You may have noticed in the news this week that a bill is before the NSW Parliament to decriminalise abortion. While (perhaps sensibly) repealing an old criminal provision that had come to be applied rarely and inconsistently, it also offers widespread protections for medical practitioners providing even late term abortions, and seems to have a general intent of making abortion freely available in NSW.
May I urge you to pray against this sad development? God is the gracious giver of life, having made us in his own image, and he is the protector of the weak and vulnerable. The Bible reserves it as God’s prerogative to give life and take it away (Deut. 32:39; Job 1:21; Exodus 20:13). Although the newspapers speak of abortion as merely a “medical procedure”, it is indeed the taking of life which is the precious gift of God. For the Christian this taking of life is not justified, except perhaps in the very rarest of circumstances, and should certainly not become a routine procedure.
Although the right to an abortion is held up as a precious emblem of female liberation, in practice it is a sad and secret activity often made necessary by the absence or even the coercion of a father who ought to be welcoming his child into the world with joy.
Please email our local member Marjorie O’Neill to express your concerns: coogee@parliament.nsw.gov.au.
Of course these thoughts are much too brief, and I realise they will probably open terrible wounds for some in our congregation. Please know that the overflowing grace of God in Christ is sufficient even in such grief. “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).