The Aborted Generation

Everyone has been hurt by abortion in some way. The reality is that there are 57.7 million people who have never lived, whom you never met. Of them nearly half would have had kids by now. Were all those people just a loss? Could none of those lives lost been able to change yours? Abortion affects people. The hardest hit are those closest to home: the mothers, fathers, and siblings that never saw that child that may have been. Abortion affects each individual in a unique way. Women who had abortions are at high risk for depression and as reported by both the British Journal of Psychiatry and the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry up to four times more likely to abuse substances such as drugs and alcohol. It’s awful to hear these things yet our world adamantly demands that they have the ability to remove a child from their life and all of ours because it will be painful, inconvenient, or expensive to birth and raise them.

First, abortion does not affect the mother only. It affects families, not just individuals in particular. On Help After Abortion, a pro-abortion site, their FAQ’s include “How will my children feel when I tell them I aborted a sibling?” Their response: “In the years ahead you will hear of ‘survivor syndrome.’ For instance, surviving children may wonder why they weren’t aborted, they may become angry and hostile, or they may fear future rejection by their parents if predetermined standards set by themselves or their parents are not met. Children must learn to settle their negative emotions regarding our abortion just as you learned to settle yours.” Simple enough, right? However, as we saw in the studies women don’t just “settle” their negative emotions. Choosing to reject a child leaves a plethora of emotions that don’t just go away because you want them to and to believe in won’t affect the sibling either is ridiculous. How is a young boy or girl supposed to just be happy with the idea that their parents decided a child that just as easily could have been them wasn’t worth the effort? As the site says “they may become angry and hostile, or they may fear future rejection…”

It’s easy to look at statistics and quotes like these and come to a quick conclusion, but experience is a greater teacher. There’s a girl who I went to high school with who has a little brother with Down Syndrome. When her mother was pregnant with the child most doctors would have recommended abortion stating that the quality of life would be negligible. The woman decided against abortion and Seth was born. Seth isn’t perfect, most would say not even normal. Knowing him thought, the only way I would say he’s entirely different from the rest of us is not his illness, but his kindness, his joy in everything. For someone with a disability he’s got more of an ability than anyone else I know to bring a smile to a sibling’s face or to make me laugh. Quality of life? I wish I had his. Looking at that I think, what if my parents had been told that I wouldn’t be fully healthy and they had decided to let me go? Or one of my siblings go? Does my life have any value to a parent if a disease makes my life not worth keeping?

Second, and on even broader terms, abortion doesn’t just affect an individual or family, it affects society. If a child is just an option in the womb then aren’t they just an option out of the womb? The slippery slope to euthanasia, infanticide, and child abuse was a warning shot given off back during Roe v. Wade, but proponents of abortion claimed that aborting children would instead make society better by helping to eliminate poverty, crime, and abuse of unwanted children. But if you can kill a child in the womb why can’t you beat a child out of it? Abortion devalues life in an amazing way by making innocence meaningless, life worthless, and love optional. We live amongst the aborted generation. We live with the lack of those who lost the most basic right: life. If the most basic of rights can be compromised then the rest will soon follow. With abortion as a ready, available option our society promotes sexual irresponsibility, parental neglect, and an attitude of indifference to all that should be honored. In addition statistics show economic collapse as a long term result of abortion as a smaller population is forced to support a larger, aging generation. To an abortive society euthanasia will suddenly seem extremely practical and to that aborted generation without the siblings, fathers, and mothers they should have had losing a few more people will feel entirely acceptable. America’s population growth is the lowest it’s been since the Great Depression as the birth rate has fallen to 2.0, the lowest to sustain a population. Looking back on it all what do we find? Depression, substance abuse, anger, child abuse, moral delinquency, and economic ruin. Last we see why despite everything abortion is preferred.

This is why everyone has been hurt by abortion. The answer is the broken, sinful heart of every man and woman on earth. Our lust for pleasure followed by a selfish desire for future success in our minds overrides our compassion and our understanding of the sanctity of life. Even when we know all the things that cold happen because of abortion it just seems so much easier to let it go. But the statistics aren’t the only reason I’m pro-life. I’m a Christian and believe that God created every man and has appointed both the day of their birth and death. In addition, I understand that every human life was paid for by Christ on the cross making every human life bought by the taking of God’s. Suddenly we’re all special in His sight and that makes all the difference.

Devotional submitted by:
Jonathan Downs, Maranatha Baptist Academy
1st place winner of the 2015 BFLW Essay Contest