Echoes in Eternity

Thirty-seven years ago today, the SCOTUS case of Roe v. Wade was decided. Since then, nearly 50 million babies have been murdered in utero. That is more than twice the population of Australia, three times the number of residents of the Netherlands, and five times the number of Haitians currently fighting to survive. The abortion rate in this country skyrocketed during the 70's and peaked in the mid 80's. Since then, the rate has steadily decreased to the point that it is now about 70% of where it stood 25 years ago. The reason: evangelicals and ultrasounds.

At first, the only ones who cared about abortion were Catholics... it wasn't on evangelical Christians' radar. But that changed when the great evangelical Christian, Francis Schaeffer, marched with Catholics at the clinic just down the street from my home here in Minneapolis in the late 70's and wrote several books on the Christian necessity of involvement in the public sphere. Today, many evangelicals probably think that the evangelical Church has always been vehemently pro-life... but it was not so until one man stood up for life.

Another reason for the decline in abortions is the technological advances in ultrasounds and other prenatal equipment which now allows the medical staff and parents of babies to see the life inside the woman. The pro-life crisis pregnancy center across the street from the clinic where Schaeffer marched thirty years ago recently received a 4D ultrasound machine which has helped further open the eyes of the women who visit the clinic.

And such close-up views (and sounds) of unborn babies are not just changing the hearts and minds of women; abortion doctors and nurses are also fleeing their jobs. This article in next week's issue of "The Weekly Standard" details several such wonderful stories.

Pro-choice advocates like to point out that abortion has existed in all times and places. Yet that observation tends to obscure the radicalism of the present abortion regime in the United States. Until very recently, no one in the history of the world has had the routine job of killing well-developed fetuses quite so up close and personal. It is an experiment that was bound to stir pro-life sentiments even in the hearts of those staunchly devoted to abortion rights. Ultrasound and D&E bring workers closer to the beings they destroy. Hern and Corrigan concluded their study by noting that D&E leaves “no possibility of denying an act of destruction.” As they wrote, “It is before one’s eyes. The sensations of dismemberment run through the forceps like an electric current.”

For those who can make it, there are Marches for Life at every state capitol building in this nation. We're winning the fight, let's not let up with victory ever-increasingly in sight!