Abortion is ugly and cruel.  It kills the unborn child.  It heaps shame, pain and sorrow upon the woman.  Science has ripped away the delusion that abortion simply removes unwanted tissue, like a wart or a bunion.  The whole human being is present from the moment of conception.  Even the pro-choice people know that.  That’s why politicians talk about keeping abortion legal but “rare.”  “Since some women don’t want the child in their womb, they should be entitled to a safe and legal abortion, no matter what their motivation may be.”  

            The pro-life people would like to see abortion eliminated.  I guess most everyone would.  And the way to do that is to make it illegal, like it was before 1973.  Of course, that won’t eliminate abortions.  The laws didn’t eliminate abortion before Roe vs. Wade.  The killings will continue even if abortion becomes illegal again, although hopefully at a reduced rate.  But criminalizing abortion would save some babies, maybe a lot of them.

            However, there is a more pleasant way to eliminate abortion, and that is abstinence.  “If you don’t want babies, don’t have sex.”   That wouldn’t solve all the problems.  Sometimes women are impregnated against their will.  Sometimes giving birth could cause the woman’s death.  But if copulation were limited to men and women who wanted to produce offspring, abortions would be reduced to a fraction of what they are today.  Then abortions would be rare indeed, and it wouldn’t take a constitutional amendment to accomplish this.

            Unfortunately, the abstinence solution is not given serious consideration, except among a dedicated minority whose voice is rarely heard in public.  It is fair to ask why such a healthy solution for such an ugly problem is not being promoted.  And the answer is obvious:  Sexual gratification is no longer considered a sin by many.  It is an “inalienable right” that is freely promoted for all the pleasure and profit and power it can provide.  The shameful truth is that we would rather kill our babies and hurt their mothers than practice self-restraint and honor sex as the biological source of our being.        

            None of this is mysterious.  It is simply another form of self-indulgence that eventually promotes misery, like gambling, drunkenness and drug abuse.  The mystery is this: Calls for abstinence are so rarely heard among those who teach and believe that adultery is a sin. 

            If we believe that God said, “You shall not commit adultery,” how can we ignore this message in our opposition to abortion?  How can we fail to oppose the promotion of sexual indulgence in our communities?  Is it because we might drive people away by condemning their favorite sins?  Is it because of the closet adulterers who are reluctant to condemn what they themselves enjoy?  Is it because we have more important things on our minds? 

            Only God knows the answers to such questions, and that’s good.  But in the meantime we have to ask ourselves if we are acting more like Jonah than Jeremiah, running away from the proclamation instead of suffering the consequences of proclaiming it.  Yes, let the Gospel be heard first and foremost.  But the law is also God’s Word, and this is the law that especially protects our children, our homes and our families.