Abortions may be increasing really soon.
We’ve enjoyed some thirty years of declining abortion rates. Gospel-motivated voices of courage and compassion have even closed clinics. Speaking the truth in love—in congregations, in communities, in courthouses, statehouses, and our own houses—has cut the abortion rate to half its historic height. The work goes slowly, and it gets difficult. But we’re making a difference.
Now, though, the danger is rising.
Surgical abortions are going down, but chemical abortions are climbing. Although the total number of babies put to death inside their mothers is dwindling, medication abortions now make up the majority of abortions before ten weeks’ gestation. The “abortion pill” is breaching many of the barriers that keep abortionists’ instruments at bay.
It’s actually a regimen of two drugs—mifepristone and misoprostol. The first disables the placenta, starving and suffocating the baby. The second unnaturally induces labor to deliver the dead child. Current laws allow a mother to ingest the first pharmaceutical at a clinic, including those facilities that have no operating rooms. Then she can follow up by swallowing the second tablet at home, alone and unattended by any medical professionals.
Several states have also begun offering “telemed abortions.” A pregnant woman can consult with an abortionist over videoconference from miles and hours away. A remote-controlled drawer then dispenses her the lethal tablets. Last year, a generic formulation reached the market, and more than seventy-five websites are now selling the toxic tablets—internationally and illegally—without any prescription necessary. The FDA has strongly warned against making use of these unregulated dealers. No agency can even guarantee these imported substances are genuine.
We can’t make abortion unavailable—though we are laboring to. Will you help us make abortion unwanted? Please give a generous financial gift to Lutherans For Life today! You can insulate hearts and minds against it with our message and ministry.
The evil one is bringing the battle to our neighborhoods. He is even infiltrating our congregations and our families. But the Gospel has brought the victory and the joy and the hope into our hearts! We believe and declare that Almighty God creates, redeems, and calls every human life to be His own precious treasure from fertilization to forever!
Chemical abortions cause severe complications. Victims may experience pain, hemorrhaging, infections, trauma to reproductive tissues, incomplete evacuation of fetal remains, infertility, and cancers—at greater rates and intensities than the more violent surgical abortions. (The recent film Unplanned accurately depicted this suffering.) Sometimes these symptoms require subsequent hospitalizations (and even abortion surgeries). Records indicate that the abortion pill has killed twenty-four women and injured thousands since its legalization in 2000—in addition to taking the lives of millions of little ones.
Pro-abortion organizations and publications have begun encouraging “self-managed” abortion. They instruct mothers how to obtain and undertake chemical abortion themselves—never even involving a doctor. Only five states outlaw this. And California has compelled student health centers at all its state university campuses to stock and administer the pills.
We may never make abortion entirely illegal—though we are praying to. Please help us make abortion inconceivable! Will you give to Lutherans For Life right now? You can educate minds and rescue hearts through our nationwide network. We rejoice and proclaim that our Heavenly Father’s Word, His grace, and His people embody a better way than death to deal with surprise pregnancy and suffering!
Now a court case in Hawaii may make it worse. Right now, the FDA recognizes the serious health hazards of chemical abortions, so it only lets specially certified doctors and licensed facilities conduct chemical abortions. This encourages attentive oversight and high-level follow-up capabilities (even so, abortionists and their clinics frequently fail to provide it). But the ACLU has assisted one abortionist in suing the federal government. He wants these common-sense restrictions removed. If successful, the verdict would make abortion pills available at every neighborhood pharmacy. It would turn every family doctor into an abortion provider. And the FDA already has the authority to change these policies at any time with no congressional approval or input.
If this comes to pass, we’ll only have one recourse to save lives. Our last resort to prevent abortions will be appealing to the mothers and fathers themselves. Our only hope will be speaking the truth in love to the very hearts being deceived into viewing death as a solution.
But this is our best recourse! This is already what Lutherans For Life specializes in! We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the most powerful, positive for-life message in the universe! We know how to listen and assist and embrace. We do very well at conversations and relationships. We can motivate, educate, and activate—and we will!
Maybe you can’t digest the research, but you can enable us to keep doing it. Maybe you can’t attend the conferences, but your gifts can empower us to.
Maybe you can’t process the videos, but you can support us as we do. Maybe you can’t preach the sermons and lead the Bible studies, but you can underwrite the resources we give to pastors and churches. Maybe you can’t print the educational booklets and informational brochures, but you can subsidize our many publications.
Maybe you can’t engage the seminary students, but you can sponsor our visits there. Maybe you can’t energize the young people, but you can invest in our Y4Life programs that are. Maybe you can’t answer the skeptics, but your offerings can facilitate our interactions. Maybe you can’t recruit and train volunteers, but you can assist us in coordinating Life Teams and Life Chapters. Maybe you can’t counsel and comfort the broken-hearted, but you can make it possible for our Word of Hope hotline to stay open (888.217.8679 or email info@word-of-hope.org).
Maybe you can’t take it all across the country, but you can help us go. Maybe you can’t change hearts, but the Gospel does! Maybe you can’t save lives, but our Lord Jesus will! Maybe you can’t be there, but we are—with all the peace and purpose of the Body of Christ!
Your gifts helped us meet our budgeted needs for 2019—on the last day of the year! And in 2020, there’s no better vision to share and no greater cause to get involved in than saving lives. Give today and enjoy it with us!