L’chaim — “To Life”

If you have ever watched Fiddler on the Roof, you remember the scene where Tevya goes with Lazar Wolf to celebrate the proposed engagement of his eldest daughter. Their toast is L’chaim, ‟to life.” In recent weeks I’ve wanted to join the chorus to celebrate life, but my emotions have included bewilderment, sadness, and even anger.

Bewilderment: because of the illogical thinking on the part of legislators who have considered and voted for the Reproductive Health Act in New York and similar acts in other states. Anger: because of people applauding such statements as ‟the most aggressive women’s equality platform in the nation” (Gov. Andrew Cuomo). How can sane, logical thought be equated with such travesty? Sadness: because of the future prospects this ‟health act” will foster.

Not only does this legislature provide legal abortions up until the due date of a baby’s birth, but it removes all protection of a fetus (no homicide charges), and those performing the abortion do not have to be physicians. With this new law, abortion is considered ‟health care.” Inconceivable!

Dr. Omar Hamada, OB/GYN who has delivered 2500 babies, said in an interview on Fox News: ‟There is not a single fetal or maternal condition that requires a third-trimester abortion. Not one. Delivery, yes. Abortion, no.” This new state law could be labeled as convenience or recreational.

Just a few facts about the extent of abortion in America: More than 58.5 million unborn human persons have lost their lives to abortion since 1973 when the Supreme Court legalized abortion. 2900 babies die every day from abortion; that’s one human being who dies every 30 seconds. African-Americans account for thirty percent (30 %) of all abortions in the United States.

When asking where is our sense of what’s right and moral, we have to rely on what we know. Only one question needs to be asked: What is it? We know that abortion kills something. What? Abortion takes the life of an innocent human being. Perhaps this travesty will awaken more people to the truth of abortion. We are not protecting women’s rights; for ‟it” is not her body. She is only giving the natural place for her baby to develop.

In making pro-life presentations, I have often closed with a Scripture passage that concerned the conquest of the Promised Land. The Lord said, ‟I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land” (Exodus 23:29-30).

God has enabled the pro-life cause to be fruitful only because He is in charge of the conquest. It has been 46 years since the Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade that legalized abortion. Even with these new set-backs, we have witnessed one victory after another, little by little. We are going to possess the land because God is the sovereign Author of Life. ‟To Life!”