The Abortion Holocaust?! Really?!

I have to vent for a moment - knowing that it will make me quite unpopular with both sides of the Abortion debate. We had a phonecall and an email about the Pro-Life movement in Geelong wanting us to get on board and go into the Politicians to lobby Pro-Life, as a statement of faith of course. My problem is - it's not a statement of faith at all. It's a political nightmare, which cares more for agendas than for people.

I'm sick of the debtate... I'm honestly tired of it. Christians who have no idea what either side of the story is choose a side and debate hard core "facts" based on their limited knowledge of the issue.

Let's start with the Pro-Life movement. I read this today:
"Since abortion became legal in the US 40 years ago there have been over 43 million surgical abortions performed; that is more people than the entire population of Canada. We view abortion as America’s hidden holocaust and we want to voice our opinion about it. Those who want abortion to be legal want to silence our voice but we will not be silenced. The killing of small innocent children by dismemberment and burning is an extremely mean act."

And on the same site:

"We have tolerated the beheading of the unborn for over 33 years. We have tolerated the killing of four thousand innocent children each day in our land. The number of people who died on 9/11 is the same number as babies who are killed from abortion each day, and most of us don't even think twice about it.The definition of terrorism is the use of violence without warning against those who are utterly defenseless. It is a willingness to act without regard to the claims or loss of innocent human life. That definition captures the act of abortion."

And finally the clincher:

" If we would believe the Scriptures, then there is no “choice” -- abortion is murder and a violation of God’s Law given through Moses. "

Now I'm sorry... comparing abortion to 9/11 is just cruel and incredibly inaccurate. How for goodness sake do they think this sort of message is going to stop a girl from having an abortion? How is calling her a murderer going to help a woman make any informed choice on what she does?

And as for Pro-Choice...well once upon a time, I thought I was Pro-Choice, I honestly believed that I whilst I personally wouldn't choose to have an abortion, I still believed the choice should be that of the woman who was pregnant.

That was until I was faced with helping a young woman who decided to have an abortion. And all that changed. You see, it started becoming less of a "grey" issue and a whole lot more "black and white" to me. As I sat in the hospital, waiting for the girl to finish, I realized, "I know this is not God's best for her" and I felt ill. Physically and spiritually ill. I'd done everything in my power to stop her from going in there (short of calling her a murderer and telling her that she was partaking in a holocaust or an act of terrorism!), sharing with her that of all the women I knew who had gone through with abortions (and trust me, there are a fair few!) not one of them has ever said it was "nothing" or an "easy" choice to make... every one of them have told me that afterwards they felt "empty" and regretted the decision. And some of them had a lot more reason to go for one than this poor young girl who was frightened of the family and cultural implications of her pregnancy... she was young and frightened and thought she was alone.

When debriefing what had happened (I'd never actually done the pre and post-counselling of an abortion before this time), my friend and mentor said to me "Sarah the thing is, God's best really is black and white - there is no grey, only Grace"... There is no grey...only grace.

How beautiful is that? I wish that both sides of the Abortion debate would stop and think about that. They sit there arguing about the rights of an unborn child, with very little regard for the woman involved. Most of them have never cared for a woman who's had an abortion. Never heard her story, or journeyed with her. Never hugged her as she's walked out of the room. Never held her hand and weeped with her as she struggles to come to terms with whatever situations lead to her unwanted pregnancy (and those situations in themselves are not just "oops I got knocked up, best go in for a quickie abortion" - they're always long and hard decisions to make). So who are they to debate either way?

My Christian friends who are reading this, and thinking of weighing in on the abortion debate - be aware that your words can do much harm to fragile souls. Your words can bring more damage and turn people away from Christ more quickly than they can turn her to Him. Your actions - showing love and grace and peace and support for her, regardless of the choices she made will show her Christ and turn her to Him.

The Message Translation (or as Shane calls it - the Gospel According to Eugene Peterson!) of Proverbs 15:4
"Kind words help and heal;
cutting words wound and maim"

I simply argue that if you are going to weigh into this debate...stop looking at abortion as an "issue"and start looking at the people involved. Do you think God cares about the issue or the person? Is God up there in heaven on His throne saying "Yeah, go you Pro-Lifers Go!" or is God sending Jesus to sit next to the woman in crisis saying "My beautiful daughter, I'm here, you're not alone, you can call on me, I love you, I want what's best for you"...

There is no grey - only grace.

Grace - not judgement - GRACE.