Don't Give Up the Fight

All right, so now that the children are dismissed,

for the rest of us adults, we are talking today about...

The A word, it's nasty.

When you're talking about a...

Whatever you do, don't straight up say what it is.

Seriously, there are so many words and phrases

you can choose to avoid being offensive.

Why say a...

When you can say...

Empowerment.

Empowerment.

Words like coercion, killing, regret are not helpful.

Just saying.

Stick to more uplifting terms, such as...

Self-care, health-care, repro-right, or my favorite...

Choice.

Brilliant, really.

So simple and yet so void of anything truthful.

Love it.

A...

Don't call it what it really is, because that's just too much.

Nobody wants to think about that.

Come on.

I like this hat.

It's a difficult subject, and it's one that we don't like to think about or talk about.

But as I said to the youth on Friday evening, this is one of the most important social justice issues of our day.

Let's get some perspective.

How many COVID deaths have there been in Canada in the past two years?

If the numbers are accurate, about 40,000 people died, and COVID was considered a factor.

That's over the past two years.

That's over the past two years.

That averages out to about 20,000 people per year.

But abortion claims the lives of over 100,000 children every year here in Canada.

Five times as many.

As a culture and as a country, we bent over backwards to fight COVID and save lives.

We put all kinds of restrictions on people.

We mandated that they make certain health choices or else suffer the loss of certain rights and freedoms, all to save lives.

But for the 100,000-plus children each year that are being aborted in their mother's wombs, we say,

Oh, it's not appropriate to make laws in this area.

It's the woman's personal health care choice.

Let her do what she wants to do.

And we'll provide the funding and the freedom for her to do it.

This particular issue has come alive in recent weeks,

ever since this U.S. Supreme Court leaked draft suggesting that Roe v. Wade could be overturned in the United States.

Now, we don't know what the final results will be of all that,

but it certainly has shown us that we are in the midst of a battle over this practice in our two nations today.

And for that, I'm grateful.

Because as Christians, I fear that many of us have simply given up the fight on abortion.

We've stopped talking about it until now, some of us.

Or, if we still do talk about it, sometimes it's only to lament what's going on.

But what are we doing about this terrible injustice still going on in our nation, even in our province today?

And so I have a few goals with our time this morning.

First, I want to help you look on the reality of abortion and what's happening in our nation today.

Because I believe that we will continue to be silent.

We will continue to sit on the sidelines of this fight and watch things get worse

until our hearts are gripped by the horror of what's happening.

And we can stand to be silent and uninvolved no more.

Second, I want to point us to the cross of Christ

and the matchless grace and mercy of Jesus

and what it means for this issue.

Third, I want to give you encouragement about why it's still worth fighting for

this seemingly lost cause.

And finally, I want to call you to action

and give you practical things you can do to join in the fight.

So first, I want to help you look on the reality of abortion and what's happening in our nation today.

We will begin by listening to the testimony of a former abortion doctor in court,

Dr. Anthony Levitino.

During the course of his career, he performed over 1,200 abortions.

Listen to what he has to say.

This investigation of Planned Parenthood is based on false premises,

one after another after another.

It's time to stop wasting time, get on it with meaningful work,

and stop picking on women and trying to take their choice away.

I yield back to the balance of my time.

The time of the gentleman has expired.

We welcome our distinguished witnesses today.

Do you and each of you swear that the testimony that you are about to give

shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

So help you God.

And I'll now begin by introducing today's witnesses.

The first witness is Dr. Anthony Levitino.

Dr. Levitino is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Levitino has practiced obstetrics and gynecology

in both private and university settings,

including as an associate professor of OBGYN at the Albany Medical College.

And Dr. Levitino, we'll begin with you.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chairman and members of the committee.

I only have five minutes, so I'm going to get right to it.

Second trimester D&E abortions perform between roughly 14 and 24 weeks of gestation.

Your patient today is 17 years old.

She's 22 weeks pregnant.

Her baby is the length of your hand plus a couple of inches.

And she's been feeling her baby kick for the last several weeks.

But she's asleep on an operating room table.

