Responding to Filmed Abortion

A few weeks ago, the internet was full of opinions about a video that was shared about a woman who filmed her own abortion. She herself is an abortion counselor, and she made it very clear that she thought that filming her experience would be a public service to women who are afraid of getting an abortion. Ever since I watched it, I can’t shake it. I was profoundly impacted by the reality of what The Lord is calling us, His believers, to do about the abortion holocaust in our current culture. If you expect a political view here, you are not going to get one. I see this a bit differently than many of the opinions I have seen going around about this video.

In my counseling office I see many, many women who have had abortions. Some in the distant past, some recently. I have counseled elderly women who had abortions in a back alley because it was illegal. They carried that shame all their lives in secret, until they told me. I have counseled young Christian women who fell in to sin in college, and aborted in secret and now hide in shame. I have counseled a woman who found out as an adult that she was the product of a rape - and a failed abortion, and she struggles to understand God’s purposes. What they all have in common is not just their abortions. What they have in common is what we ALL have in common: sin.

We need to be careful not to be condemning of this woman who filmed her abortion, name-calling and unloving attitudes are not winsome - instead, we need to stand ready to share the Gospel with her. It’s her (and mine and your) only hope for forgiveness and healing.

And she WILL need healing. The impact of abortion is huge.

Don’t get me wrong - I found that video vile, disgusting, and it made me literally weep…for the baby who is now dead and for the woman is also dead - dead in her sin. It gave me an overwhelming desire to take her by the hand and tell her about life, hope, mercy, and grace. I pray that a Christian will come in to her life and tell her that even now, after this atrocious sin she has committed (and so publicly and disgustingly) that there is hope.

It’s too easy to say how awful things have gotten in our current culture and to blame technology. But let’s remember, there is nothing new under the sun. Since Adam, sin has always been disgusting. Technology has just put it more in our face than ever before.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Maybe the fact that it is more in our face is actually a means of Grace that God is providing to our current culture. He knows that we can’t ignore it, hide from it, avoid it, and pretend it isn’t there. That video went viral, and if you use Social Media or watch the news, you had the opportunity to view it. If you have a computer with internet, you can google it and view it. I don’t recommend you do so, but it is right in front of you whether you view it or not.

This is a troubling reality of the times we live in, isn’t it? But it is also an opportunity. An opportunity to realize that God is trying to get our attention. Not for the sake of America’s politics, but for the sake of The Gospel. That is our true mission.

Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

This is a spiritual battle. The young woman is not our enemy. Politicians and voters who keep abortion legal are not our enemy. She’s a lost, deceived sinner and we can’t expect her to see our worldview clearly. Her choice is not a political matter - it is a sin matter. Without God’s grace, we might do what she has done. Let’s not throw stones at her - but let’s do call it what it is - it is sin - and pray for her to be saved by grace. If not for God’s grace in my life, I could be her. So could you.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

Please visit our website, www.wordofhopeministries.com if you or a loved one have been touched by abortion and need hope and healing. We will gladly serve you.