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The Gospel Observer
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to
observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19,20).
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August 5, 1990
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Contents:
1) Our Abortion Was Scheduled For Thursday at
Five! (Peter Morris)
2) "Brephos" (Tom Edwards)
3) Saline Abortion (Kathleen Malloy)
4) Abortion to Save the Mother ( C. Everett Koop, M.D., U.S. Surgeon
General)
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-1-
Our Abortion Was Scheduled For Thursday at Five!
by Peter Morris
The nurse was businesslike, yet nice in a "we would like to have your
money" sort of way.
"Don't worry about a thing" she said. "The baby isn't even formed yet,
and the uterus contains only some bloody material."
We were in Florida's newest abortion clinic. My wife and I had decided
to look into the possibility of an abortion. Our first pregnancy was
somewhat unplanned and neither of us felt ready to become
parents. We were both engaged in jobs that had become lifestyles.
Such was our devotion to the workaday world that we thought of children
only in the future, along with the house with the white picket fence.
Actually, we were somewhat divided on the abortion issue. While I
personally did not like the implications, I could probably have seen my
way into approval. My wife knew nothing of the "right to life" movement
and viewed the process as little more than contraceptive.
Now that the abortion issue has again warranted front-page headlines,
the reality of abortion is once more thrust into our
consciousness. While one group is blasting the "legal murder"
concept, another is proclaiming the rights of the impoverished to have
tax-paid abortions. One group has won, at least for the moment;
but here will never be a true victory.
While the battles rage, I remember the issue on a far more personal
level.
Three weeks remained in which we could legally obtain the process of
"life termination." As the date drew nearer, the idea of killing an
unborn child grew more and more real to both of us. We were besieged by
those who called the process murder. Others said it was merely a minor
operation that involved "the sucking out of the uterus."
Reluctantly, we set a date. "Thursday at 5:00 p.m." The nurse routinely
gave us our appointment. "Plan to take a day or so off from work, Mrs.
Morris."
The days were long prior to our scheduled time. Few words were spoken
on any subject; the issue of abortion was almost totally cast from our
limited conversation. Talk of abortion only prolonged the agony.
It was a joint decision after much soul-searching and
deliberation. We had made up our minds.
Thursday dawned clear and began as usual. Both of us headed to work,
although we had arranged to leave early to attend to some "special
business." Almost angrily we drove ourselves, hoping that unlimited
activity would shorten the day and make it end more quickly. It was
strangely like the night before Christmas when you're young, and you
can't wait for the morning to come. Except that it was the evening we
desired.
Mercifully, our appointed hour came.
Several years later, we were to view some rather sobering
photographs. The "bloody mass" we had heard so much about was
before our eyes -- but something was definitely wrong. From the red,
chewed-up pile of unborn humanity protruded arms and tiny hands. Each
hand was complete with the most perfectly formed fingers. Legs and feet
were also evident in dismembered obscenity.
We looked at the photographs, actually taken of recently aborted
children during legal trimester abortions. Tears filled our eyes. No
one had ever told us the full truth...least of all those who were so
willing to "help out" at our local abortion clinic.
How thankful we were when we looked up from the pictures and beheld our
beautiful, blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter.
How thankful we were that at 4:30 p.m. on a Thursday less than three
years ago -- we had changed our minds.
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-2-
"Brephos"
No distinction is made in the Scriptures between babes in the womb and
those already born. The word "brephos," used to describe the baby in
Elizabeth's womb, is used interchangeably for both prenatal (Luke
1:41,44) and postnatal babies (Luke 18:15-17). It means "an unborn
child, embryo, fetus; a newborn child, an infant...a babe" (Thayers
Greek English Lexicon, p. 105).
-- Tom
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-3-
Saline Abortion
by Kathleen Malloy
I'm a housewife and a registered nurse from Jacksonville. I worked the
11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, and when we weren't busy, I'd go out to help
with the newborns. One night I saw a bassinet outside the nursery.
There was a baby in this bassinet -- a crying, perfectly formed baby --
but there was a difference in this child. She had been scalded. She was
the child of a saline abortion.
This little girl looked as if she had been put in a pot of boiling
water. No doctor, no nurse, no parent, to comfort this hurt, burned
child. She was left alone to die in pain. They wouldn't let her in the
nursery -- they didn't even bother to cover her.
I was ashamed of my profession that night! It's hard to believe this
can happen in our modern hospitals, but it does. It happens all the
time. I thought a hospital was a place to heal the sick -- not a place
to kill.
I asked a nurse at another hospital what they do with their babies that
are aborted by saline. Unlike my hospital, where the baby was left
alone struggling for breath, their hospital puts the infant in a bucket
and puts the lid on. Suffocation! Death by suffocation!
Another nurse said she had to stop helping with abortions. The little
severed arms and legs from suction abortions were just too much for her
to look at.
Aren't you happy our moms weren't born in this generation? It could
have been one of us in that lonely bassinet -- or that ugly bucket.
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-4-
Abortion to Save the Mother
Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a
smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery, I have never known
of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother's
life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that
threaten the mother's health, the doctor will either induce labor or
perform a Caesarean section. His intention is to save the life of both
the mother and the baby. The baby's life is never willfully destroyed
because the mother's life is in danger.
-- C. Everett Koop, M.D., U.S. Surgeon General
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The Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation
1) Hear the gospel,
for that is how faith comes (Rom. 10:17; John 20:30,31).
2) Believe in the
deity of Christ (John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent of sins
(Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith in Christ
(Rom. 10:9,10; Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water
for the remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4;
Gal. 3:26,27; 1 Pet. 3:21).
6) Continue in the faith;
for,
if
not,
salvation
can
be
lost (Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet.
2:20-22).
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First published for the Tri-state church of Christ in Ashland,
Kentucky, at 713 13th Street.
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards
tedwards1109@gmail.com
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