Recently my brother went to a used book sale and bought an older book for me written by Dr. R.C. Sproul Sr. entitled Now That’s a Good Question! I am a fan of Sproul’s normally well-crafted and thoughtful defense of the Christian faith. But after I read Sproul’s answer to the question, “Is a woman acting in sin when she aborts a pregnancy that is the result of rape?” I found his answer to this question — and an earlier one posed about babies with abnormalities — so filled with needless obscurity that I started to argue with him out loud.
Dr. Sproul wrote that Christians should never be involved with these “therapeutic abortions,” such as one that resulted from rape. But he continued, writing, “I certainly don’t think that it is clearly against the law of God to have a therapeutic abortion in the case of rape or incest.” Seriously?! We do not put the rapist to death for perpetrating their brutal crimes or sterilize parents who have had children with abnormalities. Why then would we put the baby to death for being a victim, or for handicaps that are no fault of their own? It is quite clear that the law of God condemns putting the innocent to death. Jesus warned us not to even offend one of his little ones for we would be better off to have a millstone wrapped around our necks and be cast into the sea.
Furthermore, to call an abortion of any baby “therapeutic” is ludicrous. There is nothing medically or psychologically therapeutic or curative about death – neither for the baby nor the mother. Abortion does not cure a child with abnormalities – it simply wipes them from the face of the earth. An abortion does not take away the pain of a woman’s rape, but increases her misery with sorrow over the death of her child. A baby, normally considered a mother’s treasure, becomes trash for a garbage dump. This is considered therapeutic?
Dr. Sproul Sr. also warns his readers not to get “sidetracked by that ‘special case’ issue.” But every child is a “special case,” because it’s the loss of a child made in the image of God. The death of a child conceived in rape or a child with abnormalities is no less horrific than mass genocide. Was the baby conceived in rape not known by God or a heritage from Him? In that babe’s mouth was praise not perfected? Did He not form and knit them together in the womb with great purpose like any other child? We are not to despise any of God’s little ones. Unlike Sproul, I cannot “understand those who would want to say that it be permissible” to allow abortion due to rape or incest. I am involved in a group called Save The 1 and I have many “special case” friends. As a friend of mine who was conceived in rape so aptly put it, “I am my mother’s daughter, not a rapist’s baby.” The defense of her life and others like her is not a sidetrack to the pro-life movement, but the very heart of it.
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Let’s not be gutless and pretend compassion for a woman is based in the idea that the law of God is unclear. We are most compassionate to the women that experience horrific brutality or women with abnormal babies when we stand beside them and show them that our God specializes in bringing beauty out of ashes, purpose in sorrow, and strength to their darkest hour. We would do well to speak and warn as Susan B. Anthony once did, saying that abortion will only, “burden a woman’s conscience in this life and her soul in death.”
Why would I take so much time to address Dr. Sproul’s answer? Because my daughter with multiple handicaps is one of those special cases that society singles out for destruction. Ambiguity from Christian theologians becomes a foothold for those who oppose life. The church's choice not to respond to the ‘special case’ has been our awful and silent response. Dr. R.C. Sproul – make it clear that every abortion is “bloody murder.”