“I Can Make a Baby”—and Kill That Baby!

A heart-wrenching video has brought the abortion issue into the spotlight once again—not just in the USA, but in news outlets around the world.

A young lady in New Jersey has made a video of herself having an abortion. Afterwards she actually said, “I don’t feel like a bad person. I don’t feel sad. I feel in awe of the fact that I can make a baby. I can make a life. I knew that what I was going to do was right ‘cause it was right for me and no one else.”¹

And what did she do to that baby, to that life? She killed the baby!

The video does not show the actual abortion. Rather it does show her face as she underwent this terrible, murderous procedure.

This video is being described as a “positive abortion story.” Now, how can there be any such thing? This young lady, who is an abortion clinic counselor, believes there is a positive outcome of abortion, and to “prove” it, she recorded herself undergoing this abortion. Emily Letts, who works for the Cherry Hill Women’s Center in New Jersey (the actual clinic that performed her abortion), entered her three-minute video into a contest organized by the Abortion Care Network. Her film, along with one other, was selected as a winner by the organization. According to the Abortion Care Network, “winning entries receive cash prizes and a $100 donation will also go to the abortion fund of [Letts’s] choice.”²

Spinning Murder as “Birth-Like”

In a report by the Courier-Post of New Jersey, Letts is quoted as saying that her motivation for making the short film was “to show women that there is such a thing as a positive abortion story.” Letts’s statement brings to mind the familiar verse of Scripture, Isaiah 5:20:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Clearly misguided, Letts has taken an appalling and horrifying practice and spun it in a way that even many strident pro-abortion advocates have not. She calls the practice a “positive” experience that “will always be a special memory.”³ In her article for Cosmo, she explains that it was “as birth-like as it could be.”⁴

Except that consenting to the murder of a human life is anything but “birth-like.” The word birth means “bringing forth,” “commencement of existence,” “creation.”⁵ Scripture speaks of children as a blessing from God:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. (Psalm 127:3)

In the biblical sense (the only sense that ultimately matters), abortion is the exact opposite of “birth-like.” It produces death; no blessing results from it.

It’s interesting to note that after her abortion, Letts talks about guilt:

. . . of course everyone feels bad about this, of course everyone’s gonna feel guilty, as if it’s a given how people should feel about this that what they are doing is wrong. 

In her article for Cosmo, she demonstrated once again her dislike of guilt:

Our society breeds this guilt. We inhale it from all directions. Even women who come to the clinic completely solid in their decision to have an abortion say they feel guilty for not feeling guilty. Even though they know 110 percent that this is the best decision for them, they pressure themselves to feel bad about it.

In Philadelphia magazine, she responded to a question with this answer:
 

Trust me. I counsel women on grief and loss all the time. You feel very much like you're saying goodbye, a feeling of emptiness, a feeling of giving up an idea.⁶

But why should someone even bring up the thought of feeling “guilty,” “bad,” or “like you’re saying goodbye”?

Well, it’s because human beings are not animals. We are made in the image of God. And God has written His law on our hearts. We do have a conscience. Intrinsically, we know what is right and wrong:

Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. (Romans 2:15)

In the Courier-Post, Margo Kaplan, assistant professor of law and public policy at Rutgers School of Law-Camden, said, “The discourse tends to be dominated on both sides of the abortion (debate) as an experience that one can only survive, and not one in which individuals look back on with an appreciation for the choice that they had.” Telling society that abortion (which is killing a human being made in the image of God) should be looked upon with appreciation is a clear example of calling evil, good.

Dr. David Menton, a world-class anatomist who retired from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, and now works full-time at Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum, weighed in on Letts’s video and article:

How sad, this young lady appears on the video to have suffered some of the pain of childbirth with none of the joys of motherhood. As for the father of the child, he seems to be dismissed as no more than a casual inseminator unworthy of even being told about the child he helped conceive. The only encouraging thing I heard in the video is that the mother apparently cherishes the sonogram of her unborn baby so much that, if her apartment were to catch fire, she says this photo would be the first thing she would save! If only she had saved the baby herself. She appears to realize that this is not a photo of merely a part of her body, such as an excised gall bladder, but rather a photo of a unique human being. Still, I am not ready to cast the first stone. Should she repent of this sin of abortion, our Savior, who was Himself once a first trimester fetus, stands ready to forgive her even as He has forgiven me for countless sins.

Dr. Menton is absolutely correct. Even in a culture that increasingly and sadly favors death over life, there is always forgiveness available to the one who truly repents of sin and trusts in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. That offer of forgiveness is available for Emily Letts, too:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

In Philadelphia magazine, Letts states,

You cannot judge. But our culture does not value empathy. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. Your religion cannot rule over everyone else.⁷

Our sin nature is such that we want to be our own god.

Think back to Letts’s earlier quote. She said, “I don’t feel like a bad person.  I don’t feel sad.  I feel in awe of the fact that I can make a baby.  I can make a life.  I knew that what I was going to do was right ‘cause it was right for me and no one else.” ¹

Now, what Letts is really saying in the quotes above is that no one has a right to tell her what to do. She is the one who decides what is right and what is wrong. This is the sad, practical outworking of our sin nature:

For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5)

Our sin nature is such that we want to be our own god. We don’t want the God who created us to tell us what is right and wrong. We want to be submissive to ourselves, not our Creator!

An abortion, like the one that this young lady has made very public, is nothing less than a human being deciding that she is her own god, and therefore can take the life of another human being—who is made in the image of God. The one true God, who is the only righteous judge, makes it clear that her abortion was murder.

The Sanctity of Life in a Culture of Death

At Answers in Genesis, we want to equip you to boldly stand up for unborn human beings made in the image of God. That’s why we have produced a variety of resources to assist you, your family, and your church in tackling this important sanctity of life issue.

Because this shocking video has been reported worldwide, AiG would like to offer you a free download of an AiG video that we believe is one of the most powerful pro-life presentations you will ever watch:

For this special offer, we are making Dr. David Menton’s very popular presentation Fearfully and Wonderfully Made available on YouTube, and an updated version is available as a free download on our website (this free video download offer expires May 31, 2014). The updated version is from the Sanctity of Life video set, which also features Dr. Georgia Purdom and Dr. Tommy Mitchell.

Also, Dr. Tommy Mitchell of AiG discusses when life begins in his short video available on our YouTube channel, which is from the DVD series that accompanies the New Answers Books.

In addition, we recommend an excellent article to help answer questions about abortion and when life begins.

Dr. Tommy Mitchell’s article Chapter 29: When Does Life Begin? comes from The New Answers Book 2, which examines the issue of abortion from the biblical worldview. Scripture is clear that God created life and intends for it to continue. From the beginning, God commanded humans to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). God’s Word demonstrates how intimately involved He is in the formation of human life:

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to stand up for what Scripture teaches.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them. (Psalm 139:13–16)

How can Christians combat the kind of damaging, warped thinking that Letts is promoting? As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to stand up for what Scripture teaches is morally right and to graciously speak the truth with wisdom:

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4:5–6)

These resources will prepare you to combat the false views of the world concerning human life, and to reach out to the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Join us at Answers in Genesis in praying for Emily Letts and other abortion advocates, that they would see their sin, repent, and have their hearts changed by the saving power of the gospel.