How far would you go for a belief? Would you be willing to go to jail over your opposition to abortion? That’s the question that was potentially facing doctors in Argentina as the country’s Senate met to vote on a bill to legalize elective abortions before 14 weeks. But, praise the Lord, the bill did not succeed and elective abortions are still illegal in this South American nation!
Argentina does allow abortion for cases of rape or if the mother’s health is at risk. But this new bill would have legalized abortion for any reason within the first trimester. And the way the bill was written, private and religious hospitals would not have had the option to decline to perform an abortion. Doctors would have been allowed to decline, but they worried that, with the bill’s current wording, those who refused could have been forced to register their dissent and could have faced jail time.
So hundreds of doctors protested the legislation, carrying signs such as:
Quote:
I’m a doctor, not a murderer.
One chief of obstetrics says,
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How far are we willing to go? Jail … Even if the law is passed, I’m not going to eliminate the life of a human being. The most important right is the right to live.
The Argentinian Academy of Medicine issued a statement declaring that “to destroy a human embryo means impeding the birth of a human being. Nothing good can come when a society chooses death as a solution.”
Such protests made a difference—the Senate did not legalize abortion. We thank the Lord for his mercy in saving the lives of so many babies by not allowing that legislation to go through. We pray that many more nations will follow in Argentina’s footsteps and refuse to legalize abortion.
Human life has value because humans are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). From a Christian worldview, every child—including unborn ones! (Jeremiah 1:5)—has purpose and dignity. However, with the ever-increasing rise of evolutionary dogma, it is not surprising that abortion is at the forefront of the cultural conflict. The ultimate problem in our cultures is not abortion (though the practice is evil and terrible). The foundational problem is a rejection of God’s Word and an embracing of the evolutionary religion that says man is an animal and that a developing baby is just a fetus and not really fully human. In this view, we get rid of spare cats, so why not even “spare” kids as well? What’s the difference? Your starting point determines what you believe about abortion, same-sex “marriage,” transgenderism, and so on because your worldview is a direct consequence of your starting point.