You walk into that operating room scrubbed and gowned,

and after removing laminaria, you introduce a suction catheter into the uterus.

This is a 14-French suction catheter.

If she were 12 weeks pregnant or less, basically the width of your hand or smaller,

you could basically do the entire procedure with this.

But babies this big don't fit through catheters this size.

After suctioning the amniotic fluid out from around the baby,

you introduce an instrument called a sofa clamp.

It's about 13 inches long.

It's made of stainless steel.

The business end of this clamp is about 2 1⁄2 inches long and 1 1⁄2 inch wide.

There are rows of sharp teeth.

This is a grasping instrument.

When it gets a hold of something, it does not let go.

A DNA procedure is a blind abortion,

so picture yourself introducing this and grabbing anything you can blindly

and pull, and I do mean hard,

and out pops a leg about that big which you put down on the table next to you.

Reach in again, pull again,

and pull out an arm about the same length which you put down on the table next to you.

And use this instrument again and again to tear out the spine,

the intestines, the heart and lungs.

Head in the baby that size is about the size of a large plum.

Can't see it, but you've got a pretty good idea you've got it

if you've got your instrument around something

and your fingers are spread about as far as they go.

You know you did it right if you crush down on the instrument

and white material runs out of the cervix.

That was the baby's brains.

Then you can pull out skull pieces.

And you have a day like I had a lot of times.

Sometimes a little face comes back and stares back at you.

Congratulations.

You just successfully performed a second trimester DNA abortion.

You just affirmed her right to choose.

One more question, Dr. Levatino.

Why did you end your practice of doing abortions?

I did over 1,200 abortions over a four-year period in private practice,

not counting the ones that I did during my training.

I met my wife during my first year of training at Albany Medical Center.

We got married about a year later and found that we had an infertility problem.

After years of failed infertility treatment and several years trying to adopt a child,

we were blessed with adopting a little girl that we named Heather in August of 1978.

As sometimes happens in those situations, my wife got pregnant the very next month,

and we had two children ten months apart.

Two months short of my daughter Heather's sixth birthday, she was killed in an auto accident

and literally died in her arms in the back of an ambulance.

Anyone who has children might think they have some idea of what that feels like,

but unless you've been through it yourself, you have no idea whatsoever.

I know people find it hard to believe, but what do you do after a disaster?

You bury your child and then you go back to your life.

And I don't remember exactly how long it was after my daughter died

that I showed up at Albany Medical Center OR number nine

to perform my first second trimester D&E abortion.

I wasn't thinking of it as anything special.

This was routine to me.

But I reached in, literally pulled out an arm or leg and got sick.

Earlier on, I described stacking up body parts on the side of the table.

It's not to gross people out, to use a simple term.

When you do an abortion, you need to keep inventory.

You have to make sure you get two arms and two legs and all the pieces.

If you don't, your patient's going to come back infected, bleeding, or dead.

So I soldiered on and finished that abortion.

And I know it sounds, as I said, hard for people to believe,

but I'm telling you straight up my experience.

You know, after over 1,200 abortions, first and second trimester up to 24 weeks,

and all the rest of it, and being very dedicated to it,

for the first time in my life, I really looked.

I really looked at that pile of body parts on the side of the table.

And I didn't see her wonderful right to choose,

and I didn't see all the money I just made.

All I could see was somebody's son or daughter.

And I stopped doing late-term abortions after that,

and several months later stopped doing all abortions.

Thank you.

I find it heart-wrenching to listen to that description of a second trimester abortion,

and I hope you do too.

That's being done in Canada today.

Now, some will point out here that the vast majority of abortions are medical abortions

or chemical abortions using drugs, and happen well before 20 weeks.

The truth is, it's actually quite difficult to get accurate numbers in Canada today,

because only hospitals are required to report abortions in Canada.

For clinics, it's completely voluntary whether they report or not.

Even the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada admits that the numbers during the past several years of COVID

were probably underreported for a variety of reasons.

And then, of course, each province has their own unique system and regulations.

So take, for example, the data from 2020.

This data comes from the Canadian Institute for Health Information,

and it's freely available online to anybody.

