Abortion: The Voice of the Surviving Generations

From LifeDate - Spring 2006.

Abortion: The Voice of the Surviving Generations

January 22, 1973—another date that lives on in “infamy.” On that date, the Supreme Court of the United States, in two decisions (Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton) effectively legalized abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy for any reason (or no reason). Three authors, ranging in age from 17 to 33, reflect on how the abortion culture has affected today’s youth, on the importance of listening to what youth are saying—and the importance of helping pro-life youth share and defend the For Life message.

Rev. Ryan Matthias is Associate Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa, husband of Sarah, and father of Sam:

I’m not sure that I survived abortion—I just outlived many of my friends who did not.

My generation has many holes punched into its fabric, over forty million; the missing pieces being all those who never saw the light of day. And now our fabric is so much more easily torn. I watch as the cords of our generation become tattered and frayed as they support the prior generation who said it was acceptable to cut into ours.

I scream out with the prophet Jeremiah (31:15), “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more” NIV. And I mourn for the irretrievable strains of those who will never cry out at all. Theirs are the voices which would never utter, “I love you, Daddy.” Theirs are the lives that were changed from “pregnancy” to “pre-existing condition.” Theirs are the eyes that never saw the Grand Canyon, or had the overwhelming wedding kiss.

I was born in 1973, the third in a set of triplets, thirty-six days after abortion became legal. During my one-third century, I’ve had the opportunity to witness the fabric of our generation become weaker and weaker. I’ve watched friends and acquaintances sail on a ship christened “instant self-gratification” and then soon they are tossed into the “Sea of Inconvenience.” “I’ll do what makes me feel good!” their breaths explode from their mouths. But in the end, the sea roils around them, and the waters are roughed up by their own designs. They cling to a buoy called “abortion” and assume that this will rescue them from the Sea.

But it is the voices of my friends, whom I will never know, who are the ones “drowned” out.

Never, in all of scripture, did God say, “Sacrifice someone else for the sake of your own happiness.” Quite the contrary, God did say, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13) NIV. God never said that life would be “convenient.” He just promised that in Him it would be abundant.

Recently, I watched as my two-year-old son, Sam, decided that being around me wasn’t interesting enough. We were in a book store, I with my coffee; he with his running shoes on. He tore off away from me and I got up to go after him. With mischievous eyes, he looked back over his shoulder and dared me to get him.

Unfortunately, he should have been looking forward because his toe caught in a raised mat. He went down—hard. His arms weren’t quick enough to hold him up and he landed face first into the concrete floor. I ran over to him and slid on the floor to pick him up. Before getting there I was thinking, “Why did you have to run away from me? Why couldn’t I have fallen instead of you?”

It was the first time I had ever seen him bleed. It was horrible and tore my heart apart. No father should ever have to see his son bleed. Yet . . .

That’s what God did.

We’ve lost sight of that self-sacrifice for the sake of others. Our kids are growing up in a time when they sacrifice themselves for the sake of their own happiness. They’re killing themselves and feeling good doing it.

The youth of today (from which I am not far removed) have taken permissiveness and promiscuity and relabeled it freedom. They wear fewer clothes on the outside and cover up more hurts on the inside. They seek companionship but are undoubtedly missing the ones who have been taken from them. They desire another Martin Luther King Jr., but instead they only get silence from one who might have been.

It was expected that when abortion was legalized, not everybody would choose that way, although theoretically that could happen. Have we ever imagined that? What would happen to our country if every single child was aborted in one year—that no one had a birthday in 2007? Imagine a whole year, 2025 when no one graduated from high school. Who would be the voice of that generation?

And so now I am given the label: a voice of the surviving generation. Everyone thirty-three and younger, including the child I baptized last weekend, is bestowed the privilege of being delivered through the age of “choice”—an Exodus of sorts. We are a generation now walking in the wilderness because of the sins of our parents. And the sad part is that there are some who are walking in the wilderness who are repeating those sins.

I believe, though, there are many youth today who are recognizing their losses and counting them. They will not stand for being pro-choice saying, “I don’t believe in abortion, but it’s up to someone else what they think.” Quite the contrary, I think this generation will be as chameleons who will “choose” not to change their color any more. They will not be swayed by rhetoric but will stand for the right to live. And if they don’t, I suppose in thirty-three more years we’ll ask their kids to be the voices of another surviving generation who will look at their parents and wonder why some didn’t survive.

Jessica Neary Bordeleau has a B.A. in Education and a M.A. in Systematic Theology. She has five years of youth ministry experience in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and is currently a Program Director at Camp Luther in Three Lakes, Wisconsin. She also assisted at the Lutherans For Life display at the LCMS Youth Gathering in 2001. Jessica was also featured in the 1998 edition of LFL’s "For Life" video:

What message does legal and accepted abortion as birth control send today’s youth?

Top news stories of euthanasia, federally funded abortion clinics, and state funded sex education curriculums can give the impression that humans are expendable, sex has no consequences, and that the value of life is cheap.

The young people we come into contact with (or avoid) in our communities, congregations, and families have grown up in a world where their lives could have been snuffed out before they were born without any legal consequences. How will this impact their treatment of the elderly in years to come? Will they view their own children differently? Do they see themselves as expendable and unprotected? Will they learn to protect life more fully than their elders have? We have no way of knowing how the abortion culture has affected the psyche of today’s youth—unless we engage them in dialogue and listen to what they have to say.

