Abortion - New York Got It Wrong

My blog is coming out earlier this week because its subject just cannot wait.  I want to share concerning the January 22, 2019 decision by the New York State Legislature concerning abortion.  As you know, January 22 was the 46th anniversary of the 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.  Since that decision tens of millions of boys and girls have been aborted.  They were never given the opportunity of receiving any love from a mom or dad.  They never were given the privilege of getting a hug from a loving aunt or uncle.  They never played a game of baseball or played a trumpet.  They never had the opportunity to go to school.   Perhaps one of those aborted boys or girls was given the key to the prevention of cancer or heart disease.  We will never know because their lives were snuffed out before they were born. 


This past January 22, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Reproductive Health Act.  This bill was passed by a 92 to 47 majority in the New York House, and by a 38 to 24 vote in the New York Senate.  What does the Reproductive Health Act do?  The bill grants legality to an abortion even if it is just moments before the baby is to be born.  That's right!  A child in the womb can be aborted at any time prior to its birth.  And the killing of a child in the womb comes with no criminality associated with it at all.  As Stacey Lennox at The Resurgent wrote, "So in New York, no one can be prosecuted for the deliberate or accidental killing of an unborn child and health is so broadly defined as to make almost any issue sufficient for a woman to request an abortion.  ... New York just legalized Kermit Gosnell." (www.patriotpost.us/articles/60729-new-york-expands-culture-of-death.)


New York just declared that a baby has absolutely no rights before it is born - not even the right to life itself.  There are hunting regulations in New York on deer, but no hunting regulations on babies. 


CBS New York reports, "Provisions in the bill include dropping most restrictions on abortion after 24 weeks, allowing midwives and nurse practitioners to perform abortions and ending criminal charges for harming children in the womb." (article cited above).  In other words, an abortion does not necessarily have to be performed by a licensed physician. 


But as much as I detested and was abhorred by the signing of the bill, it was the celebratory atmosphere afterwards that made me want to gag.  Governor Cuomo, upon signing the bill, said, "The Reproductive Health Act 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." (from article cited above.)


The Catholic League's Bill Donohue said, "This is not the passage of abortion rights, but the permission to commit infanticide and call it by another name.  An eight-pound baby can survive outside the womb with very little medical aid.  If this isn't demonic, the word has no meaning."
(article written by Tony Perkins, www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA19A53&f=WU19A18).


Meanwhile, also on January 22, Polk County District Judge Michael Huppert stuck down Iowa's so called "fetal heartbeat" law.  Judge Huppert declared that Iowa's law, which was one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation, was unconstitutional.  Planned Parenthood of the Heartland immediately responded with praise for Judge Hubbert's actions: "Today's ruling is a victory for every Iowan who has ever needed or will need a safe, legal abortion.  We are pleased that especially today, on the 46th anniversary of the landmark decision Roe v Wade, abortion care was upheld as a safe and legal part of basic reproductive health care."  Personally, I prefer the opinion of Iowa's Governor Kim Reynolds who said, "I am incredibly disappointed in today's court ruling, because I believe that if death is determined when a heart stops beating, then a beating heart indicates life."  And the Governor is absolutely correct.


Permit me to share with you one of the most powerful statements in the Bible concerning life as it develops within the womb.  Psalm 139 was written by David - when? the Bible does not tell us.  But I like to think that he wrote it as he watched his young son struggle with life before he was ushered into God's presence.  Listen to these amazing words from a dad:
     "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:13-17).


Friends, I believe what happened on January 22, 2019, will create a stench in the nostrils of God.  How can we point the finger of accusation at the pagans for offering their children as sacrifices to Molech and Chemosh and a host of other deities when we offer our children as sacrifices on the altar to convenience and self-centeredness? 


Are you angry at what happened?  Do we not affirm that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?  I guess that affirmation does not apply to a baby growing in his or her mother's womb.  I guess that baby has no rights.  I guess that baby has no value.  But I am grateful that he or she does have eternal value to God. 


Friends, how we need to speak for those who have no voice - the children yet unborn.  How we need to plead their case so that they can be given the opportunity to live.  It is time that we get riled up and get into the fight.  The lives of the next generation are depending upon us for their very survival.