Category pro life

Mar 21 2014

To Wear a Symbol

A wire coat hanger.

What do you do with one? Perhaps hang your shirt, your pants, or even a coat.

But to wear one on a chain around your neck? What reason could one possibly have to wear the symbol of a coat hanger around their neck or as a picture on their T-shirt?

First of all, let me tell you who these folks are, who wear these things. They are the same vitriolic militants who wear T-shirts with the phrase “I HAD AN ABORTION.”

The coat hanger has become a symbol of death they are proud of. They wear it to raise awareness of the “need” for abortion. Legal murder, that is. They consider the legal decision of two parties (mother and abortionist) to take away the life a third-party (baby) a triumph!

The pro-abortion militants of the pre-1973 decision to legalize abortion would go to such extremes to abort babies, that they would resort to inserting a hooked wire hanger into the uterus to pull out the baby. These are being billed as the “desperation” abortions for which we have no statistics, only rhetoric.

The Washington DC group called The DC Abortion Fund is pushing this craziness to support the continued practice of murdering babies before they are born.

They are proud of this.

They are proud they killed their own babies.

They promote a culture of death, while God-fearing people promote a culture of life. And yes, the Bible is definitely a pro-life book. Consider this passage:

 “Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live…” Deut 30:19

The reason why the militants of the DC Abortion Fund feel compelled to ensure that the practice of abortion continues is that they do not know the gospel. They do not understand the sanctity of life. They do not know the Author of Life as apostle Peter calls Him. They do not understand the value of life. They need to see that God gave Himself to die so that He may purchase life for us.

That is the heart of the gospel. The abortionist and mother who forsakes her baby need the gospel just like the rest of us.

Jan 28 2014

Should the Baby Die Because the Mom Died?

Delight in Truth has closely followed the case of 33-year-old Marlise Munoz over the last couple months without weighing in on this complex ethical matter until now.

The 14 week-pregnant mom collapsed at home possibly due to a pulmonary embolism (clot to the lungs), and after resuscitation it was evident that she was brain-dead. But it appeared that her baby continued to have a normal heart beat after resuscitation.

In the aftermath of the diagnosis of brain death something paradoxical happened.

In such situations, the hospital and doctors are typically the ones who aggressively try to convince the family to take the patient off life support.  In this particular case, it was the other way around. The family argued that lack of oxygen during resuscitation may have damaged the baby significantly, and they aggressively pursued legal action to remove her from life support.  This action led to the baby’s demise at the gestational age of 22 weeks.

I agree that any life-sustaining treatment for the brain-dead mom was futile, but this was not the case for the baby.

Keeping the mom on life-support, keeps the baby alive. 

Even though the hospital ultimately agreed that the baby was unlikely to be born “normal,” it is worthwhile to consider that a baby with a normal heartbeat inside a mom whose heart, lungs, kidneys and liver are working has an excellent chance to grow to the point where a C-section can be performed.  This is because the baby’s development depends on a relatively low amount of oxygen delivered, and not the mother’s brain function.

Neonatologist Paul Bryne explains to Life Site News:

“The amount of oxygen a baby gets is much different than the amount of oxygen we get out here in the environment,” Byrne told LSN.  He said the blood supply to the baby is venous blood, which has already had most of the oxygen consumed by the mother’s body anyway.  “The baby’s body is used to living with a lower oxygen content. The baby is protected by the uterus more than the mother’s brain is protected, or the liver is protected, or the heart is protected [from lack of oxygen].”

 “A baby has all of his or her parts by eight weeks after conception,” Byrne told LSN.  “And so the susceptibility to medicines that could be toxic – and most of those that are used in resuscitation are not toxic – but even those that are toxic, the greater chance [of harm] is early in pregnancy, that’s when you have to be mostly concerned.”

These physiologic facts mattered not when the final decision was made. 

This case, however complex, illustrates that we do not live in a culture that will fight for the unborn. No one in the baby’s family stood up for the baby. In fact they did the opposite. It was the hospital and state who sided with keeping the baby alive until a judge ordered the life-support to be discontinued.

It would have been difficult to keep going 10 more weeks.  And so the chance to have beauty from ashes is gone.

This unfortunate situation resulted only in ashes.

Jan 18 2014

“Right to Life” Does not Belong in New York

I never thought I would hear a president or a governor make such a statement.

I never thought a governor would make a public statement that a segment of people of his state do not belong there.

Wow.