I have been amazed by the responses of seventh and eighth graders in my confirmation class to the topic of abortion. When we studied the fifth commandment we talked about life and the various ways that life is devalued. When I guardedly explained the different methods of abortion they were irate:

“I can’t believe that happens to babies!”

“Why is that legal if murder is illegal?”

“I don’t understand how that can happen!”

My class was never so somber and serious as on the days we discussed Commandments 5 and 6 (“You shall not murder.” “You shall not commit adultery.”)

Last summer I was responsible for creating the Bible study curriculum for a Lutheran youth camp. The theme for each Monday was “The First Creation; God Loves Life.” Each week I had the joy of watching the faces of one hundred third through ninth graders as they saw a video of pre-born babies. I had them all hold up their thumbs as I shared that God has loved them before they were even the size of a thumb. As they passed around the tiny, plastic, fetal models I could see the amazement on their faces. “God loved me when I was only this big!”

According to surveys taken at the 2004 Lutheran Youth Fellowship Poll at the last Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Youth Gathering, out of the 2,493 LCMS young people polled 75 percent consider themselves pro-life and 63 percent think that premarital sex is always wrong. Young people do think about life issues. Situations involving the value of life and sexuality are not some theoretical idea floating in the clouds. They have solid ideas about what they think is right and wrong, burning questions that need answers, and a very real need to be able to express their views. Will we listen?

The youth of today are the Church of TODAY. They are online, cellular, and chat room connected. They have the ability to reach out to unchurched youth in a way that adults don’t. The young people that sit in your church’s youth room deal with the same life issues that adults do, plus some of their own. What have we done to equip and train them? How can we teach and show them that life is a gift from God? The world is sending them a strong message. What message are you sending them?

Crystal Auch is a high school senior from Lesterville, South Dakota. Crystal’s mother, Lynette, is president of Lutherans For Life of South Dakota:

After 33 years, and over 43 million abortions, many members of Generation Y are missing because of abortion on demand—and more and more surviving members of this generation are saying “Enough!”

Enough of unfair death sentences against unborn children! Enough of the effects of abortion: missing brothers, sisters, friends, and spouses to-be! Such is the voice of this Roe generation, which is rising more ready than ever to fight the battle For Life!

Ready? Those immature teens in the local youth group at church? Yes—ready to be trained in the “how tos” of being pro-life.

Why teens? They possess the curiosity of youth, desire to be counterculture, and are of a generation that is willing to take a stand For Life!

Teens and pre-teens are known for often asking deep, probing questions about morals and ethics. What stimulates these inquiries? Curiosity! They want to know who they are, and they need to be told they are not just a result of chance, but were created by a Divine Intelligence—the Triune God. They need to know God is not a thing of the past, or some spirit who will just show up to judge at the world’s end. They need to know that God is here with us, right now, and truly interested in a teen’s life—every part of it. Teens and pre-teens not only desire their own identity, they desire to understand the purpose of life, in particular their life. This provides an opportune moment to define the Jesus of Scripture, His death on the cross for sinners, and God’s ultimate plan for each of us. Teens that have the comfort of knowing Jesus know why they are here—and where they are going. They also understand that God has work for them to do during their short time on earth. This leads them to the last grand curiosity of youth: Making a Difference! Teens want to make a difference. What more can pro-lifers ask for?

Ever since I entered my teen years, I have been told that I am quite “counterculture.” (Isn’t that normal for my age?) I believe this tendency is not for the worse, but for the better. The desire to be counterculture and different has lead me and other young people to live, as Linda Bartlett writes in Generations of Hope for Generations to Come, “by a different set of values than what the Baby Boomer generation created for them. They don’t want a Christian culture that mimics the mainstream.” What a perfect opportunity for pro-lifers, because pro-life Christians just happen to be “counterculture”!

How do pro-lifers deliver the message to young reformers? By living according to the inspired Word of God, and teaching and mentoring that lifestyle to these little “rebels.”

These “rebels” dare to be pro-life, contrary to the example set for them by many in the previous generations—including many parents. They dare to be For Life because they know the facts: when life truly begins, what it looks like, and Who created it. Ultimately, they have an innate sense that life was created by a Higher Intelligence—by God.

However, their daring to be different does not come without its challenges. They often have no example to follow, with many of their parents being among those who support Roe vs. Wade (a decision that has helped turn America’s culture into a culture of death).

How, then, will these teens help turn America back to a culture of life? This is where experienced and older pro-lifers step in. Teens are seeking an example to follow, so why not give them a mentor to follow? Mentoring is not difficult. There are no specific requirements for one. However, mentors can, by example, help the youth better understand how to use the Word of God to fight the battle successfully.

This presents a challenge, for teens need the Bible to be made alive for them. This doesn’t have to make their elders fearful. The key to connecting the Bible and youth is to make it applicable to their lives, and show where and how God is active in the world around them.

Young people are ready for battle, but they do need some training. Therefore, it is up to members of Lutherans For Life, and other pro-lifers, to do their part. Show who you are in Christ—and your purpose on earth. Encourage teens in their efforts to be counterculture, in the right and proper way, according to God’s Word. Youth need godly examples of pro-life workers and activities—asking God to direct us in our work.