Momentum is on the side of the pro-life movement in America
– but much work needs to be done, a group of pro-lifers agreed during a
recent panel discussion.
“(Poll numbers showing decreasing support for legal abortion
are) sending a quake of fear into the hearts and a quiver into the spine of
the pro-abortion movement,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern
Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
Momentum is on the side of the pro-life movement in America
– but much work needs to be done, a group of pro-lifers agreed during a
recent panel discussion.
“(Poll numbers showing decreasing support for legal abortion
are) sending a quake of fear into the hearts and a quiver into the spine of
the pro-abortion movement,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern
Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
“The battleground is for the people in the middle. …
We are slowly but surely winning the struggle for heart and minds in America
(on this issue).”
During the recent discussion at Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Land and others pointed to polls showing that youth are more pro-life
than their parents; to advances in technology that allow a woman to see a movie-like
image of her pre-born baby; and to the fact that many pro-choicers are shying
away from the term “abortion” altogether.
“There is a weakening of abortion commitment as a single
issue (among pro-choicers), …” Southern Seminary President Al Mohler
noted. “Every generation from 1973 to the present has been less committed
to abortion as a single issue than the generation that has preceded it.”
For instance, a report released by the University of California
at Berkeley last year found that 44 percent of people ages 15 to 22 support
government restrictions on abortion, compared to only 27 percent of adults.
Advances in technology also have helped the pro-life cause
– with 4-D ultrasound machines leading the way, Land and other panelists
agreed. Used by many pro-life crisis pregnancy centers in their conversations
with women seeking abortions, the 4-D machine allows a pregnant woman to see
her pre-born baby up close and in real time. Every tiny detail – including
the sucking of the thumb – is visible.
“Medical research has not strengthened the pro-abortion
cause, …” Mohler said. “Medical research has become a great impetus
for the pro-life movement. We understand far more of what takes places in the
womb than we ever did.
“When you have the pro-abortionists arguing that it is
an imposition on a woman to show her what is taking place in her womb, you know
that is an argument in moral retreat.”
The fact that few physicians are willing to perform abortions
is another “great moral victory,” Mohler said.
Nevertheless, the abortion fight is one to change public opinion
and policy – and it can only be done one step at a time, explained David
McIntosh, a former United States representative from Indiana.
In such a fight, it is important to frame the abortion debate
properly, he and other panelists explained. The pro-life argument must stay
on issue and stress the life of the unborn child, Land said.
“When were seeking to legislate against killing
unborn babies, were not trying to impose our morality on pregnant women,”
he said. “Were trying to keep them from imposing their immorality
on their unborn babies.”
It is a fight all Christians should be in, panelists said.
Indeed, the future of the pro-life movement in America rests
on Christian pastors and leaders courageously confronting the issue of abortion,
they said.
Unfortunately, too many Christian leaders see abortion as a
political issue – and not a moral one, Land explained.
“Its not a political issue,” he said. “It
has political consequences. … (Instead,) it is the most profound moral and
spiritual issue of our time.”
Panelists insisted the source of the problem lies not in politics
but in the human heart.
“We must reach the human heart,” Mohler said. “We must pray
for that day when the idea that a woman would kill the baby in her womb would
become such a moral horror that it would not be contemplated.” (BP)