Planned Slaughterhood

Luke 1:39–45 (NKJV)

39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

This week The Center for Medical Progress has continued its expose of Planned Parenthood’s barbaric treatment of the unborn. Not only has Planned Parenthood participated in the slaughter of the innocents on a scale that King Herod would have envied, it has sold the body parts of those slaughtered children to lab workers whose white coats can never cover the blood that is upon their hands.

Our passage today reminds us that infants in the womb are fully and completely human. When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, it was not only a meeting of mothers but a meeting of the boys they were bearing. And the meeting of these boys was electric. John, a fetus developing in Elizabeth’s womb, leapt for joy to meet Jesus, a fetus developing in Mary’s womb. They were not mere tissue but tiny human beings interacting with their environment.

David declares the wonder of God’s creative genius in Psalm 139:13-16 – “For You formed my inward parts; you wove* me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, the days fahioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” God is the Master Craftsman – he not only created the first man, Adam, from the dust of the earth; not only formed the first woman, Eve, from the rib of Adam; but He fashions each man and woman in the womb, giving each a unique identity, calling, and dignity.

Human beings are made in the very image and likeness of God – and yet our laws protect those who kill them and our tax dollars have been used to fund one of the main institutions that slaughters and, now we have learned, sells their body parts. For forty years the blood of our unborn has cried out to God for vengeance and the God of vengeance has heard their cry. And it is our calling as God’s people to hear their cry as well.

So this morning, reminded of the dignity and honor which God has invested in every member of our race, let us confess that we have often mistreated those made in His image and that, as a people, we have too long countenanced the slaughter of the innocents.