[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]
Children are Truly Blessings from God
Children and grandchildren are truly blessings from God. And if you doubt that, just ask anyone who never experienced that first moment following birth when tiny fingers and toes are carefully counted. I guess you could ask me, because I’m in that category. My wife and I have been married more than 46 years. We chose to have children, but sometimes life doesn’t work out the way you plan it. And that’s okay. When we look at the direction the world is going we don’t envy the task parents have of raising children in this society.
Still, we enjoy seeing children running, dancing, playing, and wrestling. We enjoy my wife’s grand-niece and three grand-nephews. We enjoy their giggles, but have to sometimes put our hands over our ears when they scream. I even enjoy it when her grand-niece plays with my hair…even if there’s not much to play with! The American holiday known as Thanksgiving is always more enjoyable because of the little ones being there, even though they truthfully wear us out and we’re exhausted when they go home. But for some, children are a burden that they choose not to deal with and will take whatever steps are necessary to avoid having them, even if it means a conscious decision to abort them.
Now before I go any further, let me assure you that here at Tomorrow’s World our purpose is not condemnation, but education and help. What appeared to be a good solution to a sticky problem at age 17 may not seem so simple at age 37, and somehow, as hard as it to believe at age 17, 37 does happen, and there will likely be many times over the years when feelings of regret may bubble to the surface.
But whether one enjoys being around children or not, these fundamental questions remain: “When does human life begin?” “Does a woman have the right to choose?” “And who gives her that right?” This is a program you don’t want to miss. Stay tuned, because I’ll give you some surprising facts, interesting stories, and hope for the future.
Abortion becoming Legal Around the World
Welcome to Tomorrow’s World where we are not afraid to tell you the truth. In all sincerity, today’s topic deeply saddens me, because while it is a political issue for many, it’s a painful one others. So let me repeat, this Tomorrow’s World program is not given for the purpose of condemning anyone. However, this does not mean there is no right or wrong in the matter. There IS. And some day we will all have to answer for the decisions we make.
Few subjects elicit more emotion than abortion and the subject remains as contentious today as it was 40 years ago. [Put in abbreviated for the following – country and date]
The U.K. made aborting fetuses under the age of 24 weeks legal with the Abortion Act of 1967.
The United States legalized abortion with the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
And it became legal in Canada in 1988 when a law that was nearly 100 years old prohibiting abortion was struck down by its Supreme Court.
Similar decisions have been made in many countries around the world. In some places, boys are prized, while girls are aborted. Yet abortion remains highly disputed in many countries in spite of laws making it legal to end the life of an unborn child.
Western media often portray anti-abortion people as religious fanatics; or, angry protesters screaming in people’s faces. That’s only marginally true. Also based on media reports, one would think that the overwhelming majority believe it is morally okay to end the life of an unborn child, but is that in fact true? Here’s a quote that will no doubt surprise many, but before I read it, I want you to know where it comes from, because it’s not from where you might expect.
Kirsten Powers is a journalist and television commentator, and a self-proclaimed liberal who embraces most liberal causes; but in her book, The Silencing, How the Left is Killing Free Speech, she points out:
It’s worth noting that while university administrators and student government groups appear to embrace the pro-abortion rights agenda, the same shouldn’t be assumed for all college students. A 2011 Thomson Reuters poll for NPR found that among Americans under thirty-five, 65.5 percent believed “having an abortion is wrong,” the highest percent of any age group (it was 57 percent for those between thirty-five and sixty-four, and 60.9 percent for those older than sixty-four) (Powers, The Silencing, p. 170).
According to this well-respected polling agency commissioned by the liberal American National Public Radio, nearly two-thirds of Millennials think having an abortion is wrong. Powers next gives the polling results of what she, as a liberal admits, is a left of center polling agency, and therefore results might be slanted a bit to the left. While the numbers are different, they’re still surprising in terms of pro-life support:
The left-leaning Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) reported in 2011 that “Millennials are conflicted about the morality of abortion,” with 50 percent saying they don’t think having an abortion is morally acceptable (Powers, The Silencing, p. 170).
