http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=4604
Applauding Arkansas’ Fight for Life
| by | Kyle Butt, M.A. |
Arkansas legislators have been busy trying to protect unborn children from the slaughter that has ravaged out country since 1973. Their latest volley of artillery against child murder is a bill that passed the Arkansas Senate Thursday, January 31, 2013. This bill, known as the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, will potentially “ban most abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected, a move that would prohibit the procedure as early as five weeks into pregnancy” (Parker, 2013). The bill passed in the Senate by a 26-8 vote.
Those opposed to the bill, especially members and spokespeople for Planned Parenthood, railed against it. Murry Newbern, a lobbyist for the organization, said, “The bottom line is that a woman, not politicians, should make the informed decisions when it comes to her own pregnancy” (Parker, 2013). Such thinking is as illogical as it is immoral. Would anyone contend that a mother should make the “informed decision” to shoot her 18-month-old because he is an inconvenience to her? Would right-thinking people argue that a mother has the right to decide if her five-year-old deserves to live based on her own economic situation or unwillingness to provide for the child? Certainly not. One of the primary duties of our government is to protect the lives of its citizenry, born or unborn; a duty that our government has criminally neglected to do for the last 40 years.
Praise God that there are still some in our nation who have not given up the fight for life. As Jerry Cox, the President of the Family Council of Arkansas, stated about the recent bill and other similar legislation that passed in the Arkansas Senate: “These bills are some of the best pieces of pro-life legislation in the nation and today they all got positive votes” (as quoted in Parker, 2013). Would to God that every person with a conscience and concern for human life would take a stand against the murder of innocent children. Let your voice be heard among those demanding that all human life is valuable, including and especially, that of innocent children.
[NOTE: The Bible clearly teaches that human life begins at conception, not at the point at which a heartbeat is detected (see Miller, 2003). The Arkansas Senate bill prohibitions makes illegal a bulk of the abortions that currently take place in the state, and in that sense, is a major step in the right direction. In truth, Christians should not stop fighting for unborn life until all human life from the point of conception is recognized as sacred.]
REFERENCES
Miller, Dave (2003), “Abortion and the Bible,” Apologetics Press,http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=445&topic=25.
Parker, Suzi (2013), “Arkansas Senate Passes ‘Fetal Heartbeat’ Law to Ban Most Abortions,” Reuters, January 31, http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/arkansas-senate-passes-fetal-heartbeat-law-to-ban-most-abortions.