Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife.

Please enjoy once a year, around January 22, which marks the legalization of abortion in America. Like some groundhog, I pop my head up and begin to look around to see what changes have happened in our nation since the 1973 adoption of abortion. And I’m sorry to have to say that in this past year, abortions have continued at about the rate of one and a half million over the past year. Since 1973, the number now is over 20 million children who have been aborted in America. I remember standing before this congregation several years ago and saying that we have now reached 10 million abortions. That was just several years ago. Now we have gone beyond to 20 million. That number is greater than all of the men who lost their lives in the cumulative wars that America has ever fought.

Each day in America, over 4250 abortions occur. One out of every three children conceived in America, one out of every three children conceived in America is aborted, and three-fourths of the women who have abortions are getting those abortions and are unmarried. 90% of all abortions that are performed in America are simply performed for non-medical reasons. In the United States, abortion now has become the ultimate form of birth control, making abortion the number one medical procedure in our hospitals. This week I stood in front of the state house in Trenton with many Christians who stood to voice their concern about abortion. There was a little girl in front of me, about ten years old, who had a sign that said 800,000 children my age were aborted.

Another girl, who looked to be about twelve years old, held a sign that said 1.2 million children my age were aborted. We forget that abortion touches individual lives and families. I believe that abortion is the greatest moral error that is facing America today. And since 1973 and the reception of abortion, it has created tremendous tension and confusion in the land. There has been a shockwave that has permeated the medical world literally for centuries. Doctors promised to cure and not to kill. They took an oath, the oath of Hippocrates, which said, until recently, and I quote, I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest such counsel. And in like manner, I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. That the oath that physicians took was an oath not to perform abortions.

Today, that portion of the Hippocratic oath has been removed and replaced by this phrase. I will do nothing that is illegal. And so physicians no longer as part of their oath, declare that they will protect and be opposed to the taking of life. Some think that abortion is primarily a medical question. Others think that it is a legal question. I believe that abortion is primarily a spiritual question. It is primarily a moral question that As we look at scripture, it should come as no surprise to us that over a hundred times in scripture, we find texts that talk about the unborn child. In the Book of Psalms, we have chapter 139, which simply declares, thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee, for

I am Fearfully and wonderfully made. Jeremiah, in chapter one, verse five, said. Before I formed them in the belly I knew thee, that God knew Jeremiah that God had set Jeremiah aside, that he might serve the living God before. He was even placed in the womb of his mother. Job in chapter ten believed that thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and you knit me together with bone and sinew. We read that John the Baptist, when Mary entered the room with Jesus in her womb, that John the Baptist in the womb of his mother leaped. We read that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit, while yet in the womb of his mother, the angel Gabriel said to Mary, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. The church for centuries has protected the unborn child. It has gone on from the very beginning. It was believed that Christians should not kill the child that is in the womb of the mother. Tertullian said, the mold in the womb may not be destroyed.

Christians throughout the history of the church have married just like everyone else. They have had children just like everyone else. But one thing that has marked Christians. Throughout all of the ages is that.

They did not abort their children like everyone else. And one of the marks of the early Christian church was their great opposition to the taking of life in the womb. And they were known as those who opposed abortion. But today I was thinking that my son, who is 13, has lived his entire life in a world where abortion has been the law of the land, and that there have been, through education, a number of myths that have been used to support abortion. And many of these myths have not been questioned. And I’d like to look at a few of them. The scripture tells us, come now, let us reason together, not with emotional hysteria, but simply to look at some of the facts and some of the things that we have heard about abortion.

The first myth is that we are told that abortion is only and primarily a woman’s issue. And it has been communicated very effectively that a woman has the right to decide what she will do with her own body. And this myth has permeated our culture and has been accepted by and large by most people. And I personally have great sympathy for a woman who faces this unwanted pregnancy and have spent a great deal of time in helping to establish a center where these women can come and receive counsel and help. However, the child that is in the womb of this woman is not only in the oversight of that woman, for where there is a mother, there is a husband. And studies are beginning to show that many men who are the fathers of children who are aborted are also beginning to be affected by that decision later on in life. For, you see, the child is as much as the husband’s as it is the wife’s. But you see, there are also grandparents who are concerned.

And every year I talk to a half a dozen or more of parents of children who are in great distress because their daughter has decided to have an abortion. And we forget that there are grandfathers and grandmothers who are also concerned. And it is not only the issue of the mother, but on top of that, there are brothers and sisters, would be brothers and sisters, who are also concerned about the taking of that life. To say nothing about God, who is concerned about every child that has been conceived. To say that abortion is only a woman’s right and only affects a woman is to misunderstand the very nature of conception and its consequences to husbands and brothers and sisters and grandparents and friends. All are brought in within the net.

We’re also told by those who support abortion that the child who is aborted feels no pain. President Reagan was criticized severely when he said that the child feels pain in the womb. On February 13, 1984, a letter was written and signed by scores of auspicious professors, including a pair of specialists who were involved in pain as physicians, plus two past presidents of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, they said this as physicians, we, the undersigned are pleased to associate ourselves with you in drawing the attention of people across the nation to the humanity and sensitivity of the human unborn. 18 years of study have demonstrated the remarkable responsiveness of the human fetus to pain. Touch and sound. Mr. President, in drawing attention to the capability of the human fetus to feel pain, you stand on firmly established ground. Dr. A.

Lilly, professor of fetology, said, when doctors first began invading the sanctuary of the womb, they did not know that the unborn baby would react to pain in the same fashion as a child would. But they soon learned that he would. And so part of the procedure as the child has reached beyond that 13th week in the womb of its mother is that the fetus will be sedated so that it feels no pain. We are told the myth that legalized abortions are much safer than what we had before. Illegal abortions. During the debate in 1973, which legalized abortion, the congress was given this figure by Bernard Nathanson that every year there are 10,000 illegal deaths because there is no acceptable place for a woman to have an abortion.