That is exactly what democrat New York governor Andrew Cuomo said about those who think there is such a concept of “right to life.”  Here is the quote:

“Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life…? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”

Such a sad turn of events when we consider his father’s stance on abortion.  The elder Cuomo declared in the 1980’s that everyone has a right to life including unborn babies. And now the current gov. Cuomo not only disagrees with the pro-life position, he wants to kick pro-lifers out of his state.

How many millions are you going to kick out of New York, Mr. Cuomo? Are the tens of thousands slaughters every year before they are born not enough?

Now, we know that politicians are crafty, and they are very careful speaking on issues relating to race, religion, life, etc. But every once in a while, they expose what is in their heart for all to see. Such is the case with the New York governor. The darkness and hate he harbors in his soul was displayed for the nation to see.

For liberals like Cuomo, tolerance applies only if you agree with them.

How long will God in His holiness and justice tolerate the sin of humanity and the slaughter of millions of babies in their moms’ tummy?

How long oh, LORD?

Dec 21 2013

A Holiday from Abortion? Yeah, Right…

medicii din timisoara nu mai fac avorturi crime ginecologi gravida nou nascut

It would appear that the sinful human mind is looking for an opportunity to anesthetize its conscience.

Notice the choice of words above…. The sinful human is not looking to get rid of the sin that enslaves him, but he is searching for an analgesic to said sin…

Case and point: Timişoara, Romania.

A Facebook friend posted a news article from one of the largest and most modern cities in Romania citing how all OB-GYN doctors there decided to take a holiday from providing abortions. For three weeks. With the occasion of the Christmas holiday. Apparently they did the same thing at Easter under pressure from the ultra conservative Eastern Orthodox Church.

Delight in Truth responds to this with a sad LOL.

So now, one of the largest per-capita abortion providing countries in the world is pulling a moral prank which means nothing. It will delay abortions for three weeks to observe the “holy”holidays.

My FB friend commented with the analogy of a cheating husband.  Suppose the husband cheats every day of the year except the days surrounding these so-called holy holidays.  Does this make any difference to the wife?

No!

There maybe those who will applaud such meaningless token action to please the Orthodox Church.  But like Psalm 14 says: “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind” and He knows what is in the hearts of mankind. He sees the insincere motives behind man’s actions.

Even such action to withhold abortion for three weeks will be evidence for their condemnation one day.  It shows that they know the truth, but they choose to suppress it.

So during these “holy” holidays please remember the struggle with abortion sin that Romania is going through, and do not forget to pray that God would melt the block of ice in their hearts via the gospel.

Nov 25 2013

Planned Parenthood Gets Zero Money from Me

So I received a letter from Planned Parenthood (PP) president Cecile Richards asking me for a generous contribution.  Lol.

The largest abortion provider in the US at roughly 300,000 abortions/year is complaining that extremists are getting in their way at the legislative level to decrease access to “affordable reproductive care.” Seems like that is some sort of borrowed terminology from one of their chief supporters, Barrack Obama who earlier this term bestowed god’s blessings (not my God) on this abominable organization.

The letter defines who the “extremists” are. If you oppose “birth control, family planning and medically accurate sex education,” then you are an extremist. You are then placed in the same category as the clinic bombers of the 1990’s. The letter says that the line is crossed when one opposes birth control.

Wow.

Get this: if you are a Catholic or an Evangelical who opposes birth control, you might as well be a bomber.  This is the kind of vitriolic rhetoric that PP is using to raise funds. The funds that the government gives them apparently are not enough.  Just to put things into perspective, they received $360 million (about 1/3 of their income) from the government in 2009.

They collect money in order to kill unborn babies.

They gain from killing the unborn.

As I was sitting in church this weekend listening to a holiness message from pastor Nelu Brie, a passage from Habakkuk 2 really stood out with respect to the blood stained money PP is using as income:

11 The stones of the wall will cry out,
    and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.

12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
    and establishes a town by injustice!

The Bible says “Woe to him” who uses the wages resulting from shedding of blood, in this case by killing innocent life. The house, the car, the items he buys with that money will cry out against him.

Your billion dollar empire is crying out against you Planned Parenthood!  This is the evidence of every one of those 300,000 abortions you perform per year!

Nov 13 2013

Abortion, then Regret

“Two years ago today, November 11, 2013, I had an abortion. It still hurts just as much now today as it did the day it happened. This abortion was not something I wanted to do, but my boyfriend at the time insisted he knew what was better for me than I did and told me if I didn’t do it he would leave me, and I would be alone. I was so wrapped up in the relationship, I didn’t want to let him down, so I did what he said. On the drive home, I cried and cried, and he yelled at me and said, “you can’t change what happened, so stop crying.”