And this is just those reported by hospitals,

which make up not very many of that approximately 100,000.

There were 14,815 abortions reported by hospitals in Canada, excluding Quebec.

And as you can see from the first two numbers there,

we know for sure that about 59% of them were first trimester abortions.

If you look at the next couple numbers,

we know for sure that about 18% were either second or third trimester abortions.

And then there are 23% which are unknown.

Even if none of those 23% were second or third trimester abortions,

18% still means that in Canadian hospitals,

2,666 children were torn limb from limb in 2020,

using the technique described by Dr. Levatino.

Now let's remember, that number,

it doesn't include the abortion clinics,

which operate in all but four Canadian provinces and territories now.

And the clinics account for the vast majority of abortions in Canada today,

which means that there are thousands of babies

being destroyed in Canada every year

in the manner described by Dr. Levatino.

Thousands of babies for whom just six months or less,

and they could have had life outside the womb,

grown up, enjoyed the same things that we all do,

these were people,

little people who were ripped apart.

Now one of the common pushbacks here suggests

that first trimester abortions are okay

because it's not yet a human being in the womb.

Well let me ask you,

if it's not a human being,

what is it?

And when does it become a human being?

Almost everybody agrees that it's a human being after it's born.

What about five minutes before it's born?

It's the same baby five minutes before it's born

as it is five minutes after it's born.

The only difference is location.

Does our location make us more or less human?

Surely not.

Well no, it's not location,

it's level of development,

people will say.

It hasn't developed into a human being yet.

Okay?

So at what point does it become fully human

then in the pregnancy,

in the womb?

Here's a picture of Lila Stenzrud.

In this picture she is four years old,

eating a Timbit.

Here's another picture of her with her mom at a party.

She was born in 2014,

and this is a picture of her four years earlier.

She was born in 2014 at just 21 weeks

and four days.

That's basically the halfway point of the pregnancy.

You can find her story all over the internet,

it's even on major news sources,

CNN.

Look at this photo.

Is she a human being?

Is she less of a human being here

than she is here?

She looks admittedly,

maybe,

to us,

less human in this picture.

I mean,

we could look at skin color,

we could look at

the eyes,

the kind of the shape of the head

and kind of

different things going on

with the proportions of her limbs.

But at some point we need to ask the question,

what makes a human being

a human being?

Is it how we look?

Is it our shape?

Is it the proportion of our arms and legs?

Is it whether we have two arms and two legs?

Maybe,

I'm not sure,

some of you have heard of Nick,

I can't say his last name,

Wawoychuk or Wawoychuk.

I was born in Melbourne, Australia, 1982

and my parents had no idea

that I was going to be born

without arms or legs.

I was the only one that I ever saw

without limbs.

My faith in Jesus Christ

was sealed after seven years

of wondering why, God,

I was born this way.

He answered me very clearly

through John chapter 9

John 9 · chapter mention

and I gave my life to Jesus

at 15 after reading about

how he came across a man

who was born blind.

And I'm like,

hey, hold on a second,

this looks interesting.

And no one knew

why he was born that way.

I'm like,

perfect.

So I read on

and in verse 3

of the ninth chapter,

Jesus said,

it was done so that

the works of God

would be revealed through him.

And I'm like,

wow, God,

if you had a plan

for the blind man,

you do have a plan for me.

And that was the beginning

of my personal relationship

with Jesus.

Jesus said,

no arms,

no legs,

and yet he's happily married,

has two children,

and he has learned

to do all kinds

of amazing things,

including swimming

and preaching the gospel

all over the world.

Being human

is about more

than just our shape.

It's about more

than our appearance.

Lila wasn't any less human

back in 2014.

when she was born

than you or I were

at that stage

in the womb.

Different things develop

at different stages.

It's not us becoming

more human as we go.

Think about this.

Is a toddler

any less human

than an adult?

Of course not.

It's just a different

stage of development

in the normal progression

of a human being.

And so the question

it really drives us to

is not,

when do we become human?

But at what point

does human life

begin in the womb?

