I read recently in Parade magazine, a supplement that comes with the local paper, an article entitled, "More Abortions Than Babies in Eastern Europe." In Budapest, Hungary for every ten new babies, there are fifteen dead babies by abortion. In Poland the rate is thirteen dead to every ten brought into the world. In Belgrade, Yugoslavia for every child born, there are four killed by abortion. Incredible as it may sound, in Yugoslavia some women have aborted over forty of their own children. Admittedly, the average in that country is four abortions per woman.

One woman doctor in Yugoslavia is reported as saying, "More and more young women are coming to the cities to work or study. Soon these 15- or 16-year olds find themselves pregnant. In the villages at their age they would probably get married. In the cities they seek an abortion. It costs somewhere between five and ten dollars.

Many brethren in the Lord who do not see anything "wrong" with killing a baby for the convenience of the mother would do well to consider these words and statistics. The U.S.S.R. had a liberal abortion program, but had to severely limit abortions in the past years because of their shrinking population. Some eastern European countries have had to start importing foreign labor, because they no longer have a youthful work force coming of age each year. Japan, who has long b-en plagued with overpopulation, still is overpopulated, but with no new generation coming up to carry on as the present population passes away. This fact has moved the Japanese to tighten up some of their liberal abortion laws.

The problem runs much deeper than self-genocide. Where has the conscience of man gone when he can, without a tear, destroy literally millions of lives daily with nary a ripple of protest from any quarter? A plane may crash, a building may burn, a natural disaster will take tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of lives, and people will shake their heads with sadness. A small handful of innocent people can be murdered in their homes by the Manson cult, and the headlines wilt scream for months with the sordid details in shocked and indignant tones. But who hears the cries for the murdered innocents taken by men for convenience or expediency? "In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not."

The door for every imaginable horror was originally opened by Satan with a very small and effective wedge: a wedge called "indifference to truth." How many times have we seen it? "How will the orphans be taken care of, if we do not build orphanages? Are you anti-orphan?" With that wedge in the door the rest comes marching through, and the identity of the church and its function are trampled under foot. Satan has those firmly in his grip.

"What is wrong with dancing? It is merely a pleasurable exercise. Are you against fun and exercise?" The door is cracked and through the gap oozes the real Pandoras horde; lasciviousness, lust, fornication, adultery heartache, and death.

"A war is no different than a policeman protecting an innocent person. You are a coward, afraid to fight for your country." Satan laughs derisively at the arm-chair generals as he gathers in all the suffering, pillage, destruction, deceit, sickness, and lingering death from a thousand wars.

"All abortion cannot be wrong. You can not be sure that an unborn baby has a soul or is even human. What about the cases in which the mothers life is endangered?" The door bursts open, and soon more babies are dying than are being born. Satan cannot claim those innocent lives taken from their mothers wombs, cheated of their chance to see the day God has made, but, with a greedy smile he pulls in all those that murder with an M.D. It was just a little wedge... but look at the results. For a fact, Satan is a hungry lion seeking whom he might devour.

Today, some in America would "update" our antiquated" abortion laws. The result tomorrow might be that all the unwanted and unuseful might pay the same penalty. The law of the land is not the law of God, and government and its laws (and wars) do not absolve us of our responsibility to love and honor God, and the man that He made in His image.

"O Lord, thou God of vengeance, thou God of vengeance, shine forth!

Rise up, O judge of the earth; render to the proud their deserts!

O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?

They pour out their arrogant words, they boast all the evildoers.

They crush thy people, O Lord, and afflict thy heritage.

They slay the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, The Lord does not see;

The God of Jacob does not perceive.

Who rises up for me against the wicked?

Who stands up for me against the evildoers?

If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the land of silence.

Can wicked rulers be allied with thee, who frame mischief by statute?

They band together against the life of the righteous, and condemn the innocent to death.

But the Lord has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.

He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness;

The Lord our God will wipe them out."

(Psalms 94:1-7, 16, 17, 20-23)

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 44, pp. 7-8
September 14, 1972