During an interview Sunday, April 3, 2016, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Hilary Clinton was asked about abortion restrictions and the rights of the unborn. She gave a surprising honest answer, even though she never intended to speak so honestly. “The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights,” Mrs. Clinton said.
She added: “That doesn’t mean that we don’t do everything we possibly can, in the vast majority of instances to, you know, help a mother who is carrying a child and wants to make sure that child will be healthy, to have appropriate medical support.”
With these words, Mrs. Clinton, a mother, and grandmother, with another grandchild soon to be born, spoke the inconvenient truth. The life in the womb of a mother is a baby. It is a child being carried to term, provided the mother does not take the life of her child. In 2012, unmarried women accounted for 85.3% of all abortions (Center for Disease Control).
It is hard for a mother, or a grandmother, or any human with a soul and an ounce of compassion, to see sonogram pictures of the baby in the womb, and not want to do whatever is possible to bring the child safely into the world. For this to happen, the following must take place.
First, women must be taught to love their children. Christian theology recognizes the dark side of the human soul. The Bible is realistic. Because of the Fall of mankind, the heart is desperately wicked. Part of the wickedness of the human heart is that it can be self-centered to an extreme. When a person is totally self-centered they do not want anything, or anyone, to disrupt their life. They will even kill to have freedom of choice and keep their lifestyle intact.
One victim of radical self-centeredness is the unborn child. The unborn child is not loved. It is not wanted. In the wisdom of the world, the baby should be terminated. More than fifty millions lives have been extinguished through abortion since the passing of Roe v Wade in 1973. Many of these abortions were late term. In some cases, the baby survived the abortion attempt, and then became the subject of infanticide.
Only when women are taught to love their children will the bloody slaughter of the innocent cease. Mature Christian women have a responsibility to younger women. They are to “teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children” (Titus 2:4).
Second, abortion will be diminished when the language is changed. Hilary Clinton received an immediate backlash from her prochoice, pro-death supporters because she called the unborn a “person”, and a “child.” The politically correct terminology allowing for the legal death of the unborn is that the life in the womb is a “fetus”. The term fetus is given to the embryo in the ninth week of development. Merriam-Webster defines the word fetus as, “a developing human from usually two months after conception to birth.”
The pro-life people who demand women have the right to kill the “person”, within their womb, the “child” they carry, and the “human” that they once were, want to change the language. The Latin term fetus sounds neutral and impersonal. Honest language, spoken unintentionally by Hilary Clinton, would unmask the brutality done to the innocent and would help move the heart to protect the weakest member of society, the unborn.
Third, abortions will be less when those who do not want their child are encouraged to allow the child to live and give it up for adoption. A better effort can be made to welcome every child into the world through faith based organizations. Adoption, not abortion is preferable. An ecumenical council of churches against abortions to help rescue babies would not be displeasing to the Lord. Let the people of God affirm afresh what the Bible teaches about the sanctity of life. “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psa. 139:14).