Let's listen to

what Tara Sander Lee,

a molecular geneticist,

has to say

about when life begins.

Do we really know

when life begins?

Some people think

that it is a complete mystery

and therefore abortion

should be allowed.

They reason that a fetus

is not a person

or is somehow

not a real human being

or is just a potential life

while in the mother's womb.

But there are two problems

with this kind of reasoning.

First,

even if it were true

that we did not know

when life had begun

in the womb,

that would be an argument

against abortion.

Imagine you go hunting

with a friend

and the two of you

become separated.

You see some rustling

in the bushes ahead

but you don't know

if it's a deer

or your friend.

Would you shoot?

That would be criminally

reckless if you did

because there's a chance

that behind that bush

is a human life.

In the same way,

if there is a possibility

that there is a human life

in the womb,

it would be reckless

to kill that life.

But that's where we find

the second flaw

in this reasoning.

It's not merely possible

that a human life

has begun in the womb.

It is a scientific certainty

that life begins

at fertilization.

At the moment a sperm

fuses with an egg

known as fertilization

or conception,

a new unique human being

that is genetically distinct

from both parents

comes into existence.

Gender, ethnicity,

hair color, eye color

and countless other traits

are determined

at that moment.

This genetic blueprint

remains the same

for his or her entire life.

After conception,

a developing baby grows

at an extremely rapid pace,

especially within

the first trimester.

The baby's heart begins

to beat in the sixth week

of pregnancy,

which is only a little

over three weeks

from the moment of conception.

A new study found

that the first heartbeat

may occur even sooner,

as early as the fifth week,

which is about the same time

a mother discovers

she is pregnant.

The baby's lungs

and digestive system

are also forming.

At eight weeks,

human brain activity

can be recorded.

In fact,

the human brain

will continue to develop

and mature even after birth

and well into the person's 20s.

At 12 weeks,

the tiny child can swallow,

scrunch hands into little fists,

touch his or her face

and scratch his or her head.

The baby's fingers and toes

are also complete with nails.

Fingerprints are developing

by 14 weeks.

At 18 weeks,

the baby's ears can even hear music

and recognize their mother's voice.

Between 18 and 30 weeks,

doctors can treat pre-born babies

while still inside the womb

with life-saving therapies

and repair significant defects

for certain diseases.

And at 22 weeks,

or even sooner,

it is possible for babies to be born

and survive outside the womb.

It is also a fact

that pre-born children

exhibit behaviors

that we do on a daily basis.

They smile,

feel pain,

cough,

yawn,

hiccup,

respond to sound and light,

sleep,

and possibly even dream.

Some researchers have even shown

that babies may cry

while in the womb.

So referring to the pre-born child

as a zygote,

blastocyst,

embryo,

or fetus

at different stages of development

does nothing to lessen

his or her humanity.

Those are just ways

of referring to age.

No different from the terms

infant,

toddler,

adolescent,

or adult.

It is also false

for some to call

the pre-born child

a parasite

or consider him or her

as nothing more

than a blob-like sea cucumber.

First,

parasites are different

in species

from their host.

And if a fetus

were a parasite,

then the mother's immune system

would attack it.

Instead,

the mother's body

undergoes dramatic changes

to specifically provide

nourishment and nutrients

to her child.

even pro-choice atheist philosopher

Peter Singer admits that

there is no doubt

that from the first moments

of its existence,

an embryo conceived

from human sperm and egg

is a human being.

And there are thousands

of biology

and embryology textbooks,

modern DNA studies,

medical dictionaries,

science professors,

and medical researchers

that all confirm

that life begins

at fertilization.

And every mother,

like me,

that has experienced pregnancy

knows that with every kick

and movement the baby makes,

life is blooming

for the child growing inside.

So when does life begin?

It is a scientific certainty

that human life begins

at the moment of conception.

Therefore,

every abortion

kills an innocent human being.

To suggest otherwise

is to ignore

the scientific facts

and miss the miracle of life.

So whether it's the abortion pill

in the first trimester

or surgical abortion

in the second or third trimester,

it's all the same.