Now I’ve personally done some research on polling data regarding support, or the lack thereof. Polls vary from country to country, from month to month, from year to year, and most importantly, from how the questions are framed. But here is Kirsten Powers’ conclusion regarding these polls, and I would heartily agree:
At a minimum though, it shows that groups like Voice for Life [a pro-life organization] do not represent a fringe view, except to the illiberal left (Powers, The Silencing, p. 170).
One interesting observation regarding beliefs on abortion is that they change depending on the age of the unborn. In both America and Britain, a much larger percentage support abortion in the first trimester (that’s the first 12 weeks). Support drops dramatically for the second trimester and is extremely unfavourable during the final three months of pregnancy. While the UK allows legal abortions up to 24 weeks, a majority of Britons believe this should be lowered to 12 weeks.
The obvious point is that most people don’t want to abort anything that might appear human, so let’s explore that important concept by looking inside the womb at only 10 weeks and see what we find…but first I want to offer you one of the most important pieces of literature you can ever read. Your Ultimate Destiny answers the question of the ages – “What is God’s purpose for mankind?” Now think about this: if you live to be 100 years old, have a dozen children, 40 grandchildren, and many more great grandchildren; if you are rich and famous and enjoy good health to the end, but never discover your purpose for being here, can you truly claim success? Your Ultimate Destiny explains in easy to understand language the message of the Bible that has been hidden from the overwhelming majority of church goers. This is knowledge you need. Don’t let this opportunity to discover the meaning of life pass you by.
How the Abortion Industry got Started
Okay, it’s time to look inside the womb and see what’s there. The Baby Centre, a popular UK website, can take you through the whole process week by week and describes your baby at each stage. Here’s what it says at only 10 weeks:
Your baby is now officially a fetus! She’s poised for growth and will more than double in size in the next three weeks. Your baby is now swallowing and kicking, and all her major organs are fully developed. More minute details are appearing too, such as fingernails and a little fuzz of hair on her head. Your baby’s sex organs are beginning to show. At your dating scan, which should happen soon, you may be able to tell whether you’re going to have a boy or a girl.
Now isn’t it interesting that when you want to have it, it’s called a baby; but when someone doesn’t want it, it’s described as unviable tissue mass, the product of conception, or a blood clot?
Jessica Baldwin, a journalist at Al Jazeera English describes research taking place at University College in London. They’re working there with an extremely high resolution ultrasound prototype, tiny flexible tubes, and robotic hands to do very delicate surgery inside the womb. Doctors can detect birth defects as early as 12 weeks and up until now they could offer little help, but they’re working to change that. Dr. Anna David describes what they hope to achieve:
“Whereas if you had just a very fine needle you’d be able to actually treat the baby and the woman wouldn’t go into labour early and the outcome would be better….”
Notice again that while it is technically called a fetus, doctors treating one at 12 weeks refer to it as a baby, because that’s really what it is! David Kupelian is the author of The Marketing of Evil and in his book he has an especially good section on this subject, with confessions from the very people who were once a part of the abortion industry. He quotes men and women who freely admit that for some it was all about money and how they were trained to “sell” an abortion to any woman who came to them. Carol Everett, who at one time ran five abortion clinics, describes some of the inner workings. She explains that when patients came looking for information,
They were not told about the development of the baby, or about the pain that the baby would be experiencing, or about the physical or emotional effects the abortion would have on them (Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 196).
She points out that there were two questions the girls always asked: “Will it hurt, and is it a baby?” The answer to the second question is revealing:
“No,” would come the answer, “it’s a product of conception,” or “it’s a blood clot,” or “it’s a piece of tissue.” They don’t even call it a fetus, because that almost humanizes it too much, but it’s never a baby” (Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 196).
