The Conscience and Abortion

Recently, an article and a video about abortion caught my eye. In both, I sensed the fact that the American conscience is conflicted, confused, and, in some cases, seared about the issue of abortion.

1. The first is a cover story recently published in New York magazine, entitled "My Abortion," in which 26 women share their stories of having abortions.Al Mohler (president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) wrote an article about this piece and notes that,

For the advocates of abortion, these testimonies offer a clear refutation of their strategy of doing everything possible to speak constantly of a “woman’s right to choose,” while avoiding any reference to the baby. The baby refuses to disappear. When these testimonies of abortion reveal the very women who had an abortion speaking of “our baby” and noting that “the baby would now be one year old,” the moral bankruptcy of the pro-abortion argument is there for all to see. The baby refuses to leave the picture.

We see in the testomonies of these women that even as many of them affirm their choice to have an abortion, their consciences are conflicted. Why? Because if abortion ends the life of a baby our consciences cry out against it. The conflict comes in when our actions are contrary to what we know is right.

2. The second thing that caught my eye was a video of a late term abortion clinic in New Mexico (you can watch it below). A hidden camera reveals a young woman asking the abortion doctor about her baby. The doctor admits that the baby has "all it's parts" and that it would probably survive birth at this stage of development, but he or she would need a little help breathing at the hospital. She then goes on to describe the horrific process of late term abortion as if it were no big deal. Here we see a conscience that is not confused but completely seared. To say it is a baby and then speak of injecting him or her with something which stops the heart is insane. It sounds like a lethal injection without due process on a person innocent of any crimes.
 

HT: Justin Taylor

What do we take from all of this?  

As Christians we have a Savior and a gospel which cleanse even the worst sins. We have the hope of a clean conscience to offer women who have had an abortion. It isn't by telling them to ignore their sense of guilt or to keep trying to justify their actions. It is by calling them to repentance and faith in a crucified and risen Jesus.

Hebrews 9:14- how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

1 Corinthians 6:9a-10 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?... And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Oh, how I pray that these abortionist doctors and women who have killed their babies will come to know the soul cleansing, hope restoring, conscience renewing power of the cross of Jesus Christ.