With the 6-3 decision overturning Roe
v Wade, we are now living in a new world regarding the regulation of
abortion.
The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has now ruled that our nation must recognize all three natural, God-given rights celebrated in our Declaration of Independence— “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
In the Dobbs ruling, the SCOTUS has declared that 49-years ago the high court erred in its 1973 Roe V. Wade decision— and also in the subsequent Casey decision of 1992. The U.S. Constitution does not give the federal government or federal courts a legitimate constitutional role in the regulation of abortion— rather It leaves that task to the individual states, not the federal government.
Each of the 50 states can and will legislate and regulate abortion according to its own state laws, based on the will of the people. Some states will continue very permissive abortion laws, and other states will adopt stringent restrictions.
But, for the moment, as Christians guided by our faith in Christ’s words and Biblical wisdom, let’s put aside the contentious political questions involved in the state-level regulation of abortion, and ask, simply, what is really at stake in the abortion controversy?
Abortion is not just a “medical decision” regulated by state law. Christians know that abortion involves the taking of a human life, and therefore, is legitimately subject to higher laws and principles than the removal of an infected tooth.
We live in a secular culture, and our lives and our children’s lives will be affected by the choices our largely secular culture makes on issues like abortion. As Christians in a secular society, we are challenged to study and apply Christ’s teachings as few other questions.
In many of our nation’s 50 states, the “death penalty” for convicted mass murders is forbidden because it is thought to be “not humane”— and yet, the “termination” of the life of a seven, eight or even nine-month old human being living in its mother’s womb is considered not a matter of lawful regulation or limitation.
What does the Bible teach us about the importance and meaning of the choice a community makes in deciding whether or not to place limitations on the “right to terminate” a woman’s pregnancy? Remember Christ’s admonition in Matthew 25:40:
“And
the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, in as much as
you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’.”
Is it too much to ask, is it too provocative or too “insensitive” to ask our friends and fellow citizens and especially our elected public servants: In today’s world, who are the “least of these, my brethren” if not the unborn child in the womb? In today’s hedonistic, narcissistic culture, where else do we find any human life with lesser status and fewer “rights” or fewer public agencies dedicated to its well-being?
Thankfully, at long last, a historic wrong of cataclysmic scale (63-million abortions since 1973 in America) has now been righted, and each of the states in this, our “one nation under God,” will now be able to debate and decide on the protections due both mother and child.
The fate of our nation’s unborn children is no longer in the hands of nine judges in black robes. Each state’s citizens must decide and then answer for those choices. Will they now recognize the human rights of “the least of these,” or continue to look away and pretend it is someone else’s problem?
In July of 2022, Christians in America can rejoice in our celebration of Independence Day, knowing that insofar as the federal government and our U.S. Constitution are concerned, the right to life itself has finally been restored to equal status in our constitutional principles of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
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