But to paint every doctor, every secretary, and every counselor in an abortion clinic as just in it for the money is too simplistic. Many have a misplaced sense that they are doing it to help women. They aren’t, but in this post-modern world, with the influence of the media and academia, that’s how they think. And for them, anyone who is pro-life is a simpleton and a bit out of touch. Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino explained it this way:
Everybody in the abortion industry knows that everyone involved in the pro-life industry is a kook. I know, because CNN tells me so, and they would never lie to me.
Of course, the statement is made satirically as he has found that what he always believed about pro-lifers was false. But how did we get to where we are? How did the abortion movement get started? The answer may surprise you.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson and Lawrence Lader were the cofounders of NARAL, one of the early pro-abortion groups that sold abortion on demand to the American public. Isn’t it interesting that the two founders of NARAL were not women, but men? It was these two MEN who crafted the slogans, “Freedom of Choice,” and “Women must have control over their own bodies.” With help from feminist, Betty Friedan, they worked out the strategy to sell their cause to the media, who would then sell it to the American people, but how? Nathanson tells us.
Knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60 percent of Americans were in favor of permissive abortion…. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave the media repeatedly was 1 million.
The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000 (Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, pp. 191).
Nathanson, who Kupelian calls:
“the closest thing to being ‘the man who started it all’ for the pro-choice movement”
switched sides, but only after his clinic had performed some 75,000 abortions, 5,000 of which he did with his own hands and another 10,000 that he personally supervised. As he declared:
Those are pretty good credentials to speak on the subject of abortion (Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 192).
Nathanson’s awakening occurred after resigning from his clinic and going to work as chief of obstetrical services at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City, a teaching center for Columbia University. It was there that he was introduced to an array of new technologies that allowed him to look into the womb in greater detail than he’d ever seen before. After a time, here’s what happened:
…as a result of all of this technology – looking at this baby, examining it, investigating it, watching its metabolic functions, watching it urinate, swallow, move and sleep, watching it dream…treating it, operating on it – I finally came to the conviction that this was my patient. This was a person! (Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, pp. 192-193).
And as he points out, it had absolutely NOTHING to do with religion. It had to do with reality. He went on to put together a film that has caused no end of trouble for the pro-abortion movement. “The Silent Scream” goes inside the womb and shows how a 12 week fetus reacts as he is ripped apart by an abortionist, and removes the fantasy blinders, showing abortion for what it is: the killing of a human life. Dr. Nathanson accuses the abortion industry, even naming the best known organizations, including the one he co-founded:
…of a consistent conspiracy of silence of keeping women in the dark with respect to the true nature of abortion. [He continued] And I challenge all those purveyors of abortion to show this real- time videotape, or one similar to it, to all women before they consent to abortion (“The Silent Scream”).
Switching sides is not unusual when it comes to abortion. There is another significant twist to this story that you’ll want to hear, but first, I want to remind you of today’s offer: Your Ultimate Destiny. Why is it that people care so little about the very meaning of life until it’s at an end? And only then do they want to know, “What’s it all about?” You don’t have to wait until it’s too late. Order and read our free publication Your Ultimate Destiny.
What is Man's Ultimate Destiny?
Dr. Bernard Nathanson is not the only one at the heartbeat of this controversy who helped open Pandora’s box and who is now trying to put the problem back in the box. In many ways an even more well-known figure who helped open the box was Norma McCorvey. You know her, but maybe not by her real name. She’s better known by her pseudonym, Jane Roe, as in Roe v. Wade. As with Dr. Nathanson, she too has switched sides and is now an active spokeswoman in the pro-LIFE movement.
There are many more who are pro-life who were once on the other side. Their stories are all different, but compelling. Linda Couri had an abortion at age 24 and was totally relieved that her problem was solved, or so she thought. She went on to work for Planned Parenthood, thinking that she was doing the compassionate thing by counseling young women, but when asked by a frightened 16 year old, “Is it a baby?” there was a struggle within her. Should she tell the truth, “Yes, of course it’s a baby,” [her words], and I’ll add, with fingers and toes, or she could give the truthful, but misleading answer: “It’s the product of conception.” She gave the party line, but then needed reassurance from a colleague that what she did was right. Other guilt causing incidents occurred and 11 years after her abortion she realized in a big way that she had made a terrible mistake.
