Having been away for a few days, I am only now catching up with some of the news items that I missed; and I have come across one that, in all honesty, I would rather not have known about.
It is reported that a married couple, from Minneapolis, in the U.S.of A. have set up a website on which they ask people to vote on whether, or not, the wife should have an abortion! This, it would appear, is because the two IT workers aren't sure that they would be able to juggle parenthood with their full-time careers! I have to wonder if this was a case of a failed contraceptive (not an unknown phenomena - as many a young girl has found out to her cost!), or failure to consider the potential consequence of unprotected sex!
The couple even upload images of pre-natal scans, showing a healthy male child, currently at the 17th week of gestation. Their basic argument seems to be that, as they vote for their president, and for 'American Idol' (which, I think, is something akin to the British 'X-Factor' - a programme that I have never viewed!), then it should be prefectly acceptable to vote on whether, or not, a pregnancy should continue!
This situation must surely take the whole pro-abortion argument to a new low. Do these people not realise that voting for a president, or for a 'talent'-show participant causes no physical harm to the person(s) involved? Are they so obtuse as to be unaware that this is a living human being in the wife's womb - growing steadily until the day it is ready to leave that womb and continue the journey to adulthood. Have they considered that the deliberate taking of a human life, at whatever stage of development it may be, is murder?
There are only two possible outcomes to this situation. Depending on the 'vote' this child may be killed - a life destroyed before he has drawn breath; the potential to do much good for humanity, snuffed out like a candle. Alternatively, and hopefully, this little life may be spared. But how will that child feel when, having arrived at years of understanding, he discovers that he is only alive because of a vote by total strangers? I somehow doubt that he will be thrilled to know that his existence was so democratically decided! What will that knowledge do to any relationship that has been built up between parents and child?
Without any of the medical knowledge that we take for granted; with neither ultrasound scans nor heartbeat monitors; but inspired by God the Holy Spirit; the Psalmist-king of Israel wrote these words:
"
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed" (Ps 139:13-16; NLT).
In an age in which it used to be thought that 'life was cheap', David realised that the unborn child is a miracle of pro-creation. To treat it as despicably as this couple are doing with their unborn son is, I am convinced, to fly in the face of Almighty God. That, we always do to our own peril!
