Wednesday, January 24, 2024

What Did They Say About Abortion? (Part 1)

Here are several appropriate quotations regarding the sanctity of life and the abhorrent evil of abortion. They are from a variety of sources, some that may well surprise you. But please note that the reason I’m posting these brief statements is not merely to encourage and inspire you, but that you yourself will now pass along these quotes in your letters, conversations, social media posts, etc. Never forget that these truths are under constant attack in our culture so we must take our responsibility to counter the lies with the truth. 

To that end I suggest this – copy these quotations; put them on your text edit page or in a notebook; and use them in the weeks to come (one or two at a time) in your correspondence. And, yes; look for another couple of installment of quotes here on Vital Signs Blog in the coming days.

And one more suggestion. Please utilize the other resources of Vital Signs Ministries relevant to the purpose of shining the light of truth regarding the sanctity of life including Key Scripture Passages Relating to the Sanctity of Human Life, Views on Abortion From Church History, An Old Testament Defense of Preborn Children: A Brief Exposition of Exodus 21:22-25, and so on.

“Thou shalt not destroy thy conceptions before they are brought forth; nor kill them after they are born. Thou shalt love thy neighbor more than thy own life. Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion.” (Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas 14:11, circa AD 125)

“We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life “the unborn “without diminishing the value of all human life.” (President Ronald Reagan)

“The first feminists were pro-life. Elizabeth C. Stanton called abortion ‘evil.’ Sarah F. Norton called abortion a ‘crime.’ Susan B. Anthony called abortion ‘child murder.’ Alice Paul called abortion ‘child murder.’ Alice Paul called abortion the ‘ultimate exploitation of women.’” (Lila Rose)

In answering the slanderous charge that Christian that Christians were cannibals who took the body and drank the blood of Jesus Christ, Athenagoras wrote in his Legatio (165 AD): “How could we kill a man -- we who say that women who take drugs to procure abortion are guilty of homicide and that they will have to answer to God for this abortion? One cannot at the same time believe that the fetus in the womb is a living being -- as such in God’s care -- and kill one already brought forth into the light.”

“Moreover, those, too, who give drugs causing abortion are deliberate murderers themselves, as well as those receiving the poison which kills the fetus.” (Basil the Great, Canon, 4th Century)

From a 1963 pamphlet by Planned Parenthood: “Abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun.”

“A high view of Scripture and a high view of life go hand-in-hand. You cannot be faithful to what the Bible teaches about the value of human life and be in favor of abortion.” (Francis Schaeffer)

“We regard the destruction by parents of their offspring, before birth, with abhorrence, as a crime against God and against nature.” (Presbyterian Convention, Pittsburgh 1869)

“To accept the fact that, after fertilization has taken place, a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion. The human nature of the human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical conception. It is plain experimental evidence.” (Dr. Jerome Lejeune, French geneticist and recipient of the Kennedy Prize and the William Allen Memorial Medal for his discovery of the genetic basis of Down’s syndrome.)

“You shall not slay a child by abortion.” (The Didache or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles which was a 2nd century catechism for young converts to Christianity. Also from this document comes this statement, “The Way of Death is filled with people who are…murderers of children and abortionists of God’s creatures.”

“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion…because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for me to kill you and you to kill me…there is nothing in between.” (Mother Teresa) 

“We’re living in an age of genocide…And we do believe that there is not only the genocide of war, and the genocide that took place with the extermination of the Jews, but the whole program…of birth control and abortion is another form of genocide…They claim the poor are bringing forth tremendous numbers of children and so the solution is to kill them off.” (Dorothy Day, American advocate for justice and peace; founded the Catholic Worker Movement.)

“There are women who swallow drugs to stifle in their own womb the beginnings of a man to be -- committing infanticide before they even give birth to the infant.” (Minucius Felix, Octavius, circa AD 180.)

“There was a time when our enemies wore white hoods and drove old pickups. But today, they wear white lab coats and drive Jaguars. For our [black] community, the real weapon of mass destruction is the suction machine at the local Planned Parenthood.” (Dr. Johnny Hunter)

“Once impregnation has taken place it is no longer a question of whether the persons concerned have the responsibility for a possible parenthood; they have become parents.” (Helmut Thielicke)

“The child, by reason of higher physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.” (United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child, November 1959)