It would seem that other countries are following the China model for abortions: don’t like the gender of the baby, go ahead and end its life.  Click here to read this short article about Sweden and how its National Board of Health and Welfare recently decided that abortions based on the gender of the baby are NOT illegal.  In fact, the board noted that any request for an abortion up to the 18th week of pregnancy cannot be refused, no matter what the reason for the abortion.  This article reminds us of the importance of the conscience protection regulations currently in place in protecting American medical practitioners from being forced to do anything contrary to their beliefs and values. See Freedom 2 Care’s website to write President Obama and Congress to keep in place regulations that protect our medical professionals.

For me, the disturbing undercurrent of all the talk is this: what kind of world do we live in when “the right to choose” [insert: gender-based abortions, infanticide, or eugenics] is so revered that it is not only allowed, but encouraged by governments? Isn’t it bad enough that China has coerced abortions and many are performed due to the gender of the baby, but now other nations want to follow that model as well? In fact, nations around the world that outlaw abortions are being targeted by pro-abortion organizations to relax their laws – recent examples include the Dominican Republic and East Timor.

When will the people of this nation and of other nations stand up and speak for the most vulnerable of our societies? When will we clearly state that the “right to choose an abortion” really means the “right to kill another human being”? And when will we finally understand what Martin Luther wrote in the Large Catechism about the 5th Commandment–You shall not commit murder:

…under this commandment not only he is guilty who does evil to his neighbor, but he also who can do him good, prevent, resist evil, defend and save him, so that no bodily harm or hurt happen to him, and yet does not do it. …[I]f you see any one innocently sentenced to death or in like distress, and do not save him, although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him. (LC, Part I, 189-190)

It is not enough to just say “I’m personally opposed to abortion, but it should be legal for those who want the “right to choose”.  We need to speak for those who are innocently sentenced to death (1.2 million every year in America, 41.6 million every year worldwide) and protect all human life, no matter the size, degree of development, or location of that human life.