Christian, Not Pro-Life

No, I am absolutely not advocating for abortion or a woman’s so called “right to choose.” Abortion is the premeditated killing of children in the womb. A woman has a right to do anything with her body that she desires; however, during pregnancy she is carrying someone else’s body with which she may not do any and everything she chooses. Just as the woman has rights, so does the person she is carrying. Before I explain a Christian perspective on the issue and why I am not “pro-life” let’s look at a little piece of recent history. Would you be shocked if I told you that within the last six months your state senator had an opportunity to hear a bill that would have totally abolished all abortion in Oklahoma? Not only did he not vote to pass it, he voted to kill it without even hearing it. “No…” you say? “My senator is pro-life!” Out of 39 republican senators only four were even willing to hear and debate the bill. It was tabled and killed by a pro-life majority on a cool day in March.

OK SB13, authored by State Senator Joseph Silk of District 5, would have recognized the newly conceived baby as a human being with “certain unalienable rights” and treated him or her just the same as a one-year old toddler. Anyone who participated in the killing of this child would be charged with homicide. “The Abolition of Abortion in Oklahoma Act” was not primarily opposed by democrats, liberals, or Planned Parenthood, but rather, by pro-life, church attending legislators, and large pro-life organizations. Why? Trying to be exceedingly considerate, I would say because they do not understand the bill and its function. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume ignorance rather than malice, although this charity may be unwarranted. SB13 would have repealed close to 20 pro-life statutes from the state’s laws. Why was this necessary? You can’t have an effective law on the books that says, “you cannot murder babies” and at the same time have a law that says “you can murder some babies sometimes.” For the former to hold water, you must rid yourself of the latter.

Before I go further, let me address the “abolish ‘ALL’ abortion” which is stated above. You mean “all?” Even in the case of incest and rape? What about to save the life of the mother? Yes, SB13 would have criminalized all abortions. When it comes to abortion, we must remember what we are “aborting,” and every time, the answer is “a baby”. Let’s interact with each of these situations where even pro-life Christians sometimes waiver in the fight against abortion. As an example, have you ever heard of a young family being hit by a drunk driver? Dad was killed in the impact, mom is paralyzed, and the kids have some bumps and bruises and will live the rest of their lives without a loving father. We have all heard of these tragedies and it is heartbreaking to know that some jerk who had a few too many changed the lives of several people forever because of his willful recklessness. Just like the drunk driver, the rapist should be punished to the full extent of the law, and sadly, but inevitably, just as the injured victim of the drunk driver, the rape victim will suffer the consequences of another person’s sins. She may not be paralyzed physically, but undoubtedly, she will be scarred. Rape and incest are heinous crimes, but why would we kill the baby for the sins of the father? The child did not commit a crime. If there is anyone to stand up for and protect, it is the child without a loving father. There is never a scenario where the answer is to kill the baby. No one demands that the abused mother raise the child, but no one should ever consider killing the baby as a reasonable option.

What about abortions performed to save the life of the mother? When a woman wants an abortion in Oklahoma, she schedules an appointment, has a phone consultation, and a few days later has the death-dealing procedure. However, when a woman has an ectopic pregnancy that threatens her life it is either found early and treated by a physician, or, if not discovered early, this woman may later be rushed to an emergency room, possibly in severe pain. Regardless, the circumstance is never a scheduled one. Ectopic pregnancies occur about 19 times in every 1000 pregnancies. In most of these cases the child is already deceased when the ectopic is discovered. Doctors are trained and capable of treating this tragedy, abortionists are not. In the very rare case that a mother has a life-threatening pregnancy with a living child, doctors should and must do everything in their power to save both of their patients. If they cannot save both they must use medical triage to save the life most likely to survive. Everyday abortionists go to work with the intent of doing away with babies, while doctors do their best to save every life they can. Abolition bills like SB13 do not criminalize doctors whose intent is to save life. Abortion is never needed to save anyone’s life; its only purpose is to cease life.

The Bible and Christians assert that God is the author and creator of life (Acts 17) and that God has stated plainly in His word, “Thou shall not murder” (Exodus 20). Murder is the premeditated taking of a human life with malice aforethought. This takes place on the average of fourteen times each day in the Sooner State by moms and dads who despise their children. Christians attest to the fact that God is all knowing (Psalm 139). He knows history in its entirety from beginning to end. However, God says that it is so irrational that a mother and father would hire out the murder of their own child that it has never even entered His mind (Jeremiah 7:31). Abortion is so incomprehensible that even the creator Himself cannot rationalize its practice. The Bible also says that God hates the hands that shed innocent blood (Proverbs 6). The Abolition Movement, which is starkly opposed to the pro-life movement, hinges on these passages and others to build its logic for dealing with our current abortive culture.

The differences between pro-life and abolition really boil down to what each group is willing to tolerate. Pro-life groups have a “take what we can get” sort of mentality. If the supreme court will only allow us to regulate abortion then let’s slap so much red tape, hoops, and hurdles in front of it that we limit as many as humanly possible. The problem with this philosophy is that creating regulations actually codifies into law a woman’s seemingly rightful access to abortion. The bill that boldly claims that you cannot abort a baby after 20 weeks of gestation implies that you can abort a baby prior to 20 weeks. Oklahoma currently has statutes that say such things as you cannot kill a baby with forceps, but you can kill a child with a suction vacuum device [OK Stat § 63-1-737.8] and you cannot have an abortion unless you think about it for 72 hours [OK Stat § 63-1-738.2]. These laws and others bolster the wrongful assumption that a woman has a right to commit the act. Have you heard of the heartbeat bills that some states are trying to pass? Heartbeat bills discriminate against newly conceived babies whose heartbeats are undetectable and they also allow the abortionist to be the one searching for the  heartbeat. Imagine if a drug dealer were allowed to search his own car for the meth that he claims not to have. “No sir officer, I couldn’t find any contraband in my car.” That is ridiculous! Abortionists do not want to find heartbeats. They want to perform abortions and make their daily pound of flesh. Unlike the pro-lifer, the abolitionist refuses to imply any right to an abortion. They see the only biblical option being to seek the total and immediate abolition of abortion as murder.

