In my yard. there exists a 30-foot oak . The tree is old, diseased, and too near to the house. It is a hazard. I have to get rid of it. So, very first thing in the morning, I will get a ladder, climb to the most notable of the tree, and pluck all of the leaves I can carry. The very next day, I will go get a ladder, climb the tree, and pluck leaves. The day after that, I’ll obtain the ladder…
I am never going to remove that tree by pulling leaves.
In 1973, Rove v. Wade moved abortion to the frontlines of America’s political conscience. It moved to the front and stayed there. Thirty-five years later, we are no nearer to resolving to the issue. The “pro-life” movement has been plucking legal leaves. Some anti-abortion activists have so centered on overturning this legal ruling that they have forgotten the purpose of the fight. Stop abortions.
Regulations is one really small component in the abortion fight. Legal victories have had little effect on the quantity of abortion performed in this country. The Heritage Foundation analyzed abortion data in states which have enacted restrictive abortion laws. They studied four major areas of legislation: parental consent, Medicaid funding restrictions, informed consent, and partial birth abortion prohibitions.[1] Only Medicare funding restrictions had any statistically significant influence on the state’s abortion rates.
Consider the effect of the recent Supreme Court ruling on partial birth abortion.[2] Pro-life legalists wasted fifteen-years to obtain a handful of leaves. This pro-life ruling won’t prevent one abortion. This law delineates the acceptable location of the abortion. A health care provider may dismember the child in the upper portion of birth canal but not the lower. It generally does not deter legal abortion; it defines legal abortion. Someone forgot the target.
Likewise, there is no evidence that overturning Rove v. Wade will minimize abortion. Rove v. Wade established abortion law as a federal matter. When Roe is reversed, control of abortion law reverts to the states. Even in a post Roe era, no American woman will live a lot more than three states away from access to a legal abortion. We shall have a patchwork of fifty state abortion laws. Legal analysts separate states into three positions based on projected law.
Hymenoplasty in Turkey
22 states will probably impose significant new restrictions on abortion
12 states are likely to impose some moderate new restrictions on abortion
16 states and the District of Columbia are likely to continue current usage of abortion.[3]
Imagine if all fifty states passed highly restrictive abortion laws? Data indicates that even restrictive abortion laws have little impact on abortion rates. Latin American countries have the most restrictive laws in the world. However, abortion rates in Latin America’s are 50% higher than current US rates.[4] Abortion may be the primary birth control method in these countries.[5] Worldwide, there is virtually no correlation between your stringency of abortion law and national abortion rates. Option of reliable contraception, economic factors, and social mores are more predictive of a nation’s abortion rate than its legal structure.
So should Christians who hate abortion abandon the legal battle? No, we don’t abandon the legal area. However, we must notice that legal matters will never be the primary front. The legal forays will be the most time consuming, most expensive, and least productive area of the abortion battle. Even though there is significant evidence that abortion rates tend to be more attentive to economic factors than legal ones, I propose Christians invest their energy into the most productive area of change. Law and economy aren’t the principal abortion issues. Sin is the primary abortion issue. We cannot diminish the abortion rate without changing social mores.
95% of Americans engage in premarital sex.[6] Significantly less than 7% of pregnancies within marriage are aborted while 40% of pregnancies to unmarried women result in abortion.[7] Conception beyond marriage is the greatest predictor of abortion. Sex sin may be the primary abortion issue.
This nation will not pass a law against premarital sex; it will be ridiculously ineffective. Experience teaches that the people would not honor this new law because they don’t honor the old law. In Deuteronomy, God gave law about sex sin and individuals didn’t keep it. God’s law is perfect and His law will not end abortion. The Supreme Court of the United States cannot issue a ruling that will be more effective than God’s preexistent law. Individuals are sinful. They couldn’t keep carefully the law then; we can not keep the law now.
Except by grace through Jesus Christ. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not beneath the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14 KJV)
Jesus died on the cross so that man would have the ability to overcome sin. By grace, we can avoid the sex sin leading to murder sin. Without this, there is no ability to keep the law. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to abide in us and keep us from being sin controlled. The remedy to abortion is evangelism.
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