Dr. Anthony Levatino also realized that he’d made a terrible mistake. He was co-owner of what was at one time the only OB-GYN clinic for several New York State counties that performed D & E (Dilation and Evacuation) abortions for second trimester babies. His awakening came when his young adopted daughter was hit by a car and killed. That helped him connect the dots between what he was doing at the clinic and the value of a human life.
In reading and listening to their stories, they all seem to have one thing in common. Their introduction to abortion was shaped by their world view, formed by the culture around them. Many told themselves they were doing the compassionate thing. As Dr. Levatino said:
I’ve heard many times from other obstetricians: Well, I’m not really pro-abortion, I’m pro-woman. That somehow destroying a life is pro-woman. But a lot of obstetricians use that justification to themselves, and I can tell you, a lot of them believe it. I used to. It’s not hard to be convinced of it.
Linda Couri also came from that world view, and this is instructive. We may abhor the destruction of human life in the womb, but we must understand how it is that many can participate in the activity and still sleep at night. In a very real sense, they’ve been educated from childhood with a totally secular value system. Here’s how Ms. Couri described her world:
As a young person I really valued freedom above all else.… And I also viewed religion, particularly Christianity…as being cruel, and stupid, really.… To me, religious people didn’t seem to be engaged in what I thought as “the real world.” Religious people were in some sort of weird fantasy world. Not just pro-lifers, but all religious people were kooks as far as I was concerned. So that’s kind of the template that I’m coming from. ( Linda Couri)
The Millennial Generation is currently the most pro-life of all groups, according to a number of surveys, but they’re not looking at this from a religious perspective. Due to our ability to look inside the womb at an early stage, they have, without realizing it, come to the same conclusion as an ancient king who credited divinity for the marvel of life:
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well (Psalm 139:13-14).
Scales have fallen from the eyes of Nathanson and Levatino, Carol Everett, Norma McCorvey, Linda Couri, and many, many others. Now that’s an interesting phrase that you may not be familiar with – “scales falling from eyes.” It comes from the Bible, from a man who heavily persecuted the fledgling Christian Church. He describes his activities against early Christians this way in Acts 26, verses 10-11:
Many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities (Acts 26:10-11).
But one day on his way to Damascus, he was struck down and blinded, and this was his awakening moment. Three days later he changed sides and here is what happened:
Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized (Acts 9:18).
Saul’s name was changed to Paul and he became one of the leading figures of the New Testament. Here was a man guilty of horrific crimes, yet by God’s mercy and grace, he was forgiven. As with Paul, we can’t undo the past, but we can change as he did.
We have all made bad decisions, but what we do after we recognize we’ve made a bad choice is what is most important. When Paul realized the direction of his life was in fact the wrong way, he changed, and as the Biblical record shows, his past guilt was removed. And God will do the same for any wrong or bad choice in our past.
And it should go without saying that there are alternatives to abortion. Besides keeping and raising a child that is a result of a bad decision made in the heat of passion, there are plenty of childless couples who would love to adopt a newborn with tiny fingers and toes.
If you need some help in counseling, let us know and we can have a representative contact you and help you to understand your great potential. And whether or not abortion has been a part of your past, you need a copy of our free booklet Your Ultimate Destiny. It explains the very meaning and value of human life, and that includes YOUR life. And if you want to review this program again, or any of our Tomorrow’s World programs, you can watch them 24/7 at www.TomorrowsWorld.org.
Be sure to come back next time, same time, same station, when Richard Ames, Wallace Smith and I will bring you more valuable information about WHY you are here and what lies ahead!
Additional sources for information in this program:
https://www.babycentre.co.uk/s1001607/10-weeks-pregnant#ixzz3x8SJEyWf
https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/europe/2015/12/working-complex-surgeries-unborn-babies-151227043657614.html
https://www.prolifeaction.org/providers/
