This is What We Have Come To…

     The President’s statement this past Saturday, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, included not one word that indicated any recognition that abortion is in any case or in any sense a tragedy. This is very, very significant considering that upward of 70% of the American public according to some recent polls is having misgivings about the extent to which this “right” is extended to “all women”
     Albert Mohler, on his blog this morning, said

When Barack Obama was running for President, he was described by some observers as one of the most radical candidates in the nation’s history in terms of support for abortion. Once in office, President Obama has done little to dispel that judgment. Even as the President is tracking to the middle on many issues, this is not the case when it comes to abortion.

This past Saturday, on the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, the President issued a statement that is remarkable, even for presidents who support legalized abortion. The President’s statement included not one word that indicated any recognition that abortion is in any case or in any sense a tragedy. There was not even a passing reference to the unborn child. President Obama did not even use the language used disingenuously by President Bill Clinton — the pledge that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”

     Our President said:

“Today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters,

     Mohler rightly noted that “fundamental principle” was not actually the principle claimed by the Supreme Court, which located the “right” to abortion with the woman, not with a family.
     Obama went on:

“I am committed to protecting this constitutional right. I also remain committed to policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption.”

     Dr. Mohler then observes (and I can’t help but note what I suspect is with a bit of sarcasm) that the “the President of the United States puts his high office behind his hope to “encourage healthy relationships,” but not behind any effort even to reduce the number of abortions in this country. The statistics surrounding abortion in this country are staggering:

• 510 abortions for every 1000 live births in unmarried women.
• For married women that ration drops to 61 abortions for every 1000.
• It would have taken about 642 Hiroshima-type Atomic bombs to kill as many people as abortion has killed since the Roe v. Wade decision in 73. 
• 22% of All pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.
• Abortion is 96% comprises approximately of the services that Planned Parenthood provides.
• Less than 2% of the women who have abortions are having them because of rape or incest. 
• Approximately 75% of Americans do not support abortion on demand. 
• 64% of women who have had an abortion say, after the fact, that they felt pressured by others to have the procedure and if left to their own would not have had it. 
• Young adult women who undergo induced abortion show an increased chance for depression. 
• 52% of women who have abortions are under 25 years old. 
• Teen pregnancy has been dropping since 1990, but since 2006, the number of pregnancies and abortions has started to climb again. 
• Adolescents under the age of 15 obtain less than 1% of all abortions, but have the highest percentage of abortions, 773 abortions to 1000 live births. 
• (Sources are available on request…)

     Mr. Obama concluded his very brief statement by saying:

“And on this anniversary, I hope that we will recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.”

     That paragraph is just a recitation of the feminist argument that was enshrined in Roe v. Wade — that women, no more than men, should be encumbered by the professional and personal limitations required by a pregnancy. That logic is enshrined as orthodoxy within the Democratic Party, and President Obama is one of its most ardent defenders.

     It has been a part of that agenda to erase the Biblical differences between men and women and place the male and the female on the same footing in the family and in society. The problem is that this is not possible. Men and women are different, and that difference is a designed difference, put in place by their Creator. The abomination of abortion is one more evidence of rebellion of our race against that Creator. We want nothing to do with He, or with the Law which He has placed over us. Like Cain from the very beginning, we will come and offer, but will offer that which we please, not which He has commanded.

     Mr. Mohler rightly observes, that ever since Mr. Obama emerged on the national political scene, he has been promoted and protected by a corps of so-called preachers and religious leaders who have tried their best to explain that he is not so pro-abortion as he seems. Nevertheless, his record is all too clear — as is this most recent statement. There was not one expression of abortion as a national tragedy, even as a report recently indicated that almost 60 percent of all pregnancies among African American women in New York City end in abortion. 

     How can any President of the United States, or any preacher or man of God fail to address this unspeakable tragedy? There was no hope expressed that abortion would be rare, only the expression that he would remain “committed to protecting this constitutional right.” 
     The Scripture is clear that will come a time when our obedience to what the Word of God ways will cause us be at odds with those around us, from friends, even to member of our own family. Our Lord said in Luke 14:26:

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

     Surely this is one of the issues that He had in mind when He spoke those words and is worth such a division of loyalties and affections.  

     Our current President, speaking for his entire administration gives no hint of any pursuit or sympathy for anything remotely suggesting any submission to God and His Word. The only words that even insinuate any hypothetical reduction in abortion were addressed to reducing “unintended pregnancies” and promoting adoption. But no goal of reducing abortion was stated or even obliquely suggested. No reference at all was made of the unborn child. There was no lament — not even a throwaway line that would cost him nothing in terms of his support from abortion rights forces. It is not cynical to say that this was because there was no regret. His statement was made because he had to make as a matter of course, in observance to the day.
     But, as Mohler concludes, in another sense, these words were not imposed upon this President. This is his own personal statement. It is one of the most revealing — and tragic — statements made by any political figure in our times.