Choosing Life

The 1.2 million infants who are annually "legally executed" as a Morristown, NJ judge once called abortion, still stand as a dark blot on America’s moral landscape. An estimated 49,000,000 have suffered the legal fate of non-personhood execution since the 1973 Supreme Court ruling known as Roe v. Wade.

Despite the continuing carnage, there is light at the end of the immoral tunnel:
- The abortion rate is falling due to in part to fewer clinics in business and some fornicators and adulterers having exercised restraint.

- Courageous pro-lifers have somewhat successfully made their case. Last year, high school pro-life clubs gained legal status. Congress outlawed partial birth abortion in 2003, and the Supreme Court upheld the law in 2007. Several states are being pressured by pro-life groups to pass legislation that would limit and/or outlaw abortion.

- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney revealed he’d been converted to the pro-life conviction while governor of Massachusetts.

- Even in Hollywood, there is a change. Four recent secular movies portray pregnant women refusing abortion. In the film Juno, the teenage abortion candidate leaves the clinic after learning that her baby has fingernails. The film has received an Oscar nominated for a Best Picture.

Perhaps most telling is the extensive ministry of Norma McCorvey, the anonymous "Jane Roe" of the ’73 ruling. Panicked by an unwanted pregnancy, she was used by pro-abortionists to bring in as suit in Texas that eventually came before the Supreme Court, and then she was used as a poster child for the abortion movement.

After seeing empty playgrounds and thinking she was to blame, her conscience was smitten. While serving in an abortion clinic, she was befriended by two Christian girls from the pro-life group Operation Rescue working next door. Norma accepted an invitation to attend their church and then accepted Christ. God forgave her heinous crimes.

Norma has supported legislation to have Roe v. Wade reversed. She has traveled in 40 states and several foreign countries, showing the debauchery of abortion and sharing her salvation testimony. "I love the Lord with all my heart and soul," she says, "and it’s beyond my comprehension that He can take someone like me who was a hippie and a drug addict and a fornicator and all the other stuff that I did and forgive me.... It was so hard for me to conceive that the Lord had forgiven me – especially after so many children had been killed…but He has forgiven me…."

Even the worst of sinners can receive the best of God’s grace. Norma McCorvey is the modern counterpart of Paul’s experience in Christ. He had rampaged against the church causing believers to be put to death. He later recalled, "…and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them" (Acts 26:10).

This example of God’s forgiveness stands as a salvation monument for Paul, for Norma and for every sinner saved by grace. "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life" (1Tim.1:15-16).

David Virkler