Since the legalization of abortion in the United States, over 49 million of them have taken place. What was originally promoted as a procedure that would only be used in emergency situations has become a commonplace occurrence. Certainly, the destruction of life in the womb has become a consequence of this practice. We know the child in the womb is a life, is a human being. Modern imaging equipment has helped us to understand this better, along with other advances in technology. However, Scripture affirmed this basic principle centuries ago. “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). So many lives have been terminated by abortion that we have become desensitized to the process of death.

However, are there other ways beside the death of the unborn child that abortion defiles our land? Certainly so! When sin becomes commonplace, it only leads to further and greater sin. Paul reminds us it is lawlessness that leads to more lawlessness (Romans 6:19). What are some consequences that come when abortion is viewed as a normal part of life?

One can argue that a cheapening of the view of life in the womb leads to a cheapening of life outside the womb. If one can indiscriminately terminate an inconvenient life before birth, why not afterwards? What is called the Groningen Protocol, a procedure used by the University Medical Center Groningen in Groningen, Netherlands, offers guidelines for child euthanasia. One of those criteria has to do with the child’s expected quality of life. Life itself is no longer considered sacred, but the changing standards of human judgment are now the determining factor for what life is considered worthy to live or to be ended.

If infanticide can be indiscriminately practiced on infants, then who can say what limits can be applied at the other end of the spectrum, with adult euthanasia? How old do you have to be for someone to decide your life is not worth living? Once God as Creator is ignored, and the sanctity of life is discarded, just who defines what makes a life worth living? Who gets to say what are, or are not, “meaningful interpersonal relations?” The whole prospect is terrifying, not just for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren.

Life is not by accident, but by design; it belongs to God. When we bequeath life as the prerogative of humanity to choose or reject, governed by sinful motives and desires, we all lose. Honor life as a gift from God, to be lived for Him! “You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).