A professor in a college ethics class presented his students with a problem. He said, "A man has syphilis and his wife has tuberculosis. They have had four children: one has died, the other three have what is considered to be a terminal illness. The mother is pregnant. What do you recommend?" After a spirited discussion, the majority of the class voted that she abort the child. "Fine", said the professor. "You've just killed Beethoven".

We live in very strange times, for the worth of the child in most minds has little to do with the inherent worth wrapped up in the fact that the unborn child is God's creation who lovingly knits this child together away from the eyes of any other, and more to do with the situation presented the parents as a matter of choice. It was not always this way, minds had to change, and the mind changing had to start at a very early age. Roe v. Wade passed in 1973, and Dr. Alan Guttmacher, director of Planned Parenthood and a member of the board of the Euthanasia Society of America, arranged through the creators of Sesame Street, twenty-six one hour shows on 'health' for the 1974-75 schedule. He made sure the word 'abortion' was used constantly in 16 of the 26 shows in order to 'detoxify' the audience from the cultural shock surrounding this procedure. After this they included a segment on a pregnant 8 year-old girl who would be denied an abortion by her mother. Not one pro-life representative was asked to give their advice for these segments. Though abortion is rampant under the banner of choice and the woman's body, the loss of the unborn for those desiring a child is devastating. Though approximately 20% of all pregnancies result in miscarriage, making it extremely common, the feeling of loss is severe.

We read in Jeremiah 1:1, "The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah,..." In 1:4-5, we read, "Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." Aren't we glad that Hilkiah and his wife never considered the life of their unborn child, Jeremiah, a choice which could easily be discarded? Jeremiah was set apart from before birth, then commissioned as a youth, as we read in 1:6-10, "...Do not say, 'I am a youth', For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you," says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: "Behold I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,...". We read from the lips of David in Psalm 139:13-16, "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. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they are all written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them."

The life of the unborn child is so precious, yet the womb has become the most dangerous place to reside due to the threat of abortion. We read in Jeremiah 2:19, "Your own wickedness will correct you, And your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing That you have forsaken the Lord your God, And the fear of Me is not in you." We live in a society that not only tolerates evil but accepts it and agrees with it. For all you mothers who have lost a child to miscarriage, stillbirth, etc., your love was not in vain, and your child's soul was not eliminated, for life and the soul begins at conception. For those that have chosen abortion and now feel guilt, realize that forgiveness is only one prayer away. For those who have chosen to love their child with anomalies, as the words in the Mark Schultz song below says, "I wanna be her mom as long as I can And I wanna live every moment until that day comes I wanna show her what it means to be loved." We, who are called according to God, can never allow ourselves to assimilate into the culture, but must take every issue and weigh it against the truth of Scripture as put forth in God's Word.