The next day he broke up with me, and from that day until about a month ago, he strung me along and told me it was my fault that I went through with the abortion. I have yet to go talk to someone about this sensitive topic because I have not been able to verbally talk about it with anyone and I am afraid to talk about it face to face. I would like to see a day where abortion was done away with so no other girl has to feel this pain. It is one of the worst pains I have felt in my life.”

Age: 21
Location: Goshen, Indiana
Date: November 11, 2013

The is the testimony of regret.

Regret is a step in the right direction, but it is only the first step in the process that ultimately relieves the fundamental pain in the soul of this young woman.

Delight in Truth argues that abortion in many of these cases is not the central problem.  The heart of the matter has to do with a lifestyle of sin in rebellion to God, and the absence of the Gospel in the life of individuals who undergo abortions.

Abortion, although a sin in itself, is a by-product or a consequence of living in sin. The result of sin hurts on so many levels. Premarital sexual relationships are often complicated by abortion. Many of these women who undergo the procedure already know ahead of time that their relationship is wrong.

In the case above, the woman aborted the baby in order to keep the boyfriend.

WHAT KIND OF RELATIONSHIP MUST BE MAINTAINED BY AN ABORTION?

That is not a relationship that is based on the love of God for his church, the way a marriage is defined in the Bible.

The problem above is that sin has not be addressed at its root. This sin is now an overwhelming burden that cannot be endured. This is where the cross comes into the picture.  Jesus died even for the sin of abortion.  The Bible tells us that he took our inequities upon Himself so that His children will not bear the guilt and eternal punishment.

Jesus took upon Himself even the sin of abortion.

I pray this anonymous mom will find Jesus.

Nov 2 2013

Should Christians Consider In-Vitro Fertilization?

zhizn-0015

Some time ago while on-call I received a patient with a life threatening intra-abdominal hemorrhage. Turns out this was an ectopic pregnancy after a large number of in-vitro embryos were implanted into this woman. One of these embryos unfortunately made its way into a place other than the uterine cavity and the resulting hemorrhage was now endangering the mom’s life.  The patient was fortunate enough to survive the ordeal.

This event made me consider the ethical aspects of in-vitro fertilization for couples who cannot conceive naturally.  Delight in Truth is firmly against therapeutic abortion at any gestational age, and in-vitro techniques present moral challenges connected to abortion.

It is not uncommon for the fertility doctor to harvest several eggs, and once these are fertilized, they become live embryos. Along the way, some may die or may not develop properly. This is the first level of loss of life in the process.

Then the doctor implants 3-4 embryos (sometimes more) into the mom’s uterus.  Sometimes the embryos implant successfully, sometimes not.  This is the second level of embryo loss, and it also happens in up to 30% of naturally conceived pregnancies.

Suppose three out of three embryos implant successfully and a triple gestation develops. In order to reduce the pregnancy risk and assure an easier lifestyle for the parents, at this point a pregnancy reduction may be performed. Nothing short of the abomination of Molech, an ultrasound guided technique will abort one or two developing babies to decrease the triple pregnancy to a twin or a single gestation.  This is the third level of collateral loss of life in the in-vitro fertilization process.

This discussion does not even address what to do with frozen embryos resulting from multiple attempts at in-vitro.  Some estimates say that for every successful in-vitro fertilization 30 embryos may be initially created (England, 2011).  Should these be kept frozen indefinitely? Should they be discarded? These are painful questions for those of us who feel that life begins at conception.

Should a gospel-believing couple attempt in-vitro fertilization? 

There are adjustments to the technique to eliminate volitional loss of embryonic life, but these will increase the cost of the process because it increases the chance of need to repeat.  Fertilization should be limited to one or two embryos which always are to be used.

Pregnancy reduction, which is in fact abortion, should never be performed.

If these safeguards are taken, intentional loss of embryonic life will be eliminated.  Embryos may still die from natural causes after implantation or from unintentional causes (human error in the lab). These issues ought to be prayerfully considered by any Christian couple thinking about conservative in-vitro fertilization.

One thing is clear. Life is precious and it should be respected.

Oct 10 2013

How a Decision Blessed the World with Music

In 1958 a pregnant mother went to the hospital with severe abdominal pain.  A diagnosis of acute appendicitis was made and surgery was the obvious best option.

