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Following the vote for barbarism by the US Senate this week, defeating an anti-infanticide bill, Illinois Governor J B Pritzker has promised to make his state the "most abortion-friendly" in the nation---even legalizing self-abortion.
Be informed.
The rush to death
Illinois Governor Pritzker is promising to make his state the most "abortion-friendly" state in America---the "abortion capital" of the country.
The law goes well beyond Roe v Wade, and beyond any sensitivity to the sanctity of life.
The governor's "Reproductive Health Act" is named after the bill New York recently passed.
You will recall that New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo---who signed the bill into law---celebrated its impact with like-minded New York folks, saying that New York now leads in abortion rights---including aborting a child at birth.
At the time, Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said:
"I'm calling on all people of good faith to denounce this bill, especially all those who call New York their home."
But it isn't isolated to New York. The obsession with killing unwanted children is epidemic.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.) said earlier this week, as he tried to persuade the Senate to approve the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, "I can't believe we are even having this conversation in America."
Sasse asked his colleagues in the US Senate, "Do you support infanticide?"
Well, they do. They killed the pro-life bill.
A growing number of other states are following.
And those who are pushing it are celebratory when they succeed.
Now Illinois claims to be the most "abortion-friendly" state in the Union because they are taking "legalized" abortion to a new level of barbarism---their bill includes legalized self-abortion.
What happened to the old far Left argument that legalized abortion kept women healthy and prevented back alley, clothes-hanger-self-induced abortions?
Illinois State Senators Melinda Bush, Elgie Sims Jr., and Representatives Kelly Cassidy and Emanuel "Chris" Welch announced the Senate and House bills last week at the ACLU headquarters in Chicago.
"As a woman, a mother and someone who has been a long time supporter of full access to reproductive healthcare, from contraception, abortion, pregnancy and postpartum care, it is time to modernize and update these laws to reflect the equality of women in Illinois," Cassidy said.
Modernize? Update?
There is no question in the minds of people with any sense of right and wrong that all abortions are killing unborn, unwanted children in the womb.
Taking the act of abortion to late-term, and even post-birth, is no more or less wrong morally but takes deceived people across the threshold to infanticide.
Senator Sasse asked his colleagues in the Senate, "Do you support infanticide?"
The true answer based on their actions is, "yes."
Infanticide is neither "modern" or "updated."
The Greeks considered infanticide barbaric, so instead of outright killing the unwanted child, they developed a family planning system called "exposure."
"Exposure" was the act of leaving or abandoning an unwanted child. It was not considered murder, because the policy suggested that a passerby or a god could take pity on the child and save it.
"Exposure" was common in Rome as well. In fact, in a letter from a man to his wife during 1 BC, he says:
"I am still in Alexandria...I beg and plead with you to take care of our little child, and as soon as we receive wages, I will send them to you. In the meantime, if (good fortune to you!) you give birth, if it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, expose it." (Lewis Naphtali, ed.1985 Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 744. Life Under Roman Rule, Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp 54.)
Another so-called "modern" and "updated" option was to take the child to the family patriarch and they would decide whether the child should be killed or left to "exposure." Usually, babies with birth defects were killed. (Samuel X. Radbill 1974 "A History of Child Abuse and Infanticide" in Steinmetz and Murray, Violence in the Family, NY: Dodd, Mead Co. pp173-179).
All ancient cultures have practiced some form of abortion/infanticide. Generally the motive was economic. Kids are expensive. Boys were generally seen as more helpful in agriculture, girls seen as more expensive. In fact there is an old Indian proverb that says: "Having a daughter is like watering your neighbor's garden."
Germany practiced infanticide by leaving their unwanted babies in the forest without food---often because the baby was born out of wedlock. Child sacrifice under the policy of "exposure" was practiced among the Gauls, Celts, and Irish.
Marco Polo wrote about seeing many babies "exposed" in Mani. Sex selection was common in China. Japan called their practice of infanticide "mabiki," which means to "pull plants from an overcrowed garden." In India, parents threw their children into the Ganges as a sacrificial offering.
Some of these countries practiced these acts until the 19th and even 20th centuries.
All of these practices were designed to make parents feel good about getting rid of unwanted children.
Now, the United States is celebrating these same ancient barbaric acts, calling it modern and contemporary.
The Illinois bill will even force insurance companies to cover abortion, with no exceptions for churches or other religious organizations.
The real solution.
By 374 AD, infanticide was illegal in Rome.
Why the change?
Christians in Rome were unwilling to accept the practice of both abortion and infanticide based on Apostolic biblical teaching. And Christianity had spread throughout the collapsing Roman Empire.
Several extra-biblical sources affirm that Christians "abhorred" the practice.
In 318 AD, Constantine said, "I felt that infanticide was a crime." In 374 AD, Valentinian said that people "must rear all children." The Council of Toledo worked on ending the Spanish custom of killing their children. (Samuel X Radbill noted above.)
History confirms that Christians, although martyred, driven into underground tunnels to live, thrown to animals for sport, beheaded, beaten and imprisoned---they stood for Christ and the message of the gospel.
They stood for life.
Thank God for the politicians we have in office today who stand boldly for God's Truth and life. However, there are not enough, as the vote this week in the Senate affirmed.
The only solution to our current cultural crises is the same solution that prevailed in Rome.
Biblical Christianity.
What will it cost us to take the necessary stand?
And who among us will stand for righteousness?
Pastor Samuel Rodriquez posted this on Instagram:
"The world is broken. I am personally troubled by New York State's passage of the so-called Reproductive Health Act ( RHA) on the 46th anniversary of Roe v Wade, and we condemn this deeply disturbing and egregious bill in the strongest possible terms......this bill gives medical providers complete cover to kill---and that's exactly what it is---fully formed, fully viable, third trimester human babies, even up to the time of birth."
He calls on people of faith to denounce the bill in the strongest terms and work to create political consequences for those who advance such practices in our country.
"But we must go further," he writes. "Our Christian community must speak with a unified voice. Today's complacency is tomorrow's captivity. Today's silence is tomorrow's cry for help. The world is broken. It's time for the Church to rise up with truth and love, in Jesus name."
Be Faithful Be Fearless. Be Willing Be Prayerful.