LifeDate Spring 2025 – For Such a Time
by Rev. Dr. James I. Lamb
“If you keep silent at this time …” (Esther 4:14a).
“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less’” (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass).
Sorry, Humpty, words mean things. Words reveal a reality not subject to our choices. After decades of use, the reality of what abortion means has disappeared. When you lose the reality of something, you lose the foundation for meaningful discussion. Therefore, the discussion on both sides of the abortion issue deteriorates into meaningless slogans.
We choose it to be bad or good, awful or wonderful. We call it a “right” or “healthcare.” We have euphemized it so much, abortion has become a euphemism of itself, detached from the reality behind it. We need a reality check. Here is the reality of what abortion is and does:
Abortion Kills Little Girls and Little Boys in Terrible Ways Before Birth
Let’s “fact check” the reality of those words.
“Abortion kills.” Embryology textbooks state that at the moment of fertilization, a new and unique human being comes into existence. In an abortion, that little human being dies. That’s the reality.
“Little girls and little boys.” The genetic code establishes our sex from the very beginning of our life. Oh, we do not look like what comes to mind when we say little girl or little boy. But we are little, and we are a girl or a boy. We just look different. That’s the reality.
“In terrible ways.” The most common in-clinic procedure is “Suction Aspiration.” A little boy or girl under sixteen weeks is sucked out of the womb with a powerful suction. After sixteen weeks, the procedure is “Dilation and Curettage” (D & C). A surgically sharp instrument scrapes the uterine lining, cutting the little boy or girl into smaller pieces before suctioning. Body parts need to be reassembled to ensure nothing is left to cause infection. For later term abortions, the method is “Dilation and Evacuation.” The abortionist uses a forceps to tear arms, legs, and head from the little torso and then remove (evacuate) them. Again, all parts must be accounted for. That’s the reality.
Increasingly, the most common abortion method is the abortion pill, a two-step procedure. The first pill effectively cuts off needed oxygen and nutrition coming from the baby’s umbilical cord. In a sense, the little girl or boy is “choked” to death. The second pill, taken later, causes contractions and delivery of the now dead little one. It is often very recognizable, the cause of much emotional stress on mom. That’s the reality.
So regardless of what you choose abortion to be, that’s the reality of what abortion is. If you favor abortion, please base it on reality. You favor killing little boys and little girls in terrible ways before birth. If you oppose killing little girls and little boys in terrible ways before birth, then please start talking more about this reality. Let’s have meaningful discussions based on reality not on a Dumpty reality-denying, “It means what I choose it to mean.”
And for you For Life Christians, there is a greater reality. Abortion kills little girls and little boys in terrible ways, children whom God knit together and hand crafted. Abortion kills little girls and little boys in terrible ways, children for whom Jesus took on humanity in a womb so that He could suffer and shed His blood for them. Abortion kills little girls and little boys in terrible ways, children whom the Holy Spirit wants to splash in the waters of Holy Baptism and call into an eternal relationship with Him. For you there is more than a biological reality behind the word abortion. For you the reality is eternal.
Before reminding Esther that she may have “come into the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14c), Mordecai gave her a warning: “If you keep silent at this time …” (Esther 4:14a). Heed that warning. Then rejoice in the place and time God has given you in His Kingdom. Do not be silent. You have the most positive, powerful, life-giving, and life-affirming message in the universe! It is a message of love for every sinner, i.e. everyone! It is a message of forgiveness for everyone and every sin. It is a message of the certain hope of a paradise whose reality surpasses the most beautiful of words.
Use the biological reality of the word abortion to begin discussion to share that message with your unbelieving neighbor. Do so with boldness, but gentleness, please! Use the eternal reality of the word abortion to share that message with your fellow believers. Speak the truth in love, please!
If we want to save more Trinitarian-valued lives, then we need to knock a Humpty Dumpty way of thinking about words off the wall. We need to speak of the reality behind the word abortion and use such a time as this to speak of the reality behind the Word made flesh to dwell among us and in us and for us. You have been called for such a time as this.