Abortion: Can a nation be changed?

“How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:2–4

At the heart of the Christian life is the call to “defend the cause of the weak.” When a mother makes the difficult decision to end the pregnancy, the child is desperately vulnerable. Babies cannot speak for themselves. Fathers don’t have any legal rights.

In the New Testament, the parable of the Good Samaritan shows us that Jesus really does care how we respond to those in need around us. The unborn are our neighbours and God’s people should not just walk past but try to love them.

Some of what we can do revolves around supporting individuals who are struggling (as we saw yesterday) but there is also much we can do to challenge our society that accepts abortion so regularly.

Changing our language

Many people choose abortion because they are unsure how to think of the unborn, and the language we use can demonstrate what we think. For example, I was 44 and nine months old last birthday. I was alive 9 months before I was born! I usually think of myself as one of two children, but if my mother miscarried, I’m actually one of three! Miscarriages and stillbirths are properly occasions for grief at the loss of human life, not simply a loss of “what might have been.” Our language can reflect these convictions about unborn life and perhaps provoke thought.

Changing public opinion

A more significant response is to join the effort to raise the debate and change the law. Opinions are formed in parliament and in the press, and Christians need to be willing to speak loudly and clearly for the unborn, without sounding unloving or judgemental towards the mothers concerned. When a woman is pregnant, there are two human lives who need compassionate care, not just one. We love the mothers most if we help them see what abortion is, and make it easier to do the right thing, and harder to do the wrong, with as much support as we can arrange. We need to say this – in letters, on TV, in parliament, on the internet, in any place we can find. The Christian Institute is one organisation that provides reliable briefings and practical ways to affect public opinion. Get their emails, and act on them! It’s often only a five minute job.

200 years ago Wilberforce and his allies were used by God radically to change a culture which approved of slavery. Abortion is more common than slavery was and even more serious.

God could use his people again. Pastors and people alike must keep caring most about heaven and hell, and about the gospel, But can we also, by God’s grace, also care enough about these parents and their unborn children to begin to act on their behalf?

Will we begin working and, far more importantly, praying for a change in our society?

Andrew Nicholls is the pastor of Christ Church, Kingston. Before moving into full time ministry, he was a doctor.

Abortion: Supporting those thinking about abortion

Churches can also make a huge difference to women facing a crisis pregnancy. But what does that look like? How can God’s people actually make a difference to people in these situations who might consider abortion as the way to solve their problem?

Supporting those known to the local church

Being pregnant is scary, and especially when there is no-one obvious committed to helping you cope. Women can feel lonely and/or afraid, and abortion can feel to some like it solves the problem with out much fuss. When someone in a “crisis pregnancy” is already known to a member of a church, we can find out what sort of help is needed and to try to provide it from within the church family. This often happens naturally, as pregnant women rightly attract sympathy and generosity. Baby equipment, meals, taking other children to give Mum a break, accompanying to ante-natal appointments, help in battling through the social security system or time spent chatting over a cup of tea all can help a woman feel she is not alone, and reduce the fear associated with childbirth and parenting. What once seemed impossible now feels hard but perhaps survivable. We sometimes take it for granted in the church family but for someone outside this sense of connectedness can be literally life-changing.

Supporting those unknown to the local church

The trickier people to reach are those women whose pregnancy the church never hears about but who go in their thousands every year to have an abortion. How can a church begin to care for those women and their children?

One idea, which by God’s grace has borne fruit in our church and in many others is a Crisis Pregnancy Centre. Trained counsellors offer time to listen and talk through all the options available to a woman in a crisis pregnancy. They give accurate information about what abortion involves, how it is done, and what the consequences might be. They discuss giving the baby for adoption, and keeping the baby long term. They listen to the factors bearing on a woman’s decision, and offer empathy and understanding. In some centres, the focus is on helping the woman explore her own feelings and instincts, while others provide clearer advice about how to proceed so as to protect the new life entrusted to her. Counsellors can help her think properly about the decision, and offer whatever help she may feel she needs in order to see continuing with the pregnancy as a viable option for her.

In all centres, clients can be anonymously prayed for, and there can sometimes be precious opportunities to share the Christian good news that is the most wonderful resource we can offer.

The centre is advertised as widely as possible – for example, to local GPs, abortion providers, family planning clinics, local radio and press, on hoardings and, of course, on the internet. Affiliation to a national network can provide a share of their internet presence and telephone contacts, as well as training, mentoring and support to get started and keep going. Nearly 200 centres already operate in the UK, many through affiliation with Care Confidential. Image in Manchester or Tyneside Pregnancy Advice Centre are other good points of contact.

