'Abortion saves lives'. This is the latest rallying call of so-called 'pro-choice' activists in the US, protesting against the growing restrictions being placed on legal termination of the unborn.
The latest bloody field of conflict is of course Texas, which, since the beginning of September, has placed a ban on all abortion after detection of the foetal heartbeat at around six weeks, with no exceptions offered for rape, incest or abnormality.
Even more controversially, under the new law, any private citizen can sue an abortion provider believed to be in violation.
The effect of this has been to stop almost all abortions after six weeks. Perhaps predictably, however, the new law is being fiercely contested, with Texas abortion providers seeking injunctions against anti-abortion activists as they scrabble to mount a legal challenge.
Even President Biden has waded into the fray, labelling Texas' actions 'unconstitutional' and filing a motion to block enforcement. The position of abortion providers overall is that women have a constitutional and absolute right to terminate a pregnancy up to viability, on request and without any kind of restriction, because it's their human right.
Which says it all really because sadly, as ever, the real victims in this war of attrition are entirely overlooked. To activists, all that matters is a woman's right to have sex without consequence, and killing the unborn doesn't count as taking life, because the foetus is on a par with a parasite who has, they say, taken up residence in the woman's womb without invitation. If unwanted, therefore, it needs to be expelled.
At every level this is so horrifyingly wrong that it is almost ludicrous. Fact: as a matter of biology, human life begins at the moment of conception. It has to develop and grow, certainly, but from the instant the sperm enters and fertilises the egg, the complete genetic package that determines who and what that person will be is there, down to eye colour, height, metabolic function, and even genetic predisposition to future disease. Nothing from that point is added, it merely has to grow. So arguing that the developing child – conceived as a result of willing copulation by two adults – doesn't have the right to use the body of another person against their will is specious in the extreme.
Joe Biden, at a press conference, recently said, 'I respect those who believe life begins at the moment of conception. I don't agree, but I respect that ...' But exactly when does the so-called leader of the free world think that life begins? What's the cut-off point? When the woman decides whether or not she wants her child? When it's born? Or even when it really does become capable of independent existence, at around 15?
And, perhaps even more interestingly, when does the President see life ending? With a person's last dying breath? Or when they have ceased to have useful function, after which they can presumably be happily euthanised, whether they want it or not? After all, if mankind imposes an arbitrary moment for the beginnings of life, which doesn't match biological reality, why should there be any restraint on determining its end?
The truth is, in a culture dominated by ideological fixation – that rabidly protests against what it arbitrarily defines as 'injustice', but tramples under foot any and all ideas that conflict with their scientifically unproven views – those who can't stand up for themselves don't stand a chance. Which includes the unborn, the vulnerable, the elderly ... even Christians.
All alike are targets for this vicious new form of totalitarianism, that requires total and mindless subservience to the dictates of the ruling elite. And that is why we are seeing such a vicious battle raging in society today, with abortion, LGB and transgender rights, sex education etc, etc ... battlefields in the relentless pursuit of ideological war.
It is surely time for sanity to prevail. Despite President Biden's bumbling assertion to the contrary, it is beyond question that life really does start at conception. To hold otherwise is to be beguiled by Satan, accepting hook, line and sinker the lie that we can have and do whatever we want, in defiance of science and without consequence. We can reorchestrate truth.
Which brings us back to the beginning of this article, and the statement that abortion saves lives. On 28th September, Durham University is to host what it calls an International Safe Abortion Day, calling for continued unrestricted access to telemedicine abortion, aka pills by post. The accompanying blurb for the event states, 'Limited access (to abortion) is a serious threat to the health and lives of people who experience unwanted pregnancy.'
They fail to say, however, that abortion can equally be a threat to a woman's health, as borne out by a recent article which reported an alarming surge in 999 calls from women taking abortion pills at home.
The real truth is that, far from saving lives, abortion can kill not just the unborn child, but the mother too. And, even without complications, it can adversely affect her for the rest of her life. For the continued existence and wellbeing of humanity, it is time for the lies to be called out and exposed.
Rev Lynda Rose is founder of Voice for Justice UK, a group which works to uphold the moral values of the Bible in society.
