Commentary on Supreme Court Partial-Birth Abortion Decision

April 19, 2007

The first “official” piece of writing I did as executive director of Lutherans For Life was a negative response to President Clinton vetoing a Congressional ban on Partial-Birth Abortion in April 1996. The good news, eleven years later, is that the U. S. Supreme Court upheld as constitutional a Congressional ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. The bad news? It’s eleven years later!

In 1996 we thought it absurd that this country could even be debating the legality of sucking the brains out of a partially delivered baby. Now we have an eleven-year legacy of absurdity in getting to the point of declaring that no one has the constitutional right to do such a thing. I hope everyone sees what this says about the degradation of our society. I hope no one sees how far we’ve come, but rather how far we have yet to go.

But getting back to the good news—a line has been drawn. I remember listening to Joni Eareckson Tada give a speech in which she said, “Drawing lines is necessary, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because drawing lines is at stake.” This line is significant in the fact that it was drawn, not because it will negatively affect the abortion industry or save the lives of many babies. There is some hope in the language of Justice Kennedy’s opinion, as quoted in the New York Times (April 18), that “the government may use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for life within the woman.”

Lutherans For Life will continue to help Lutherans see abortion as a spiritual issue and equip them to teach others about the God-given value of human life from the moment of conception. That’s where the line needs to be drawn. When “profound respect for life within the woman” is boldly and lovingly taught in our churches, and God’s people make their voice known in society, perhaps the need for government’s “regulatory authority” will disappear entirely.

Jim Lamb

Executive Director

Lutherans For Life