Abortion takes the life

of an innocent human being

in the womb.

And this is happening

in Canada today

to over 100,000 children

every year.

Let's go now to the cross.

Maybe you or somebody

that you know

has had an abortion.

There is mercy

and grace

and more.

There is cleansing

and healing from sins

for those who have committed them,

all of us,

at the cross.

God sent his son Jesus

into the world

to die on the cross

and atone

for our sins,

including the sin

of taking the life

of a child

in the womb.

There's a proverb

of Solomon

that catches my attention

every time I read it.

Proverbs 28, verse 17.

Proverbs 28:17

Anyone tormented

by the guilt of murder

will seek refuge

in the grave.

Let no one hold them back.

There are lots of sins

that we have no trouble

with accepting

that Jesus' death

paid for it

and I'm forgiven.

But this particular sin

has been known

to haunt people

who have committed it

for the rest of their lives.

So much so

that before Christ came

there seemed in many ways

only one way

to escape that guilt.

But now,

the good news

is that someone

greater than Solomon

has come

and there is a refuge

for those tormented

by the guilt of murder.

The perfect Lamb of God,

the one who sacrificed himself

to take away

the sins of the world,

Jesus Christ.

Christ.

In the words of Isaiah

the prophet,

we all like sheep

have gone astray.

Each of us

has turned to our own way.

We've all blown it.

We've all done bad things.

We've all done evil.

And the Lord,

God,

has laid on him

the iniquity

of us all.

He was pierced

for our transgressions.

He was crushed

for our iniquities.

The punishment

that brought us peace

was upon him.

And by his wounds,

we are healed.

This is just one passage

of many

which describes

what the sacrificial death

of Jesus

has done

for sinners

of all different stripes.

It has brought healing.

It has brought the cure.

It has brought the remedy

for our guilt.

Forgiveness,

atonement,

cleansing.

And so if you

or someone you know

has had an abortion,

God's grace

and mercy

through Jesus

at the cross

is greater.

The Bible tells us

that if we confess our sins,

he is faithful

to forgive us

of our sins

and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness,

you can be free

of that guilt forever.

But there's more

that we find here

at the cross.

Not just forgiveness

for people

who have had an abortion

or performed an abortion,

but forgiveness

for all of us

who have sat idly by

and done nothing

to stand up

for the lives

of the pre-born

in the womb.

I don't need

to convince you

this morning

that abortion

is evil,

that it's wrong.

Every single one of us

after hearing

what's done

in a surgical abortion

and seeing

what it really is

in the womb

even before

the second trimester,

we know deep down inside

that it's wrong,

that it's evil,

that it's something

that God hates,

that it breaks

his heart

to see that happen.

The problem is

that we

all too often

don't feel that way,

the way that God does

about abortion.

We care more about

what other people

think about us

than those children

being slaughtered

in the womb.

And so we won't fly

the pro-life flag.

We won't go march

in the pro-life rallies.

We've got more

important things

to do.

But let me ask you this.

Is there any

more important action

for us as Christians

today in our society

than action

against this vile

and barbaric thing

happening in Canada today?

Listen to these words.

James chapter 1

James 1:27

verse 27.

Religion that God

our Father accepts

is pure

and faultless

is this.

To look after

orphans

and widows

in their distress

and to keep

oneself from being

polluted

by the world.

What is

James' point here?

He's saying a few

different things

but one of those things

he's making the point

that real faith

in God

takes action.

It sees the need

of the needy

and it doesn't just

sit there on the sidelines

and watch.

It gets involved

in meeting that need.

James returns to this again

in chapter 2

verse 14.

He says,

What good is it

my brothers and sisters

if someone claims

to have faith

but has no deeds?

Can such faith

save them?

Suppose a brother

or sister

is without clothes

and daily food.

If one of you

says to them

go in peace

keep warm

and well fed

but does nothing

about their physical needs

what good is it?

in the same way

faith

by itself

if it is not

accompanied by action

is dead.

Real

living faith

in God

in Jesus

takes action.

It not only

notices the need

of the poor

and the vulnerable

but it takes action

to meet those needs.

