The Abortion Crisis:  A Root Opportunity

Unless we live in a cave or have cut ourselves off from news outlets for the sake of psychological well-being, we face another time of national unrest.  This time it relates to the Supreme Court Decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and return abortion legislation to the states.

When cultural issues step center stage, where passions run high and division runs deep, the church can make a difference.  I don’t mean by advancing political policy but by drawing attention within its own ranks to the protective power of biblical truth.  Simultaneously we can sharpen our witness as we speak to people of all persuasions.

Aspects of the abortion issue have been and will be analyzed and debated, often with rancor.  However, I want to focus on the special opportunity the church has during this time.  Addressing the root issue leading to abortion generally receives little attention.   Promoting sexual abstinence for singles and sexual faithfulness in marriage for couples provides the cure.  The Bible has been right all along.

That will not be a focus among media outlets, nor in most of the halls of academia, and certainly not in television programming or movies.  The Sexual Revolution of the 1960’s in the United States launched a full-blown attack against biblical sexual ethics.  In succeeding years, the revolution largely took control of the popular cultural influencers in education, politics, and media.   The sexual boundaries of abstinence outside of marriage and sexual activity within marriage alone have been largely abolished and even mocked in popular culture.

Where has that led in relation to abortion?  According to the CDC (2018), 14.8% of those having abortions were married, whereas 85.2% were unmarried (1).  The NY Times cites the Guttmacher Institute, who defends “reproductive rights” in favor of abortion, as breaking these statistics down even further.  Of those having an abortion 46% are single and never married, 31% unmarried and cohabitating with a partner, 9% previously married and single, and 14% married (2).

In practical terms the vast majority of the over eighty-five percent of women in America who have abortions could escape the whole abortion quagmire.  They could avoid its cost in time and money, the pain or discomfort from the procedure, the relational upheaval that often ensues, and the mental anguish so many face afterwards.  By accepting a biblical ethic about sex and marriage, unwanted pregnancies drop from the landscape.

Some would argue, “Yes, but that is so unrealistic.  Unmarried people, teens and up, are going to have sex.”  That is so not the point.  The point is that many who do hear the biblical perspective and the overwhelming benefit of living it out, will embrace it.  The church must counter the deafening silence of culture about how the Sexual Revolution cheapened and devalued sex.

Christians with compassion and conviction must remind people of the unnecessary consequences that often accompany sex outside of marriage.  Sexually transmitted diseases are completely avoidable.  All of the relationships shattered by sexual unfaithfulness are preventable.  Exposing the truth that abortion depersonalizes a fetus as a disposable object when it carries the complete genetic makeup of an adult created in God’s image is vital information. These facts can be communicated in ways that project care and concern.  But people can’t hear unless others speak up.  Again, when culture is silent, or worse, applauds sexual misconduct as if it is perfectly harmless, we must speak up.

Fact: abstinence prior to marriage does away with unwanted pregnancy for singles.  Abortion is not needed.  Moreover, couples who enter a marriage covenant committed to sexual fidelity are far more likely to support the addition of an unplanned child. They do not balk at lifetime commitments or the love that conceived the child.  Those with a commitment to God are likely to see the unplanned child as God’s leading in their lives.  The unexpected conception is not bad luck nor impersonal fetal tissue.

The positive aspects of sexual abstinence while single, and sexual faithfulness within marriage are overwhelming.  In upcoming blogs, I will discuss this along with how Bible teaching is a not a restrictive prison house but a “can do” sexual ethic for both men and women in regard to true fulfillment.  I will share thoughts about how we can maintain firm convictions about sexuality and abortion balanced by gentleness, compassion, and forgiveness in our ministry to people.  So, stay tuned.

 

Notes

(1)  2018  Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2018

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/ss/ss6907a1.htm

(2)  Who Gets Abortions in America?  By Margot-Katz, Claire Cain Miller and Quoctrung Bui, NY

Times, Dec. 14, 2021.