In my yard. there is a 30-foot oak . The tree is old, diseased, and too close to the house. It is a hazard. I must remove it. So, first thing in the morning, I will get yourself a ladder, climb to the very best of the tree, and pluck all of the leaves I could carry. The very next day, I will go get a ladder, climb the tree, and pluck leaves. The day after that, I’ll get the ladder…
I am never going to remove that tree by pulling leaves.
In 1973, Rove v. Wade moved abortion to the frontlines of America’s political conscience. It moved to the front and stayed there. Thirty-five years later, we have been no closer to resolving to this issue. The “pro-life” movement has been plucking legal leaves. Some anti-abortion activists have so focused on overturning this legal ruling they have forgotten the goal of the fight. Stop abortions.
The law is one very small component in the abortion fight. Legal victories have had little effect on the amount of abortion performed in this country. The Heritage Foundation analyzed abortion data in states which have enacted restrictive abortion laws. They studied four major areas of legislation: parental consent, Medicaid funding restrictions, informed consent, and partial birth abortion prohibitions.[1] Only Medicare funding restrictions had any statistically significant influence on the state’s abortion rates.
Consider the effect of the recent Supreme Court ruling on partial birth abortion.[2] Pro-life legalists wasted fifteen-years to secure a handful of leaves. This pro-life ruling won’t prevent one abortion. This law delineates the acceptable located area of the abortion. A health care provider may dismember the child in the upper section of birth canal but not the lower. It generally does not deter legal abortion; it defines legal abortion. Someone forgot the target.
Likewise, there is absolutely no evidence that overturning Rove v. Wade will minimize abortion. Rove v. Wade established abortion law as a federal matter. When Roe is reversed, control of abortion law reverts to the states. Even yet in a post Roe era, no American woman will live a lot more than three states from access to a legal abortion. We shall have a patchwork of fifty state abortion laws. Legal analysts separate states into three positions based on projected law.
22 states are likely to impose significant new restrictions on abortion
12 states are likely to impose some moderate new restrictions on abortion
16 states and the District of Columbia will probably continue current usage of abortion.[3]
Imagine if all fifty states passed highly restrictive abortion laws? Data indicates that even restrictive abortion laws have little impact on abortion rates. Latin American countries have the most restrictive laws on the planet. However, abortion rates in Latin America’s are 50% higher than current US rates.[4] Abortion may be the primary contraceptive method in these countries.[5] Worldwide, there is virtually no correlation between the stringency of abortion law and national abortion rates. Availability of reliable contraception, economic factors, and social mores tend to be more predictive of a nation’s abortion rate than its legal structure.
So should Christians who hate abortion abandon the legal battle? No, we don’t abandon the legal area. However, we should notice that legal matters will not be the main front. The legal forays are the most time consuming, most expensive, and least productive area of the abortion battle. And while there’s significant evidence that abortion rates are more responsive to economic factors than legal ones, I propose Christians invest their energy into the most productive section of change. Law and economy aren’t the principal abortion issues. Labiaplasty Istanbul Turkey may be the primary abortion issue. We cannot diminish the abortion rate without changing social mores.
95% of Americans take part in premarital sex.[6] Significantly less than 7% of pregnancies within marriage are aborted while 40% of pregnancies to unmarried women result in abortion.[7] Conception beyond marriage is the greatest predictor of abortion. Sex sin may be the primary abortion issue.
This nation won’t pass a law against premarital sex; it would be ridiculously ineffective. Experience teaches that individuals would not honor this new law because they don’t honor the old law. In Deuteronomy, God gave law about sex sin and the people didn’t keep it. God’s law is ideal and His law does not end abortion. The Supreme Court of the United States cannot issue a ruling that will be more effective than God’s preexistent law. The people are sinful. They couldn’t keep carefully the law then; we can not keep the law now.
Except by grace through Jesus Christ. For sin shall not need dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14 KJV)
Jesus died on the cross so that man would have the ability to triumph over sin. By grace, we can steer clear of the sex sin leading to murder sin. Without this, there is absolutely no ability to keep the law. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to abide in us and keep us from being sin controlled. The remedy to abortion is evangelism.