It can be a formidable challenge to anesthetize and do surgery on a pregnant patient, especially non-obstetric surgery. Every time I face such a case, I am well aware that I must take care of two patients, and their lives and well-being are equally important to me. The stakes are increased not only because there are two individuals under my care, but because pregnancy increases the anesthetic risk for the mother significantly.

Image how much more difficult this situation was in 1958, when surgical and anesthetic technique was not nearly as developed as today!

At the time of surgery, the young mother-to-be was advised to abort her baby due to the risk of developmental defects as a result of surgery and anesthesia. But contrary to medical advice, the mom trusted God and decided to keep the baby in the hopes things will work out alright.

She gave birth to a boy who had congenital glaucoma, but who was otherwise healthy.  He had decreased vision, and following some trauma during a football game he lost his vision at age 12.

But this boy was special for a different reason. He was blessed with an unbelievable talent. He had and continues to have the voice of an angel.

During a concert he thanked his mother, Edi, who made the right decision to allow him to live so he can bless the world with the common grace of beautiful music.  He ended up selling over 70 million records, and his music is well-loved throughout the world.

That musician’s name is Andrea Bocelli.

Sep 3 2013

Children: Between Life and Death

Moloch With Child

As a father of three young children I shutter when I read things like this in the Bible.

“They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.”  Jer 7:31

“And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?”  Ez 16:20-21

“And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.”  2 Kings 17:17

So great was the idolatry of Israel that they have resorted to child sacrifices to appease Molek and other gods of the nations surrounding Israel. How can a parent bring themselves to the point of placing their small child on the outstretched arms of a white-hot bronze statue of Molek that has been pre-heated in fire?  The child would be roasted alive, perhaps catching fire immediately upon contact with the white-hot metal.

Some say these claim are an invention of Jewish and Christian imagination and that there is no concrete evidence for child sacrifice in the ancient Middle East.

Wrong!

Archeological discoveries of cremated bodies of hundreds of children, baby lambs and goats at a Carthaginian burial site provides substantial evidence for child sacrifice by fire.  The Phoenicians have been known to worship deities who demanded child sacrifice in exchange for future fertility.

Dear readers, Molek continues to demand payment even today.  The US has aborted in excess of 50 million unborn babies since 1973 and just last week, Iowa Democrats lifted up prayers to Molek in this video:

The abomination of abominations is continuing today in the slaughter of the unborn.  They are a helpless third-party with no representation as two other parties (mother and abortionist) independently make a decision for their demise.

As Christians, we must continue to point to this injustice and pray that the Holy Spirit would open eyes and minds to see the priceless beauty of life.

Aug 19 2013

Simple Question, Is Abortion Morally Wrong?

Dear Delight in Truth readers, please glance at the above chart and be shocked.

Be amazed that professing Christians can hold neutral and perhaps even favorable views with respect to the abomination of abortion.

The Pew Research Center did telephone interviews in March/April 2013 with a random sample of 4,006 US adults and asked them various questions about controversial matters.  On abortion, 49% of Americans believe it is morally wrong with a few percentage points higher among women than men.

The statistics get interesting when broken down by race and religion (denomination of Christianity).

As expected, evangelicals (Baptists, Pentecostals, Charismatics, some Reformed, nondenominationals) view abortion as morally wrong in high numbers.  But 25% of them still view it as morally neutral or right despite the fact that evangelical churches overwhelmingly preach the pro-life position.

The most disappointing statistic is among white mainline Protestants (some Lutherans, United Methodist Church, Quakers, Presbyterian USA, United Church of Christ, Episcopalians).  Some of these churches also accept pastors who actively practice the homosexual lifestyle.

The disregard for life has become an abhorrent disease in some of these apostate churches.

How are we better than those in China where a camera captured a 2-year-old girl getting run over by two trucks and 18 people skirted around her while she lay bleeding and flailing?  One may say that this a stretch of a comparison, but I can attest that the unborn baby opens her mouth and SCREAMS in pain as limbs are torn off during abortion, and abortion is no accident like the trucks running over the Chinese girl.

The apathy towards life is becoming more prominent as we are approaching the end of the age.  We are reminded by Paul in 1 Timothy 4:1 that teaching, doctrines, positions and propaganda that are against God (and His Spirit Who is the Spirit of Life – Romans 8)  will become increasingly common:

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons”

To have people who think of themselves as children of God while holding anti-life positions is nothing short of demonic.

May God awaken his true children to realize the precious gift of life.