We are called

by God

every one of us

to love our neighbor.

What did the Apostle John

say about that

in his letter?

1 John 3

1 John 3:18

verse 18

He said,

Dear children

let us not love

with words

or speech

but with actions

and in truth.

We could consider

the words of Solomon

in Proverbs 24

Proverbs 24:11

verse 11.

Rescue

those being

led away

to death.

Hold back

those staggering

towards slaughter.

If you say

but we knew

nothing about this

does not he

who weigh the heart

perceive it?

Does not he

who guards

your life

know it?

Will he not

repay everyone

according to

what they have done?

Or consider

the words

of King Lemuel

in Proverbs 31

Proverbs 31:8

verses 8 and 9.

Speak up

for those

who cannot

speak for themselves.

For the rights

of all

who are destitute.

Speak up

and judge fairly.

Defend the rights

of the poor

and needy.

Many of us

are guilty

because we have

not done this

for the unborn

children in our nation.

Some of us

have been silent.

Others of us

have talked a lot

about abortion

but only to one another

as a lament

about how things

are getting worse

in our society

and so we too

must come to the cross

for mercy

and forgiveness.

We have not

loved our unborn

neighbors as ourselves.

We have not

spoken up in the land

for those who cannot

speak up for themselves.

We have not made

efforts to rescue

those who are being

led away to death.

We have watched

things get worse

and worse

and have said

well I guess

there is nothing more

that we can do

about it.

It is pretty much

a done deal

in Canada

right?

Even if I was

to fly the pro-life

flag what would

people think of me?

What if people

are nasty to me?

Listen

if every single

person in Canada

thought that abortion

was good

and that those

who oppose it

are evil and hateful

it doesn't change

the reality

of what is going on.

Taking the life

of an unborn child

in the womb

is wrong.

It's barbaric

and if you and I

are the only ones

left standing up

and saying that

whatever the cost

we do right

and we honor

the Lord

who created

every human being

in his image.

Perhaps for some of us

we just need

to redefine success

when it comes

to the fight

against abortion.

Of course

we want to win

the cultural war.

we want to see

abortion outlawed

in our nation

but even if it goes

the opposite way

our duty

as citizens

of the kingdom

of heaven

is to stand

against this evil

and to act

against this evil

to speak up

against it

in whatever ways

we can

until it's gone

from our land

or the Lord

takes us home.

That's what success

looks like

in the fight

against abortion.

It's not just about

achieving certain

political goals

or societal reforms

it's about being

faithful

where the Lord

has put us

with whatever

wicked injustices

are going on

in our own

neighborhoods.

Think about it

this way

if we all lived

in some of those

Muslim countries

in another place

in the world

we wouldn't even

be having this

conversation.

There'd be

different stands

to take.

There'd be

other societal evils

that we'd be

talking about today

because some of

those countries

don't practice

abortion at all.

It's looked down

on by the whole

society as a

horrid and

barbaric thing

to do.

But this is the

place that we

live and this

is the evil

going on in

our country.

Now I know

for many

Christians in

the evangelical

church we've

been really

discouraged at

how things

seem to be

trending

especially when

it comes to

this issue

of abortion.

it seems

like we're

just continuously

sliding farther

and farther

away from where

we should be

especially when

it comes to

the political

arena.

But we can't

give up the

fight on this

one.

Innocent human

beings are still

dying.

I know some

have looked at

the way things

are just spiraling

downward and

looked at those

warnings in

scripture that

say it's going

to get worse

at the end

but we can't

give up the

fight.

So long as

it's happening

in our own

land we cannot

give up the

fight.

Many of you

will have heard

about the school

shooting in

Texas by now.

We talked about

it during prayer

time and prayed

for those people.

There's a lot of

anger and outrage

at how the

police responded

to the situation.

Some people seem

to agree that the

right thing to do

in this situation

was for the

police to just

charge right in

there and stop

that young man

as soon as

possible even

if it meant

putting their

own lives on

the line.

That's their

duty as law

enforcement officers.

Many are saying

I mean how many

innocent children's

lives were in

danger while that

shooter was alive

and firing things

off in there.

