasping their value as God’s creation, will do much to feel wanted and this vulnerability is exploited by the principles of so-called sexual liberation. Society is paying a bitter price and the young are sacrificed by the irresponsibility of the post-truth civilisation.

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever

– 1 Timothy 5:8

Christians are profoundly concerned about childhood poverty and their commitment to food banks and charity is their response. However, it’s an unpleasant truth to accept childhood poverty is often the result of men abandoning their responsibilities towards their offspring and the mother of their children. Single parents are heroes and no man can live free of his choices to run. How many awake at 3am in the morning grieving over their poor life choices? You cannot hide from yourself forever.

Today, medical science has progressed to an extent that those Bible verses about the development of a baby in the woman have been proved. We can identify the precise stages of development; we can observe their tiny hands and feet, and we can measure their heartbeat. Two heartbeats represent two people. We recognise when unborn babies can dream and we appreciate at what stage they can feel. We have the videos, the studies and the evidence.

This is the heart of our conflict. The politics of abortion and scientific knowledge have moved in opposite directions. The message is, “My choice,” the science is, “That’s a human life, precisely, your DNA child.” When society declares we can abort the result of our sexual choices, what are we choosing? What does abortion do? Abortion intentionally terminates a human life. When can it be right to end an innocent human life?

For You formed my inward parts;

You covered me in my mother’s womb.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Marvelous are Your works,

And that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.

And in Your book they all were written,

The days fashioned for me,

When as yet there were none of them

– Psalm 139:13-16

The post-Christian progressives use semantics and syntax to evade a bitter truth about abortion. It’s a truth that men and women are equally responsible for. It’s a truth that adults obscure from the young. We encourage lust instead of restraint and we don’t explain the price the young will pay for their future ‘choices.’ The lingering shadow of our choices will last forever. Your young self may disdain any doubts, but what about your older self?

Abortion ends the life of a baby and the lives of all who would have descended from that baby. It equally creates a future population crisis and a pension crisis. Who will support the old if there are not enough people to assist them? If you don’t believe this, look at what’s happening in China.

Abortion and Society
  • Abortion defies the idea of the sanctity of all human life
  • The mark of civilised society is that none should intentionally take an innocent life
  • Society celebrates lust above restraint and marriage
  • The media sells youth a lie about costless promiscuity
  • Society spends scarce tax resources and medical expertise on destroying life
  • We have a dual epidemic of childless couples and unwanted pregnancies
  • Government, society and men refuse to accept the responsibility for their choices and to protect the most vulnerable in society
Abortion and the Individual
  • Abortion causes lifelong regrets and psychological pain, which represent an unspoken epidemic
  • Society should not punish unborn children for their parents’ choices
  • Abortion increases the chances of medical complications later on, such as ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage and pelvic inflammatory disease, etc.
  • Personal responsibility, restraint, abstinence, courtship, marriage and contraception establish a defence against unwanted pregnancies
  • 98 percent of abortions result from a choice
  • Abortion damages men and women
Abortion and Hospitals
  • Abortion constitutes a breach of the Hippocratic Oath, which is sidelined because of the contradiction of destroying unwanted life in the name of ‘health’
  • The British Medical Association has found doctors ‘being harassed and discriminated against because of their conscientious objection to abortion’
  • Hospitals lose valuable medical staff because their conscience will not allow them to pursue expertise in areas with pressure to perform abortions
  • Society should fear when the consciences of hospitals are forced out
  • Doctors are responsible before God for taking innocent life
Abortion and God
  • “Do not kill,” represents God’s command to all
  • Civilisation is founded upon the sanctity of all life
  • Men and women are responsible before God for their choices
  • Abortion replaces God’s Spirit in development with the spirit of death
  • Death is a curse from the rebellion of Eden, life is a gift from God
Abortion, Sex and Responsibility

In every generation, men were expected to assume full responsibility for their reproductive choices. Before the sexual revolution, society never accepted that men could use women as disposable sex objects, with consent. Society demanded men took responsibility for their sexual choices, including fathering children and provision for them and their mother.

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace

– Galatians 1:15

There was never a perfect era in history, but compare this period from others. Today we foster sexual innuendo and crime, abandonment, childhood poverty, exploitative pornography, perversion, sex trafficking, the pornification of dating and social media, sexting, and the shocking mental health crisis it creates. Childhood has been sacrificed to lust and meaningful relationships replaced with shallow sexual infatuation.  

The Lord hates…hands that shed innocent blood

– Proverbs 6:16-17

To annul abortion, society will need to address the sexualisation and pornification of the culture, the media, education, fashion, childhood and society, etc. We will have to teach that actions bear dire consequences and each person, especially men, must assume personal responsibility for their choices. The taxpayer is, after all, being forced to pay the tab for all the men who refuse to accept responsibility for their choices. We can turn a blind eye, but we are all forced to pay. If you want a bitter wake-up call, study sexual crime data from charities that assist victims of sexual violence. We live in a world of hidden horror.

Before the legalisation of abortion, the vast majority of the population believed destroying an innocent life in the womb is unacceptable. After the horrors of medical abuses during World War II, the World Medical Association adopted the 1948 Geneva Declaration, which then declared:

I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception, even against threat I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity

To undermine the values of the Geneva Declaration, post-Christian progressives downplayed the development of babies in the womb and focused our minds on an undefined foetus. The meaning of words changes, but the substance of those words does not.

A life is a life. Two bodies mean two people

Today, one in five pregnancies in Britain end in abortion, and each one must be authorised by two doctors and carried out by another. First do no harm is mendacity. In the United Kingdom, nightly-eight percent of abortions are carried out, as a choice, on ‘mental health grounds.’

Shockingly, there have been hundreds of thousands of abortions in the third trimester worldwide, since the legalisation of abortion. The ‘clump of cells,’ claim cannot be made about these meticulously-formed human beings

The World Health Organisation states there are 73 million induced abortions each year. That’s more than the population of Britain. Before we implore God, “Why?” after tragedy strikes, should the Lord ask us, “Why?” when He views the mountains of abortions. The miracle has become a massacre, the hope of the womb a grave. God forgive us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

– 1 John 1:9

In my book, Heaven, Paradise is Real, I describe a vision of the Heavenly joy of all children who were aborted on earth. No child is lost to God, and their lives continue with freedom and hope in eternity.

Heaven, Paradise is Real by Paul Backholer

If you have had an abortion or encouraged the mother of your unborn baby to do so, God will forgive all that you confess. You are a victim of the narrative you were taught, just as all aborted unborn children are victims of a culture that despises life, as it worships Molech’s promise of wealth for sacrifice.

They built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin

– Jeremiah 32:35

If you have had an abortion, you may need to pray to cast out, or off, the spirit of death that celebrates abortion. If you’re unsure what this means, seek someone in a local church who understands the power of deliverance. Christ is the Redeemer and the Restorer of our soul, and the Holy Spirit will quicken your mortal body in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you

– Romans 8:11

By Paul Backholer. Find out about Paul’s books here.

Sources and Notes