Subject: Abortion Part 2: Is It Really Sinful?

Romans 7:8 “Apart from the Law, sin is dead.”

Would you think Iowa and New York have very much in common? Historically, Iowa has been a solid Republican, conservative state, while New York is a solid Democratic, progressive state. New York City, “The Big Apple”, is second only to Washington in apple production. Iowa is first in corn production. Iowa is Midwest and family-oriented. New York is known for Manhattan, where singles go to experience the East Coast equivalent to Hollywood. But both states are in the national spotlight over a common issue: abortion.

In Iowa, Planned Parenthood’s billboard campaign features women who had abortions openly encouraging others to do the same. One billboard shows a woman who says, “I had an abortion, and I’m not ashamed.” Another billboard has a woman saying, “I had an abortion, and it was just health care.” And another says, “I had an abortion, and I am not apologizing for it.” This campaign in Iowa, called #SayAbortion, has a very blunt goal. They want to use the women of Iowa to spread the culture of abortion across Iowa.

New York’s abortion culture is way ahead of Iowa. New York ranks #2 in America in abortions per year, at a rate of about 38 abortions for every 1,000 women. Iowa isn’t even in the top 25 states. But this past week’s signing by NY Governor Cuomo of the ‘Reproductive Health Act (RHA)’, on the anniversary of the historic ‘Roe vs. Wade’ decision, catapults New York into a whole different realm of child infanticide.

This new law allows a baby to be aborted up to his or her due date. Governor Cuomo deliberately made the signing of this law a public, formal celebration by declaring “This RHA is a historic victory for New Yorkers and for our progressive values. In the face of a federal government intent on rolling back Roe v. Wade and women’s reproductive rights, I promised that we would enact this critical legislation within the first 30 days of the new session – and we got it done. I am directing that New York’s landmarks be lit in pink to celebrate this achievement and shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to follow.” Now, New Yorkers have their taxes used to pay for abortions at any time throughout pregnancy. And not only that, if a baby is born alive, after a botched abortion, that child outside the womb can be murdered.

As a reminder, last week’s article explained the new reality in American culture. Now that everyone knows by scientific fact (the secular, progressive, atheistic community loves to use science) that a baby in the womb is a human being and not just ‘tissue’, that defense of abortion is no longer viable.

The new argument? “It’s the women’s’ body, and she has the right to decide what to do with her own body.” This argument is idiocy, as we discussed last week. There is no good argument to violate our nation’s foundational law of the protected right to life of an innocent human being. So how can this happen?

Our verse this week gives us the answer. In the book of Romans, Paul tells us that without the objective moral law to show us right from wrong, the knowledge of sin is dead. Paul explains further that “I would not have known sin except through the Law” (Romans 7:7). Removing the Ten Commandments from our institutions, teaching moral relativism in universities and the media, and the flagrant disdain for biblical instruction leaves us with a new generation of leaders who are redefining morality right before our eyes. The new victims are unborn babies at any period in their development, even at one second before delivery.

Former President Ronald Reagan once famously said, “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.” The logic behind this statement is strikingly simple. The unborn have no voice, but are entitled to protection by the law. This law was recognized at America’s founding, as the Law of God, not men: “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…, the separate and equal station to which the LAWS OF NATURE AND NATURE’S GOD entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are LIFE, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This is how we became a nation.

We believed our freedoms were gifts from the God of the Bible, not government. It is sinful to take away a human being’s right to life. When the Bible says, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), God is telling us that although we think the new morality allows for child infanticide, it is sinful and will require justice.

Ed Croteau is a resident of Lee’s Summit and hosts a weekly study in Lees Summit called “Faith: Substance and Evidence.” He can be reached with your questions through the Lee’s Summit Tribune at Editor@lstribune.net.