Is Offering Abortion an Act of Heroism?

By Randy Alcorn

December 1, 1999

Letter from a reader:

This letter came from “Mary” (not her real name). Randy’s response follows.

I will not begin a long discussion on why abortions of any kind are perfectly normal and should be available as options to any woman who chooses the destiny of herself and her unborn fetus. The reason I will not give you thousands of pages of convincing and scientifically proven evidence is because I am sure you have heard it all before and have closed your eyes on the truth as many other “religious” people have.

All I want to say is that I will support abortions for as long as I live, and my children and future family will do the same. Also, with hard work, I will be in medical school in a few years and I myself will be able to help women in society and to fight closed-minded anti-abortionists who see no farther than the small bubble in which they live. The abortions will continue and people like me, the realists and providers of these services, will prosper as we have for many years now.

By no means am I suggesting that anyone should be forced to have an abortion against their beliefs or their free will. All I say is that the choice should not be taken away from those who choose to have other options in life and not limit themselves. With my arguments and evidence, most of which you’ve probably heard (but some of it I’m sure you haven’t), I have been able to convince two teenager friends of mine who were unsure to make the right decisions in life and not ruin the rest of their lives due to some idiotic beliefs put into their heads by the most unrealistic and closed-minded of Catholic school teachers. I only wish that my studies at the university would allow me more free time so that I may put my evidence and proofs into writing so that others may be enlightened and poor teenagers lives could be saved.

Answer from Randy Alcorn:

Dear Mary,

If you could look back and see yourself as the unborn child whose life was to be taken in an abortion, I’m convinced you would think differently about it. Those in the power position often think little of the needs or rights of those who are small, young, weak and vulnerable. I believe that we who are bigger and stronger should “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9).

I’m saddened to hear you would choose to take the lives of the innocent, violating the sacred ancient oath of Hippocrates. I would encourage you to reconsider your position, and not to play God with young human lives that need your love and care rather than your neglect and disdain. Whether in the days of American slavery or in Nazi Germany, the powerful have always had “fine arguments” for killing the weak and needy. But none of those arguments changes the bottom line—killing weak human beings for the convenience of strong ones.

As for your counsel to others to have abortions, have you done what I have—met with women who decades later grieve over their decision to take the lives of their unborn children? I share with them the love of Christ, and point to Christ’s offer of forgiveness found in the Bible. But I notice that those who talked them into abortions many years ago are nowhere to be found—they have left these women to pick up the emotional pieces on their own, until finally they come into contact with people who love them and will weep with them and help them find God’s grace to move on with their lives. Interestingly, those people who are there to help them are almost always prolife, not proabortion.

Where are the people now who have taken these women’s money and killed their children and set themselves up as noble servants of humanity? Don’t kid yourself, Mary—it isn’t heroism to tear apart little children for a living, then drive away in your BMW at the end of the day. I feel no animosity toward you, and I don’t hate abortionists I know. I pity them and pray for them. But that doesn’t change the ugliness of what they do.

God warns us, “Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed” (Deut. 19:10). The Bible says God hates “hands that shed innocent blood” (Prov. 6:17). “But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion” (Jer. 22:17). God promises he will eventually bring judgment on all who shed the blood of the innocent and refuse to repent and seek his forgiveness.

I cringe to think of those who will stand before the Almighty having prided themselves in the killing of children. “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

I don’t know you, Mary, but I sincerely pray you will come to repentance and embrace the grace of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord, who died on the cross for you. I pray this not simply for the sake of children and women who may otherwise suffer at your hands. I pray it for your sake too. God loves not only them, but you. Jesus died not only for them (and me), but for you. He cares, Mary.

I’m glad you wrote. You’re in my prayers.

Randy Alcorn