Horrendous.  Unconscionable.

These are the only words that come to my mind in the wake of the decision by New York to enact the Reproductive Health Act 2019, vastly expanding access to abortions up to and including the time of birth. The law was passed by the newly elected Democratic majority in the state senate and signed by Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo. The governor even ordered that One World Trade Center in New York City and several other New York state landmarks be lit in pink to celebrate the legislative victory.

Here is what this new law does:

• It expands abortion to include the third trimester, up to and including birth, in an “absence of fetal viability” or if necessary to “protect the [mother’s] life or health”;
• It allows non-physicians (licensed nurse practitioners and physician assistants) to perform abortions;
• It removes from the NY penal code the possibility of unborn children being considered as victims of homicide, thereby excluding them from the legal definition of “human person”;
• It removes all protections for an infant born alive during an abortion;
• It defines abortion as a “fundamental right” under the laws—a right which may be asserted against hospitals, doctors and other medical professionals who object to abortion in conscience in order to compel them to perform abortions.

If this were not bad enough, it now appears that Virginia is considering a similar law (House Bill 2491)that would permit third-trimester abortions up to and including birth upon request of the mother and her physician “for mental health reasons.” You can see the video testimony from a sponsor of the bill here. The Governor of Virginia, himself a physician and a supporter of the bill, then suggested in a radio interview about the bill and its controversy that a woman and her doctor could have a “discussion” about what to do “after delivery” with a non-viable or deformed infant who survived birth.

Was the governor speaking about an infant who was delivered and already dying?  Or was a he speaking in the context of House Bill 2491of an infant born alive after a third trimester failed abortion?

If the latter, the Governor is advocating nothing less than infanticide. 

Horrendous.  Unconscionable.

Let me state with absolute transparency and clarity the position of the American Anglican Council on this very issue from our 1996 confessional statement, A Place to Stand.

“Sanctity of Life: All human life is a sacred gift from God and is to be protected and defended from conception to natural death. We will uphold the sanctity of life and bring the grace and compassion of Christ to those who face the realities of previous abortion, unwanted pregnancy, and end-of-life illness.”

We are grateful for Archbishop Foley Beach’s immediate response to the NY law. “Protecting the most vulnerable.” We are also grateful for Bishop Neil Lebhar’s response in his letter to the Gulf-Atlantic Diocese, where he observed:

“Almost weekly we read of mass shootings, murders and drug overdose deaths. All of these should make us weep. But the greatest robbery of life in our nation is not from any of these. It continues to be by abortion. In fact, there are roughly eight times as many deaths by abortion in the US as from these other causes combined.”*

The Bible expressly condemns the shedding of innocent blood. (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 19:13, Deuteronomy 21:9, 1 Kings 2:31, Proverbs 6:16-18, Isaiah 59:7, Jeremiah 19:3-5, Jeremiah 22:3, Joel 3:19) The killing of innocent children in the womb and all the way up to birth is a clear violation of this Biblical command. In Leviticus 18:21, Leviticus 20:1-5 and Jeremiah 19:4-6 God condemns such killing in the ritual sacrifice of children to other gods. These Old Testament accounts of child sacrifice give us as close a parallel to abortion as anything we’ll find in Scripture. Only the idols have changed.  The false gods of today are not Molech or Baal, but wealth, freedom, and autonomy. But the sacrifice is the same. And according to God, it defiles and brings judgment on the whole land.

So, while abortion is deserving of God’s wrath, it may also be a manifestation of God’s wrath.  In A Biblical Mandate to do something about Abortion by author Michael Spielman observes:

“When Pharaoh refused to let God’s people go, the wrath of God manifested itself in 10 plagues, the most severe of which was the death of all the first-born sons in Egypt. When David sinned with Bathsheba, the wrath of God manifested itself in the death of their innocent child. Children are the hope and future of every society. When God’s wrath lands on them, for the sins of a parent or the sins of a nation, it is an incalculably severe blow. When a society starts killing its own children, it engages in nothing less than self-destruction. Romans 1:18-32 reveals that God’s wrath can simply be the “giving over” of people to bear the natural consequences of their wicked and depraved choices. For a nation that allows its children to be executed in the womb, not only does such behavior deserve punishment, in many ways, it is punishment.(emphasis added)” 

The American Anglican Council agrees with Archbishop Beach that abortion is the greatest moral issue of our time. We encourage all our readers to take the following actions:

PRAY

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chron. 7:14).

Given the events in the last week, we desperately need a revival in our nation—a revival of humility, confession and repentance. Hearts must be turned from applauding the holocaust.  If it doesn’t begin with our prayers, where and when will it begin?

VOTE

Exercise your rights to vote for those candidates who will stop the holocaust of abortion. The judgement that God has ordained for those who promote this holocaust may already be falling upon our land. Let this shape the decision you make in the voting booth. Given the priority of this moral issue, let this be the most important factor in your voting for candidates at every level of our government—local, state and national. 

WITNESS

Among the most compelling impact the earliest Christians had upon non-believers was their rescue of children abandoned and left to die. Can we do better? How can we promote ways to adopt children, become foster parents, and care for the children of single parents within the community of our local church to single mothers who might otherwise be tempted to abort their child? Wouldn’t such efforts be a tangible and compelling testimony to the transforming love of Jesus Christ?

SUPPORT

Support organizations like Anglicans for Life which educate, mobilize and provide resources on right to life issues. Support your local pregnancy resource centers which offer peer counseling related to abortion, pregnancy, and childbirth, encouragement to mothers not to have abortions and may also offer additional non-medical services such as financial assistance, child-rearing resources, and adoption referrals. Support those attorneys and legal organizations that defend pregnancy resource centers against discriminatory zoning laws and litigation driven by hostile civic authorities and organizations. Express your support by volunteering your time, your talent and your financial contributions.

Proverbs 24:11 says “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.”  Let’s put some feet on that commandment.

The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey is President & CEO of the American Anglican Council.

*approximately 1200 deaths in mass shootings, 70,000 by drug overdoses (2017 NIH), 17,000 murders (2016 FBI), well over 800,000 abortions (2017, www.abort73.com )