| The Food and Drug Administration has made it easier for women to use a medication that causes abortion. Mifeprex, formerly known as RU-486, induces miscarriage. The FDA’s ruling lowers the dosage and thus the cost of the medicine, reduces medical supervision, and increases the number of days a woman can use the drug to ten weeks after beginning her last menstrual cycle.
This decision is expected to expand the use of this abortion-causing drug. How should pro-life supporters respond?
One: Understand the scope of the issue.
The number of abortions in America since Roe v. Wade is one-and-a-half times the total population of Canada. I know doctors who have been asked to abort a fetus because it is the wrong gender. Through fetal genetic testing, parents will soon be able to learn more than ever before about the baby’s medical conditions and aptitudes, causing abortion rates to escalate even further.
Two: Work to protect life legally.
Since was abortion was legalized in 1973, many pro-life supporters have focused on legal responses. They have sought to pass laws making abortion illegal or restricting access to it. Since I believe that all life is sacred from the moment of conception, I believe that such efforts are valuable and should continue.
Three: Make abortion so abhorrent that no mother would choose it regardless of its legal status.
Let’s consider Mifeprex as an example. When a pregnant woman takes this drug, what happens to the baby? Nutrients are blocked, causing the fetus to wither and die. One abortion support website notes that the embryo may be visible in later Mifeprex abortions. Its recommendation: “This can be distressing. It is best to flush everything down the toilet or to wrap the sanitary pads in a plastic bag and throw them away.”
What is being flushed down the toilet or thrown away?
At ten weeks, the gender of the unborn child can be known. The baby can move his or her arms and legs. The heart is fully formed and beating; the face is recognizable and fingers and toes are visible. But with the ingestion of Mifeprex, this precious life is ended. The more women know about the facts of abortion, the less likely they may be to choose it.
Four: Support life, not just birth.
Many women choose abortion because of financial or family pressures. If they had the support they need, they would choose life for their baby. Others need to be encouraged to consider adoption. Here you and I can play a direct role. We can volunteer time and money to pregnancy support ministries; we can consider adoption; we can use our influence in other ways to support life.
David said to the Lord, “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). How does our Father feel about the FDA’s decision? How is leading you to respond? |
