Reducing Abortion for Real | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2009 > March

Christianity Today, March, 2009 |

WHERE WE STAND

Reducing Abortion for Real

The current proposals to lower the abortion rate will only make things worse.

A Christianity Today Editorial | posted 3/16/2009 12:05PM

2 of 2

To be sure, some all-or-nothing pro-life groups (American Life League, for example) and even gradualist pro-life leaders rightly caution against surrendering core values in the quest for common ground. Many of the Democrats' plans, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's Russell Moore noted, are "akin to civil rights activists joining hands with pro-lynching vigilantes in … early 20th-century America to 'reduce the number of lynchings' through better funding of segregated African American school systems."

But most pro-life advocates say they will eagerly work for abortion reduction while also working for elimination. That's why they support measures that have actually proven to reduce abortion rates: public funding restrictions, parental involvement laws, informed consent laws (in which women seeking abortions get information about fetal development and single moms receive support), and waiting periods. They support making ultrasound images more available or required.

If Congress and the White House really want to reduce the abortion rate, we will welcome their suggestions. So far, their specific proposals are doing the exact opposite.

Still, "there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic," says Michael New, a University of Alabama political scientist who studies abortion reduction strategies. "Despite the setbacks, we have made real progress," he wrote in National Review. More states are passing legislation that works to reduce abortion. Fewer Americans now support abortion on demand. America's youth are increasingly pro-life. Crisis pregnancy centers are full of volunteers. Planned Parenthood is under more scrutiny than it has been in decades. And the abortion rate really is decreasing. It's now at the lowest level since 1974.

We are not talking about reducing the abortion rate. We are actually doing it.

Related Elsewhere:

More coverage of abortion is available in our life ethics area.

first page |

2 of 2

share this page

March 2009, Vol. 53, No. 3

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment

Reader Reviews are below

Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only.

If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.

Click here for international orders

2-for-1 Gifts!

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Displaying 1 - 3 of 71 comments.

See all comments

Dan	Posted: March 28, 2009 7:22 PM

Re: Dr. Affinito "I am prochoice because I am prolife." How tedious. Yeah, yeah, and "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorace is strength." I've heard it all before. So, what is your preferred method of killing Baby? Surgical? Medical? Chemical? Orwellian-like you and Pres. Obama expound and moralize about policies and other factors that need consideration, but Baby is concerned with more practical exigencies: dilation and curettage, salt poisoning, D&X, etc. Can't you see: IT IS A BABY!!! YOU DON'T SLICE, DICE, OR BASTE BABIES!! If you were coolly discussing this kind of treatment of babies outside the womb, you would be considered a monster. Somehow the location of Baby (or in Robyn's post, the father of Baby) legalizes, indeed justifies, killing Baby. So what do you say to Baby who is about to be aborted: "hold still, Baby, this won't hurt but a moment?"

Shannon

Posted: March 27, 2009 11:04 PM

"If funding welfare would reduce abortion, we'd support it," says Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel at Americans United for Life. But the data show that welfare benefits have little impact on abortion rates." Gee, so much for compassion for the poor. Seems to me from a biblical standpoint, funding welfare would stand on its own merits, apart from its effect on abortion rates. Nice hypocrisy. And Joe - Obama hasn't been deceiving us for the last eight years. You have.

Virginia

Posted: March 23, 2009 11:22 PM

Before our prayers for our nation can reach heaven, we must repent of the blood of the innocents. The church still slumbers and neglects to light the candles of hope. Character does count, after all. Preventing abortions involves prizing human life as God does; stopping exploitation, neglect, and abuse.It is a spiritual responsibility that takes pro-life all the way from womb to tomb to honor the gift of life, the miracle of birth, and the expectation that children are prepared for the sacrifices demanded by love before they are shoved into the sexual marketplace. Are we stupid or are we evil to treat it as a polictical issue? We have slaughtered 50 million-- our heritage. They must be replaced with aliens of other cultures. A culture of life or a culture of death? That is our choice and we are all accountable.

The allotted time for commenting has ended.