What Kind of An Issue?
Arkansans For Limited Government is an organization seeking to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot that would, in their own words, “prevent the state from restricting access to abortion up to 18 weeks after fertilization or in the instance of rape or incest, fatal fetal anomaly, or when abortion is needed to protect the pregnant woman’s life or physical health.”1 This would make abortion constitutionally protected under state law.2 Dr. Amy Galdamez recently wrote an opinion piece heavily promoted by the organization in which she argues in support of this constitutional amendment. Central to her article is understanding precisely what kind of an issue we are dealing with when talking about abortion. She states:
“This isn’t a political issue or a religious issue. Yes, it is an ethical issue. But more importantly, this is a health-care issue, and abortion is health care.3
Merriam-Webster defines healthcare as “efforts made to maintain, restore, or promote someone’s physical, mental, or emotional well-being especially when performed by trained and licensed professionals.”4 Indeed the very breakdown of the words “health” and “care” support the idea that healthcare is supposed to promote physical wellbeing. Saying that abortion is a “healthcare issue” is grossly misleading because the very procedure of abortion is designed to kill the baby. It is not a “healthcare issue.” We are not talking about the best way to treat a headache or how to get over the flu, neither are we addressing how to heal someone who has broken their arm. With abortion, the specific issue is the reality that a baby is being murdered. She does say that it is an ethical issue, but her whole article focuses on it as healthcare. However, it is indeed a moral issue and it is inconsistent to treat it as a different category!
Complex Situations Do Not Change The Dignity of Life
For Dr. Galdamez, it seems as though the complexity of medical situations serves as an excuse to murder human beings. She lists a long string of situations wide and varied which are found in our world today. Indeed, situations such as a pregnant mother having cancer are horrifically grievous. The answer is not to end the life of the child but to do everything possible to save both the life of the mother and the life of the child. After all, that is the basic calling of a doctor, to seek to preserve life and bring healing. Perhaps the most telling example she lists is the following:
“The fetus whose chromosomes are abnormal, who has a high likelihood of congenital anomalies: How far along should that woman’s pregnancy progress to prove how sick that baby is? The woman struggling with mental health complications whose IUD failed: Are suicidal ideations enough? Does there have to be a suicide attempt first?”5
Why does a congenital abnormality call for the death of the child? Should every kid with Down Syndrome, a cleft palate, or a club foot be murdered? If that is the case, how about individuals outside of the womb who have medical issues? If someone is in a car accident with their face scarred should they be murdered? I am sure Dr. Galdamez would shudder at the thought, yet when taken to its conclusion that is precisely where her logic would lead. How about the adult who develops a mental condition like dementia later in life? Should they be killed as soon as they develop that truly tragic condition? Such a thought is entirely unethical.
Yet, she also says that abortion should be available for a mom struggling with mental illness. If a mom feels suicidal does that mean that she should be able to have her 5-year-old child killed? Clearly, no one would advocate for that position. Then why should she be able to have a child of any age, inside or outside of the womb murdered? The obvious answer is that individuals like Dr. Galdamez are operating according to an inconsistent, untrue, and frankly warped standard of ethics that is not found in the Bible. God values all of life from the womb all the way to natural death because every human being is made in His image (Genesis 9:6). The woman struggling with suicide doesn’t need to murder her child as the answer. She needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the guidance of His Word to lead her through. Her need is for a local church to point her to the truth, not for an abortionist to kill her child!
Faulty Arguments
Even beyond these points, the article is filled with multiple problematic statements. For example, the opening sentence of the article states:
“On June 24, 2022, Arkansas’ 2019 trigger ban went into effect, banning pregnancy termination except in cases of an ectopic pregnancy or in a medical emergency to save the life of a mother.”6
At best, this is sloppily worded leading the reader to think that no one can access abortion in Arkansas except for ectopic pregnancies and in medical emergencies. Sadly, chemical abortions are still very much legal in the state where a woman can take a pill to kill her child. Chemical abortion still goes unchecked in this state, which is why we need to abolish abortion counting it as murder under the law. She makes another problematic statement:
“I promise no woman ever wants to terminate a pregnancy. I promise you no doctor ever wants to perform a pregnancy termination. And none of us OB/GYN physicians want routine pregnancy termination to be any woman’s family planning method of choice. But I can also promise that the need for it to be available legally, locally, safely, as a health-care service will persist.”7
It is blatantly incorrect to say that no woman wants to get an abortion (terminate their pregnancy). The #ShoutYourAbortion campaign has abundantly demonstrated that. This statement leads people to believe that women are always the ones who somehow have to do what they do not desire . . . wrong! Overall, this article and the position advocated by Arkansans for Limited Government are detrimental on many levels. Friends, let us call the civil magistrate to protect the sanctity of human life. We must proclaim the biblical standard of justice so that the righteousness of Christ can be upheld as we seek to love all our neighbors, including those in the womb.8 God has spoken and revealed Himself plainly in His Word, may we hold up His sufficient standard by which we know and live out what is true!
Sources
1 https://arliberty.org/about/
2 You can find my response as to why abortion is not a “limited government issue” here: https://thechristianmanifesto.org/1205/is-abortion-a-limited-government-issue/
3 https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/mar/09/what-is-too-sick/
4 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/health%20care
5 https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/mar/09/what-is-too-sick/
6 https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/mar/09/what-is-too-sick/
7 https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/mar/09/what-is-too-sick/
8 For an unpacking of the biblical position on abortion I recommend this sermon:
Excellent. Have you heard of Seth Gruber? He is a lion for the unborn, and has formed White Rose Resistance to bring abortion to an end.
Perhaps you can link arms.
Hi there! I’m from Brazil and right now we are struggling with leftists that are fighting to approve abortion laws. Thank you for this article. Very elucidative and Christ centered.
Pray for us!
Judith
Thanks for leaving a comment, definitely praying!