In my yard. you will find a 30-foot oak . The tree is old, diseased, and too near to the house. It’s a hazard. I must eliminate it. So, first thing in the morning, I am going to get a ladder, climb to the very best of the tree, and pluck all the leaves I can carry. The very next day, I will go get yourself a ladder, climb the tree, and pluck leaves. Your day after that, I’ll obtain the ladder…
I am never going to eliminate 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 closer 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 they have forgotten the purpose of the fight. Stop abortions.
Regulations is one really small component in the abortion fight. Legal victories experienced 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 couple of leaves. This pro-life ruling will not prevent one abortion. This law delineates the acceptable location of the abortion. A doctor may dismember the kid 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 absolutely no evidence that overturning Rove v. Wade will stop 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 more than three states from usage of a legal abortion. We will have a patchwork of fifty state abortion laws. Legal analysts separate states into three positions based on projected law.
22 states are likely to impose significant new restrictions on abortion
Hymen restoration Istanbul cost
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]
What if all fifty states passed highly restrictive abortion laws? Data indicates that even restrictive abortion laws have little effect on abortion rates. Latin American countries have probably the most restrictive laws on the planet. However, abortion rates in Latin America’s are 50% greater than current US rates.[4] Abortion is the primary contraceptive method in these countries.[5] Worldwide, there’s virtually no correlation between your stringency of abortion law and national abortion rates. Availability 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, priciest, and least productive section of the abortion battle. Even though there’s 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 section of change. Law and economy are not the primary abortion issues. Sin is the primary abortion issue. We can not diminish the abortion rate without changing social mores.
95% of Americans take part in premarital sex.[6] 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 foremost predictor of abortion. Sex sin may be the primary abortion issue.
This nation won’t pass a law against premarital sex; it might be ridiculously ineffective. Experience teaches that individuals would not honor this new law since 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 ideal and His law does not end abortion. The Supreme Court of the United States cannot issue a ruling that will be far better than God’s preexistent law. Individuals are sinful. They couldn’t keep 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 aren’t beneath the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14 KJV)
Jesus died on the cross in order that man would have the ability to triumph over 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.
