By Terry Schlossberg, PPL Executive Director
Reprinted from Presbyterians Pro-Life NEWS, Fall 1998

We have a new baby in our family. He's five and a half months old at this writing. His name is Abraham. He reaches out now and grabs what he wants. He just started sitting up and is still a little wobbly, so he's surrounded by pillows to protect him when he loses his balance. He's recently begun expressing himself in a deep belly laugh, most often elicited by his brothers. And he clearly has a love affair with his mother. Yesterday, while she was holding this 18 pound bundle of humanity, she reminded me of when I first saw him.

Before we knew him
He was thirteen weeks old then, about four inches in length, and I watched him moving silently in the darkness of his momma's womb through the wonders of ultrasound. Back then we didn't know if he was a boy or a girl and he had no name. We didn't know which family members his features would favor (I think all my grandchildren look just like me!); and we didn't know anything about this little personality that we now interact with daily: the tyranny of his screams, the delight of his smiles, and the ridiculous sounds he makes when he plays with his older brothers.

It was not the single cell we wanted
It was not the single cell of humanity that we wanted from this pregnancy, or even that 13 week old fetus we could make out in ultrasound. What we wanted, of course, was this little person who is growing rapidly toward adulthood right before our eyes. But he began his life as that first little cell, with everything in it that makes him who he is today. Until he was delivered into our hands and we began to fuss over him, he was a stranger to us in that hidden place where God was at work knitting him together, as the Scripture describes so well.

Our feelings are developmentally delayed
That's why abortion is so easy, isn't it? Our feelings have not yet developed into full blown love for this child. The child may be right on schedule developmentally, but our affections are developmentally delayed. The result is that each new baby's life is completely dependent on how well we have progressed toward loving him or her.

But that's why abortion is so wrong, isn't it? That's why we are not ever going to be able to say convincingly that abortion is a blessing. Too many of us know the truth. That baby, from that very first moment of his existence is a valued and loved special creation of God, made in his image. Scripture describes God's very special attention and care in the creation of human beings. And, as if to remind us that God is not a great "clock maker" who simply set the world in motion, Psalm 139 describes his loving activity in the creation of each new life, billions of times over.

Before we loved little Abraham, God had "written all his days" before him. We were not sovereign over his little unborn life; God was. And God charged us to care for and protect him before we ever knew him. Whether we wanted him or not.

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