The news this week that a record number of British women are now using an abortion pill to terminate their pregnancy at home, should ring very large alarm bells for anyone committed to questions of justice and compassion.



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They disconnected God's nature from God's law - and that's just about as counterproductive as having no law at all.

The Pharisees saw God only as a judge, a disciplinarian. In contrast, Jesus' favourite word for God was 'father'. According to Jesus, God's greatest act in human history was one of love (John 3:16).

Justice was involved, too. I deserved the eternal death which was coming to me (Romans 3:23, 6:23). But God in His love for me allowed Jesus to take that punishment. Thus God's love fulfilled all that God's justice required, but at the greatest possible cost to Him.

Love is an absolute which must also be brought into our discussion about abortion.

Love will cause us to empathise with those women who do not feel able to handle motherhood, but instead of killing their unborn child which would offend God's justice - we should find ways to support them in their motherhood, or to help them have their child adopted.

Where a woman is pregnant due to rape or incest, justice again will rule out abortion. But love will demand that those around her offer support and healing for her shattered self esteem and her understandable sense of violation and outrage.

If genetic abnormalities are expected to show up in the child, we must avoid the temptation to play God, deciding in our limited understanding who will and will not lead meaningful and happy lives and make a contribution to the world.

Do we kill people who go through tragic accidents which leave them paralysed? No, because that would be neither just nor loving. Besides, science is constantly coming up with new ways to alleviate suffering. So why treat the unborn disabled any differently?

It's not really too surprising that in the battered heartland of what used to be the Soviet empire, Russia, most women have between four and five abortions in a lifetime.

That reflects a system of government that denied God, and ruled out His justice and love as foundations for human behaviour. It also demeaned humanity in the process and turned civility into brutish and civilized behaviour into barbarism. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.