Let’s look at a little analogy to demonstrate how each group deals with abortion and how they differ. Imagine a football field. One hundred yards of grid iron and in both endzones it says “ROE” and at the 50-yard line there is the great seal of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). It is an away game. Since 1973 the pro-life crowd has been slowly aiming to chip away at the Roe v. Wade decision with little, if any, success. They pass a “pain capable bill” that limits abortions after a baby can feel pain. They nominate a supreme court justice who is a good conservative and seems to go along with the sanctity of life crowd. Our boys push the home team back to their own 35, but Planned Parenthood sues, and we end up on defense just past midfield. It is a back and forth battle that rarely, if ever, sees any real progress in reducing the number of abortions. The abolitionists, however, look at the ridiculous, vain struggle and are unwilling to step onto the field to participate. Abolitionists will not play by the rules of ROE V. Wade. Abolitionists would simply pull the switch to the stadium lights and turn the sprinklers on as they walk out the gates. SB13 actually had a clause that said all lawsuits, executive orders, and federal statutes regarding legal abortion would be ignored by all Oklahoma agents.     

Very simply put the high court got it wrong. Regardless of who says you can kill children; it is never okay to kill children. In the arena of legalized murder, defiance to the SCOTUS and anyone else is absolutely necessary.

Why Oklahoma? Why now? This sort of bill would not fly in New York or California, but it is uniquely possible in a conservative state like ours. For the last several years this state has had a pro-life supermajority in the state house the state senate and the governor’s office. We need only the courage to stand up to the federal government and abolish abortion come what may. Wait a second, isn’t that like anarchy? Not exactly. Our founding fathers intended for the states to check and ignore the federal government and actually replace it if it got too big or out of control. Did you know that right now Oklahoma is in open defiance to the supreme court decision Gonzalez V. Raich (2005) which states that marijuana is a federally recognized controlled substance and is, therefore, illegal in all 50 states? So, for the love and care of children who need medical marijuana to deal with seizures, we are willing to defy the SCOTUS, but when it comes to preventing the murder of children in the womb we suddenly get weak in the knees and cave like a bunch of pansies! Let’s be consistent, defy the court, and take a stand on biblical principles. Let’s drop the “pro-life” label, abolish abortion in Oklahoma, and bid other states to follow.

Imagine if several western Oklahoma towns became sanctuary cities for the preborn. Whoever sits on the SCOTUS is going to have trouble rounding up the dissenters if your county sheriff affirms a child’s right to life from the moment of conception. Abolition must be done locally from the bottom up. We cannot wait for the snail-paced federal beast to end the  insanity of abortion. This is the time and place for Oklahoma to assert its state sovereignty, plead the 10th Amendment, and end legalized murder. Few people realize that six out of the nine justices on the court which upheld Roe in Casey V. Planned Parenthood (1992) were appointed by Republican presidents including three appointees from Reagan and Bush. This should wake up every pro-lifer to the fact that there should be very little hope placed in the high court of the land. The Abolitionist Movement aims to convict and educate Christian pro-lifers, both biblically and logically, so that they will oppose abortion on every level, especially the local level.

Put simply, if every abolitionist were to convert back to pro-life tomorrow, absolutely nothing would change in the culture of abortion. However, if every pro-lifer were to become an abolitionist, legalized abortion would end in Oklahoma. The voters would tell their representatives “abolish it”, the House and Senate would say “enough is enough”, and the governor would put his John Hancock on the legislation criminalizing 100% of abortions. Subsequently, the young girl pregnant out of wedlock would no longer be allowed to feel as though abortion is normal, legal, and reasonable. Rather it would be like the money in the bank vault. Yes, it would be convenient if all those $100 bills were mine, but the law restricts my desire and tells me if I try to seize the cash they will cuff me, lock me up, and I’ll suffer the punishment as the law breaker. Would planned parenthood sue Oklahoma? Absolutely. So what if they did? Abortion is murder.

Let’s stop implying that abortion is okay and start declaring its wickedness. Your state legislators are aware of the Abolition Movement and many of them oppose it because it would repeal the implicative pro-life laws keeping abortion legal and regulated in our state, which they fought long and hard to pass. Let them know you want them to stop regulating abortion and abolish it immediately. They voted abolition down once. Hold them accountable before they do it again.

In closing, although the language that abolitionists use seems harsh, it is necessary to call abortion what it is and to call anyone who supports abortion in any way to repentance. Abortion, like all sin, is a serious offense before God, but the abolitionist will be the first to point out that God sent His only begotten Son to die on a cruel cross to offer forgiveness and redemption to all those who would acknowledge and turn from their sin, and put their faith in God’s Son. The Gospel is free to all who would partake. Apart from the transforming grace of a loving redeemer the best abolitionist is simply a wretched worm who deserves the full and merciless wrath of God. It is not our intention to judgingly point any fingers to what anyone has done in their past, but rather to call the sin a sin, and point the sinner to the one and only savior, Christ Jesus.

Brady Butler is a founding member of Western Oklahoma Christians for Liberty. This article first appeared on their Facebook page  and in the Thomas Tribune, a news print publication based in Thomas, OK.

Western Oklahoma Christians for Liberty is a group of western Oklahoma Christian families who love liberty and seek to abolish abortion in our state. They strive to positively  impact our communities through outreach, education, fellowship in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.