Now that number 10,000, deaths because we have not legalized abortion, became the figure that was used within the Congress as one of the arguments to justify the cleaning up of this terrible procedure so that we would take it out of the back alleys and bring it into the hospitals. Bernard Nathanson is considered by many to be the father of abortion in America. He himself oversaw 60,000 abortions in his clinic. He wrote a book called Aborting America. In that book, he talks about the 10,000 so called deaths that were occurring each year because abortion was not legal. Of those figures which he created, he said, and I quote, I knew the figures were totally false. The overriding concern was to get the laws eliminated, and anything within reason that had to be done was permissible.

And where did the number of 10,000 deaths come from? He said, we made it up. Bernard Nathanson now looks upon abortion as the taking of life, and he has dedicated his life to reversing this decision of roe Wade. We’re also told the myth by those who favor abortion that it is a safe operation. Yet, according to the British journal OBGYN, the risk of secondary infertility among women who have had an abortion is three to four times greater than among women who have not had an abortion. It’s interesting. Teenage mothers, when given the proper care, we are told, have the least complications in childbirth. That’s according to the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Yet when a teenager has an abortion, and I quote, some of the most catastrophic complications of abortion occur to teenagers. And abortion is happening at a great rate among our teenagers.

Growing evidence seems to show that there is some relationship between the growing suicide rate in America and abortions. This is early research, but they are beginning to find, according to Suiciders Anonymous in Cincinnati, Ohio, who over 35 months counselled some 5620 people who were contemplating suicide. Of those 5620, 4000 of them were women, and of those 4000, 1800 had abortions. And we are seeing a growing rate of suicide among our teenagers. And there are those researchers who are looking more closely to see what the relationship is between abortion and suicide among our teenagers, we’ve been told by those who favor abortion that child abuse will decline because we will no longer have unwanted children. And it seemed logical at first, but we have seen since the onslaught of abortion, that child abuse has skyrocketed.

There are millions of cases of child abuse each year, and it seems to be growing at ever greater rates. Recently I heard a report taken from New York state that there are so many cases of child abuse being reported that they don’t have enough people simply to answer the phone, to keep proper paperwork on the number of reports of child abuse, to say nothing of going out into the field and researching them. And since the beginning of abortion in America, we have seen this incredible rise of child abuse. One woman speaking before a congressional committee said that her parents had abused her and that one of the things that they said was, we didn’t have to have you. The assumption being that we have done you a favor by not aborting you.

And what a sad state we have come to when children would have to come to their parents and say, thank you for not killing me. And yet, there is a tragic flaw in our nation. As child abuse ever increases, there are some who take the position that certainly in the case of rape and incest, abortion is justifiable. Well, we know that less than 1% of all abortions that are performed in America are the result of incest or rape. And we would raise the question, as christians, does one wrong justify a second wrong? The Bible tells us that the child of rape was allowed to live and that the rapist was put to death. We live in a day where it seems to be open season on children, and all too often the rapist is free to walk again.

Some say certainly in the case of those who are mentally ill, their children should be aborted. Well, according to the World Health Organization, they have found some startling facts of those who are mentally ill who then complicate their lives further by having an abortion. They find that serious mental disorders arise more often in women with previous mental problems. Thus, the very women for whom abortion is considered justified on psychiatric grounds are the ones who have the highest risk of post abortion psychiatric disorders. In California, mental illness was accepted as a grounds for abortion, and several years ago, 98% of the abortions performed in California were performed because of what they claimed to be mental illness. During the same year in New York, which did not allow abortion because of mental illness, only 2% of abortions occurred because of mental illness.

It seems that if we give a broad enough excuse for abortion. And that if our laws are broad enough, that people will simply take that as their reason to have an abortion. The scripture says, woe to the land that sheds innocent blood. And I believe we are living in a day where innocent blood is being shed. And it is time for Christians to speak up, to stand up. I do believe that just as slavery was done away with, just as the inquisition passed away, just as Nazism passed away, so too will abortion pass away. But it will pass away God’s way, either voluntarily or by force. For no nation in all of recorded history since Rome, with the single exception of Germany during World War II, has ever allowed open season on the unborn child.

And we saw a great world war that was fought. Our nation seems day by day to be accepting more and more. And yet, according to George Gallup, there is a growing concern on the part of Americans that perhaps abortion is not the answer. At this point, it seems imperceptible that there will be a change in the hearts of Americans. But I believe that change can only occur as Christians are concerned, to do all that they can, to speak out and to ask the Lord that he might bring a great revival, that there would be the change in our land, but there will be a scar that will be left. But through Jesus Christ, even those who have experienced the pain and the agony of an abortion, that through Jesus Christ, forgiveness can be given.

And I know many women who have decided, having had one abortion, that they now would keep that child. They have great regret about that decision. But by putting their faith in Jesus Christ, they have found forgiveness. And in Christ, all things can be made new. There are myths about abortion, but there are also realities. It is my prayer that God would end abortion in our land and that Christians would do all that they can to help to end this tragedy. Let us pray. Our God and our Father, we ask for your revival. Wind to blow upon our own hearts, which have all too often become hardened as we have accepted this law of the land. Help us to have a higher law, that we live by your word, that we would.

Remember that you are the author of life, that you protect life, and, Father, that you have called upon us to protect that which is holy to you. Help us. We pray to have a strong conviction. Help us. We pray to have strong action to help end abortion in this land. We ask it in Jesus name.

Amen.

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