The Evil and Oppression of Abortion

The Evil and Oppression of Abortion

Brian Borgman

On this 37^th anniversary of Woe v Wade, I want to keep in the forefront of our minds two related facts about abortion:  it is evil and it is the worst form of oppression in the world.

Abortion is a Systemic Evil
Systemic evil is evil which exists in social structures, social institutions or deeply ingrained social, cultural patterns, norms or laws.  Such things as economic exploitation, racism and bureaucratic political machines that exist for their own self-indulgence, would be examples of systemic evil.

One of the most deeply ingrained systemic evils is abortion.  Of course abortion is an individual, moral evil because it is one person taking another person’s life.  But abortion is an example of a systemic evil because of the way it has become amalgamated with our political, economic, legal and social institutions, as well as the racial elements which are inextricably bound up with the institution of abortion.

 
Politics
Abortion is woven into the fabric of American politics.  Some would say that it is more of a political issue than a moral one!  Just watch senate judiciary hearings for Supreme Court nominees!  As medical technology has advanced, the debate over abortion has shifted from the objective question of when does human life begin to the constitutional issues of privacy and choice.  Since medical technology has debunked much of the pro-abortion rhetoric, the rhetoric by necessity had to change.

The political thrust of the abortion debate is no longer on reversing Roe v Wade, but creating a “life-friendly” atmosphere where there are fewer abortions.  This is the position of many pro-life politicians.  This indicates that we have given up the moral high ground for the sake of politics.  Many politicians, realizing that they could not win as pro-life candidates in their districts or states became pro-choice in order to win elections.

Abortion has become a political symbol for women’s rights.  In many states there are fetal homicide laws.  There is fetal surgery.  There are sonograms and ultrasounds, and yet this great moral issue which has to do with God, His Law, Truth and Life, has been boiled down to a political hobby horse. It is a part of the political bureaucracy.  This is systemic evil.

               
Law
A master stroke has taken place in the abortion debate.  Borrowing from post-modern perspectives, our society has been divided into two spheres:  Private and Public.  The private sphere is marked by values (individual choices).  The public sphere is identified by fact (binding on everyone).  Values are private truths, facts are public truths. 

Thus, values encompass religion, morality, etc.  Facts are inviolable.  In the abortion debate, our social engineers have efficiently convinced the public and politicians, that Roe v Wade is a matter of public truth, it is fact.  Why?  Because it is the rule of law, settled by the Supreme Court.  Whether or not you would have an abortion is in the private sphere, it is a matter of values, individual choices.

By bifurcating the morality of abortion from the legality of abortion, the enemy has successfully set forth a fact/value distinction – so you can have people saying we should have fewer abortions (i.e., more people should be making more responsible personal choices based on values) but we cannot touch the legality of abortion because that is settled fact.  You can easily see that this is two-story theory of truth that is a house of cards!  Once Roe entered the public sphere, and became a matter of fact, then our system of justice became unjust and thus a part of the systemic evil of our own society.

Economics
There are approx 1.3 million abortions per year in the US.  Abortion clinics make @$1,000 for every abortion performed.  Planned Parenthood clinics grossed $302.6 million in 2007, with $104 million coming from surgical abortions.   Total PP income for the year was $810 million (grants, donors, gifts), with one-third of that, or $265.2 million, coming from public funds given by our elected officials, paid by tax-payers.

Whenever huge profits are made by killing and exploitation, that is systemic evil.  Nations will go to war to protect financial interests, lobbyists will spend whatever it takes to protect their financial interests.  Politicians will do whatever it takes to maintain their support, which means that they (the politicians) look out for the financial interests of the lobbyists.  This is systemic evil.  Abortion is lucrative and those profiting will protect their profits at any cost.

Race
Margaret Sanger, the great "heroine" and the founder of Planned Parenthood was a racist, whose eugenics were originally designed to help curb the growing black and other minority populations.  She sought to limit fertility among the “physically and mentally deficient”  She was a contemporary Hitler, they were mutual admirers!

        What is her real legacy?  Although 63% of abortion patients are white, however, black women are more than 3 times as likely to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2.5 times as likely.   Abortion is racist to the core.  If this does not qualify as systemic evil, I am not sure I know what does!

Conclusion

Abortion as a systemic evil is the height of injustice and oppression.

Abortion is the Worst Form of Oppression For the following reasons:
It victimizes the most helpless.  The magnitude of oppression is measured by the helplessness of its victim.  The unborn are doubtlessly the most helpless in our society.

It steals, by force, the most basic human right – life.  Another thermometer of the magnitude of oppression is what is taken and how much force is used:

• The ultimate is taken, human life
• It is taken in the most violent way – invading the womb to burn or dismember with edged weapons or chemicals.
• It deceives those whom it claims to help

Oppression is not always immediately violent, sometimes it takes place through deception.  To offer help to someone and then to oppress them is wickedly unjust.  And yet that is what happens in abortion.  It deceives those it claims to help!  It withholds facts about procedures, risks and basic reality (unthinkable for a doctor to do if performing a simple appendectomy!)

The Bible and Oppression
God’s character requires both personal and social justice and righteousness

Deut. 32:4 "The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.

Psa 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;

Because God is just, righteous and compassionate, He cares for the poor and the oppressed: 

Psa. 9:9 The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble;

Psa 12:5 "Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he longs."

Therefore, all injustice and oppression is expressly forbidden

Deut. 10:17-21  For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.  ¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.  ¹⁹ Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.  ²⁰ You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.  ²¹ He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.

Deut. 24:17 You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, Prov. 14:31 He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.

Social justice for the oppressed and the needy is required

Isa. 58:6-7 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  ⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Mic. 6:8  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?       

Prov. 24:11-12   Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.  ¹² If you say, "Behold, we did not know this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?

        We ought to hate abortion with the utmost hatred because it is the worst, most evil form of oppression being practiced on this planet.  We ought to hate all forms of injustice and oppression.  Slavery and the sex-trade, especially of children, ought to cause us righteous anger and even give rise to imprecatory prayers.  But the murder of the unborn, right around the corners from our homes, ought to cause us such indignation that we do what we can to help confused women and helpless babies.

As Christian men and women we have a responsibility to the unborn.  This is why, we as a church, delight in our involvement in the Community Pregnancy Center and the City of Refuge.   But may God help us do more.  Pray for the requests sent out by the CPC.  Give to the CPC and other pro-life organizations.  Let your representatives know exactly where you stand.  Be fearless in the public square.  One day abortion will end.  One day the justice of Christ’s Kingdom will spread from shore to shore.  Until then may God give us to fortitude to oppose this evil oppression.