Isaiah the prophet warns in chapter 5, verse 20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
America was settled and founded by people of faith who revered God and his Word. They fled here to escape religious persecution and the tyranny of King George.
From the time of the first permanent colony, Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, the next settlement of the pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620, America has been blessed and prospered, a haven for the persecuted, a hope for the industrious and downtrodden.
Indeed, Psalm 33:12 could, for the most part, apply to the United States of America:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
America’s history records periods of affluence, growth, and, at times, growing wickedness stopped by revival. As the Weeping Prophet’s warning to and diagnosis of the Hebrews applied universally, including Americans:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
But the remedy (2 Chronicles 7:14) always, always was available for healing and restoration:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
On Friday, July 14, the Chicago Tribune published an article by Angie Leventis Lourgos titled, “‘My last resort’ — thousands come to Illinois to have abortions.” Never have I read a more stunning example of Isaiah 5:20. The stories told in the article, coupled with the story told in the accompanying video, are wholly, viscerally repugnant.
In the video a woman, Cyndi Portteus, a wife and mother of one, pregnant with their second child, recounts their heartbreak when they learn that their 22 week baby in the womb has a potentially fatal heart condition — hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The doctors and counsellors gave Cindy and her husband three options: a series of three surgeries to mitigate the malformed infant heart and give baby Portteus a chance to live; carry to term, have the baby, administer only palliative care (pain care) at home and allow him to die; or “terminate the pregnancy.”
Think on that. Now think some more and suppose that the infant in question, rather than being a second trimester baby in the womb, were a three year old child with a possibly fatal heart condition. What would people say of any doctor or genetic counsellor who offered up that third option? Such a practitioner would be deemed a Nazi-esque monster.
And what do you suppose is the point of the video, where one mother records for all of history how she and her husband would prefer to “terminate” a baby rather than give the tiny boy care? The video is an indictment on any and all states that would dare pass bans on abortions past twenty weeks. So much for the “safe but RARE” ruse.
Think of this. Dr. C. Everett Koop quashed the lie that abortion is sometimes necessary to save the life of the mother:
Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years in pediatric surgery I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life. . .
If, toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that threaten the mother’s health, he will take the child by inducing labor or performing a Caesarean section. His intention is still to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby will be premature and perhaps immature depending on the length of gestation. Because it has suddenly been taken out of the protective womb, it may encounter threats to its survival. The baby is never willfully destroyed because the mother’s life is in danger.
~ C. Everett Koop, M.D., as told to Dick Bohrer, in Moody Monthly, May, 1980.
And now 3D and 4D ultrasounds and medical heroes like Koop have revealed the humanhood of life in the womb and advancements in fetal development science reveal that the tiny humans in the womb can feel pain as early as eight weeks.
Therefore, abortion kills a human. Abortion is not necessary to save the life of the mother. The baby feels pain. All of those facts make a pretty solid case against abortion.
Yet, in this article Angie Leventis Lourgos writes as though the expectant mothers were the victims, hard pressed by states that have limited parameters allowing abortion.
Another story told within the article concerns a young woman from Missouri who is twelve weeks pregnant — right on the cusp of the second trimester. The narrative vilifies the expectant mother’s family:
Her conservative Christian family was against abortion. When her parents learned they had conceived a fetus with a severe and typically fatal birth defect, they chose to deliver rather than terminate.
And this young woman’s reasons for wanting an abortion?
“I’ve seen what unplanned pregnancies do to people,” said the woman, who requested anonymity to keep her recent abortion a secret from those closest to her. “I don’t want to be put through that. I don’t want to be forced into a marriage. I don’t want to raise a child alone.”
Oh. I see. Rather than marry or raise a child alone (as if those are the only two options), it’s preferable to kill the baby who is a separate human being with separate DNA and who is blameless in the condition of pregnancy.
When should the excuses for abortion stop? Perhaps a married couple don’t want to buy a larger home with more bathrooms and bedrooms? Perhaps another child would stretch the family budget and sacrifices might be required?
The impetus of the article is to show each of the pregnant women as desperate, seeing the state of Illinois as their beacon of hope. Lourgos notes:
Illinois health data show that each year around 3,000 women come from out of state to have an abortion in Illinois, which has some of the least restrictive laws in the Midwest.
. . .
While the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade has guaranteed the right to an abortion since 1973, lawmakers and courts across the country continue to tussle over the boundaries of that reproductive freedom. That has created pockets of access in places like Illinois amid what has been termed the U.S. abortion desert of the South and Midwest.
Whenever you hear terms such as “the boundaries of that reproductive freedom” be on guard: such language is radical feminist talk for abortion. Every woman has “reproductive” freedom. But according to geneticists, biologists, and yes, God, that image on the ultrasound is not tissue, but a tiny human on its way to becoming a larger human. The fetus is not part of the woman’s body, but living and developing in the womb, what should be a safe haven for the innocent baby.
Also included in the article is a video featuring “Leah Greenblum, founder and executive director of Midwest Access Coalition, a Chicago nonprofit that provides lodging, transportation and other support for women traveling to have an abortion.” Ms. Greenblum proudly speaks as though she’s a modern day Harriet Tubman, leading besieged women to the promised land of Illinois to realize freedom.
Sorry Leah. You have been deceived and are deceiving others. You also are culpable in the murder of these unborn.
Moses wrote God’s firm admonition concerning life in Deuteronomy:
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. Deuteronomy 30:19
President Ronald Reagan called America a shining city on a hill, alluding to Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
That was the Founders intent. Unfortunately, America has lost her sheen as a war rages on between a culture of life and a culture of death. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
And never has there been more spiritual wickedness and darkness than in the Land of Lincoln, a safe haven for abortionists and abortion-seekers, and a killing zone for the unborn.
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