Could your church start one? By God’s grace, ours did!

Andrew Nicholls is the pastor of Christ Church, Kingston. Before moving into full time ministry, he was a doctor.

Abortion: Caring for those who have had an abortion

In our right enthusiasm to protect unborn children, Christians have at times come across as harshly judgemental towards those who have had an abortion. Such a stance runs contrary to the grace of God. The mandate to love our neighbour has to include all those who have chosen to make the complex decision to end a pregnancy.

Abortion is an act that ends a human life so it is not surprising that many women experience some after-effects. Aside from the possible physical complications of the procedure, up to 10% of women will experience significant psychological issues. These can range from recurrent, intrusive and sometimes disabling awareness of guilt, to stabs of painful remembrance associated with anniversaries, birthdays or seeing a child of the same age as an aborted child would have been. Some women report that no day passes without the abortion coming to mind at some point.

With one in 3 women having at least one abortion it is inevitable that there are many women in, and connected with, our churches who are struggling with their own histories of abortion.

So how can the church love and pastor such people?

1. Raise awareness: Abortion must be raised as an issue to be addressed by the gospel. Churches should be teaching and preaching on abortion because it is something that affects many – secretly and deeply. Far better to raise the issue tactfully and clearly, so that it may be addressed by the gospel, than to keep the whole issue permanently under wraps for fear of causing pain.
2. Point to forgiveness: We all need reminding that, deeply serious though it is, abortion is not an unforgivable sin. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” (Is 1) Our God is gracious - the blood of Jesus washes all sin away. Women who have had an abortion need to be invited to come to Christ for this forgiveness, and all of us who might talk to such women need the confidence to go as far as the gospel goes in assuring complete and everlasting forgiveness.
3. Encourage community: Some women will benefit from extended opportunities to talk through their experiences. Non-Christian women can be considerably helped just by the chance to speak, but they can also be offered the uniquely precious gospel of Christ which alone can bring real freedom from horribly oppressive guilt. Alongside deliberate talking, deepening friendships of genuine compassion and affection are essential to communicate the reality of Christ’s acceptance.
4. Provide counselling: Many Crisis Pregnancy Centres offer post-abortion counselling. Typically offering a process over 12 or more sessions, trained counsellors help women move through the sometimes debilitating guilt and sorrow. Such support is a compassionate response to a serious but unmet need in our sin-ridden world.

Andrew Nicholls is the pastor of Christ Church, Kingston. Before moving into full time ministry, he was a doctor.

Abortion: Precious Child or Potential Child?

Emotions run high when an abortion is being considered. And so they should – a lot is at stake: For the mother, for the often forgotten father, and especially for their … what? Unborn child? Foetus? Blob of cells? Parasite? Potential-but-not-yet-fully-human offspring? At the heart of the abortion debate lies the crucial question: who or what is being aborted?

Looking at the Bible, there is good reason to believe that every unborn child is both precious and human from the point of conception. Why?

1. Creation. All things are created by Jesus, including the unborn (John 1:3). Just as we answer to God for the way we treat our friends, a developing embryo is not ours to do what we want with, but his first and last. In Psalm 139:13, David recognises that “you [God] knit me together in my mother’s womb”. Even though we’re gaining scientific understanding of the processes, it’s God’s creative miracle each and every time. We know the physics of stars, but we still gaze in awe at the night sky. In the same way, we know something of how one cell turns into a baby, but each is still a sign and a wonder, pointing to the creator of all. We must find out from the maker’s instructions how he expects us to treat the unborn.
2. Humanity. David says “you knit me” together. In making his body, God was making David - not a pre-David, a potential David - but David. God knew him as he multiplied the cells and gave each its place. God knew David in the womb, though David himself knew nothing. Stronger evidence still is the humanity of Christ. Christ was fully human, like us in every way. It was a miracle - a virgin conception. Christ’s humanity began then. Mary, Elizabeth, and even the unborn John the Baptist recognised it (Luke 1:30-45). Jesus’ human life, like every human life, began in the womb.

Abortion matters because every one of the 200,000 every year in this country, is ending a human life, made by God, in his image. God takes that very seriously (Genesis 9:4-6). That makes it an important issue – for the doctors and nurses involved, for the MPS who make the laws, for the women who make that choice, for the fathers behind the scenes. Most of all, it matters for the glory of God. Unborn babies are his work, his image, his children.

Andrew Nicholls is the pastor of Christ Church, Kingston. Before moving into full time ministry, he was a doctor.