Insert Grace Here

The following post was written by my daughter, Courtney Richoux, while in college a couple of years ago. 

Why do Christians advocate Pro-Life? Why can’t women just make that choice for themselves?

I was in my English II class a couple semesters ago when the topic of abortion came up. I remember my teacher being a Christian, but also a feminist so I wasn’t really sure which direction she was going to go in. She made it clear that she was on the fence. She gave this scenario that left me speechless and not sure what to debate back. “What if a young 12 year old girl gets raped and winds up pregnant? What is she supposed to do? Have a baby at 12 years of age and potentially harm her body? She would be confused and hurt the rest of her life. What if her parents refuse to help her raise the baby? How is she supposed to make that choice on her own?”

As a Christian who is very much Pro-Life, I had no idea what to say. I mean if I say that I still think it’s wrong then I’m saying that I believe that 12 year old girl who got raped should still have her baby. If that were my daughter, would I want that?

I know this is a very controversial topic, but I’m still siding with no. I still don’t think abortion is okay (even in that scenario). When Adam and Eve decided to take a bite of that apple, sin was invited into our lives. If you read in Genesis 3, you learn that the serpent (the devil) portrayed sin as something good. He tricked them by making them think they were doing a good thing, even though God told them not to. I believe that he still plays tricks on our minds to make us think that some of the decisions we make are okay. With abortion, there are many things that the devil will try and make us believe so that we will destroy God’s child. Maybe you’re not ready or you don’t think you’ll be a fit parent? Maybe you are scared for your parents to find out? Whatever the reason, we’re not really listening to God’s voice.  The bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.” He even tells us in scripture that our body is a temple. We are to treat our body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, not our own.

Abortion procedures are not often described. Many people don’t really even fully understand how these procedures work. I’m sorry for the descriptive details, but I believe everyone should know what transpires during these events. Here is a list and description of each type of abortion from a book I read called, The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask, “There is a variety of abortion procedures, including one that tears apart and suctions out the baby’s little body (suction aspiration); another that requires the abortionist to insert a knife into the womb and cut the baby into pieces, then to remove and reassemble the tiny body to be sure none of the pieces are left inside (Dilation and Curettage); and other methods that use a combination of chemicals to induce labor or a saline solution that actually burns the fetus, taking about an hour to end the baby’s life so the body can be removed. But the most horrifying method is the one known as partial-birth abortion (Dilation and Extraction or Dilation and Evacuation). For all its coverage in the news, very few people seem to understand what it really is. Here’s a description: “Using ultrasound, the doctor grips the fetus’s legs with forceps. The unborn is then pulled out through the birth canal and delivered with the exception of its head. While the head is in the womb the doctor penetrates the live fetus’s skull with scissors, opens the scissors to enlarge the hole, and then inserts a catheter. The fetus’s brain is vacuumed out, resulting in the skull’s collapse. The doctor then completes the womb’s evacuation by removing the dead fetus.”

As hard as it was typing that description out, I think it is necessary that all parties understand how this works. Most people and even women who face the decision of having an abortion, don’t even know how it works. “Millions of women ‘choose’ abortion in a moment of weakness and vulnerability and then live a lifetime of regret for their own uninformed decision (Mittelberg).”

I talked about my English class and the scenario that my teacher gave us about the 12 year old rape victim. To think that my daughter or sister or any 12 year old girl would get raped and pregnant makes me sick. However….I still cannot justify sin with more sin. When Eve took a bite of the apple, she also gave some to her husband. When God asked them what they had done, they both blamed others. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. But blaming others didn’t make that sin okay. We don’t cover sin with sin. We allow God into our lives to wash that sin away with the blood of Jesus and make us new again. We trust that God has a plan and that He will work all things for good for those who love Him.

The good news is that there is a God who humbled himself and came down to earth in the form of a man, so that He could live a life as an example of how we should live ours. And he came so that He could be crucified on a cross and deliver us from our sins. His blood washed away our sins never to return again. When we accept Jesus Christ into our lives as our Lord and Savior, we are saying that we trust Him and are deciding to follow Him. He then washes us new and makes us new. It’s an indescribable experience. No matter what you’ve done in your past, no matter who you’ve been, He loves you more than you can imagine. And he desires your heart. So even if you’ve struggled with this decision or any other sin in your life, He still desires you and wants to forgive you. All you have to do is ask.

The truth is that abortion shouldn’t even be a debate. “There are approximately 1.3 million children killed annually in the United States alone through abortion. This is more every year than the combined number of Americans killed in the Revolutionary War; the Civil War; World Wars I and II; and the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghan Wars (Mittelberg).” In Psalm 139: 13-17, King David wrote, “For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.” God crafted us each so specifically and perfectly. You see…life begins at conception. I urge you if you are struggling with this or have struggled with this, to seek Him. Because he tells us, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)