Each January, the world celebrates the birth of a brand-new year.
We also celebrate God’s gift of life — the birth of new human beings. January is the Sanctity of Human Life Month.
The first month of the year was chosen to memorialize and generate opposition to the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling on January 22, 1973, which struck down all state laws against abortion, legalizing it throughout the country.
Nearly 50 years later, in June 2022, the Court overturned Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Now, a mighty battle is being waged in the states and in Congress over abortions, taxpayer funding of abortions, and the promotion of either a pro-life or pro-abortion culture.
The battle extends to federal agencies like the Justice Department.
Under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, the federal government has the authority to prosecute people who block access to either abortion clinics or crisis pregnancy centers.
Under the Biden administration, a heavy thumb was placed on the scale of justice to favor the abortion side. In fact, 32 of the 34 defendants convicted under the FACE Act since 2021 have been pro-life activists. This includes Eva Edl, an 89-year-old survivor of a Soviet concentration camp, and several other elderly or infirm women.
At the same time, the Justice Department has been indifferent to the nearly 100 physical attacks on pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, plus hundreds of attacks on churches by pro-abortion vandals.
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The good news is that a new, far more pro-life administration and Congress are being seated this month. That’s why this year’s National March for Life, which will take place on Friday, January 24, in Washington, D.C., beginning at noon, will be suffused with optimism that progress can be made toward pro-life policies and a pro-life culture
Dobbs was a game-changer. The highest law of the land as interpreted by the highest court in the land was no longer hostile to the pro-life viewpoint. It was no longer defensible to pretend that a baby in the womb is not human and is therefore disposable.
Those who continue to advocate for abortion must make the immoral case that some human lives are not worth protecting. That should be a steep hill to climb in a nation with a Christian heritage. The pro-abortion viewpoint also is untenable in the face of medical science, which has shown us what goes on in the womb and how each human is utterly unique.
Like slavery, abortion violates the moral law given to us by our Creator. God’s law states that all human life is sacred. It took a terrible civil war, but slavery was finally abolished.
The arguments for abortion are similarly unsustainable. That’s why the pro-life movement has never given up. Pro-life doctors, nurses and scientists have been reminding everyone that at the moment of conception, a new human life springs into being with his or her unique genetic code.
We must tell the truth, promote adoption, provide more help to mothers who keep their babies, and shore up marriage, the surest family structure in which a child can thrive.
We need to make sure that the legal system, as the enforcement arm of the representative democratic republic in which we live, is no longer abused to justify the taking of innocent human life.
This means persuading millions of our fellow Americans that abortion is not the answer to an unwanted pregnancy. It means letting women who have had abortions know that Jesus offers forgiveness, peace and a new life.
I recall vividly the day that my wife Bonnie and I saw the film “Silent Scream” at a theater in Orlando around 1990. This movie depicts a fetus — a tiny human being — desperately trying to avoid the abortionist. Few people can watch it and walk away unaffected.
Our growing faith and clarity about abortion were driving forces in the creation of an investment fund, in 1994, for Bible-believing Christians, Timothy Plan, which was at the forefront of Biblically Responsible Investing.
Other powerful films have also carried the pro-life message, such as 2018’s “Gosnell” and 2019’s “Unplanned.” In 2023, “Sound of Freedom,” which exposed sexual trafficking, also carried the message that each human life is sacred.
We were proud to lend support to the above-mentioned pro-life films and to provide ongoing support to several crisis pregnancy centers.
I mention all this not to boast — it’s all God’s doing. But I want to encourage others to use whatever tools and influence they have to steer us toward a pro-life culture.
The biggest battle of all is taking place in human souls, where even the hardest heart can be softened by the Holy Spirit and the realization that every life should be valued because we are all made in the image of God.
Art Ally is the founder of the Timothy Plan family of Biblically Responsible Investing funds.
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