Nineteen of them

were killed.

Parents were

outraged because

it seemed to

them like the

officers were

cowardly waiting

on the sidelines

for the

specialists to

come in

while innocent

children were

in danger.

Whether that's

the whole story

or not I

don't know.

But I got

thinking about

that.

How many of

us are just

like that when

it comes to

abortion?

Waiting on the

sidelines.

All too content

to leave the

fight up to

someone else.

Not wanting to

take flack or

put ourselves into

the crossfire.

But we have to

get in there.

We have to do

whatever we can

to put an end

to this.

We don't know

when the world

will end.

We don't know

when Jesus will

return.

Think back to

William Wilberforce

and how he felt

in the late 1700s

as he looked at

the slave trade.

The barbaric

treatment of

black men,

women,

and children.

It was his

faith that led

him to fight

the fight which

by God's grace

resulted in the

abolishment of

the slave trade.

Can you imagine

if instead

William Wilberforce

had looked at

those passages

of scripture

that say that

it's going to

get worse

and just thought

to himself,

well,

I know it's

evil,

I know it's

horrible what

they're doing,

but it says

it's going to

get worse

and so it's

a lost cause.

What would

our society

look like today?

We don't know

when the Lord

will return

or when the

end will come.

It could be

another hundred

years.

Perhaps

by the Lord's

grace in

answer to

the prayers

of his

people,

he will

grant Canada

a season

of reform

and renewal

even if only

on this one

issue of

abortion.

I mean,

who of us

here today

thought that

we would

even be

hearing news

down in the

United States

of overturning

Roe versus

Wade?

Who of us

thought that

today in

the United

States of

America

there would

be whole

states banning

abortion almost

entirely.

Oklahoma just

passed a law

banning abortion

from the moment

of fertilization

onward with

only one or two

very rare

exceptions and

citizens are

going to be

allowed to file

civil lawsuits

against anyone

caught providing

abortions in the

state as a way

to keep them

from doing it

on the sly.

what this shows

is that change

is still

possible even

in our own

nation.

Even if our

own nation

continues to

slide downhill

morally in

every other

area we can

still pray and

fight for a

Canada whose

eyes have opened

up to the evil

of abortion

just like

Wilberforce did

for the slave

trade.

Let's not

give up the

fight.

I've been at

almost all of

the local

pro-life meetings

for the past

number of years.

I was at the

March for Life

this year in

Regina.

I went to the

SAS pro-life

convention a

couple years

back and

there's one

thing that's

missing from

all of these

things.

The evangelical

church.

There's the

odd few here

and there but

mostly the ones

engaged in some

form of action

against abortion

in Saskatchewan.

They're almost

all Catholic

people.

Where's the

evangelical church

of Saskatchewan?

In a province

of a million

people we had

just 200 show

up for the

March for Life

this year at

the Ledge in

Regina and

those 200 were

from all over

Saskatchewan and

almost all of

them were

Catholic.

And I wonder

is it only the

Catholics that see

and care about

what's going on?

In our nation

today?

I'm told that at

one time the

local pro-life

group here in

Davidson had a

whole bunch of

people in it and

that the Catholics

were actually a

minority.

Now it's just

seven of us and

they're all Catholic

except for me.

Let me ask you

something.

You tell me.

why can't what

just happened in

Oklahoma happen

here in

Saskatchewan?

I think it's

because many of

us are sitting on

the sidelines and

waiting for the

specialists to come

in and do it for

us.

So let me give you

some practical

encouragement this

morning about how

you can join the

fight, about how

you can participate

in rescuing those

being led away to

death, how you can

speak up for those

who cannot speak

for themselves.

First of all, some

of you will say, I

don't have time.

You need to make

time for this.

The lives of

innocent children are

at stake and surely

there are other

things in life that

can be left undone.

Second, I'm not

calling you to

become the next

full-time staff

member of a pro-life

organization.

Each of us has

different gifts and

skills and

abilities and

responsibilities that

we need to care

for.

What are yours?

Have you figured

out how you can

participate meaningfully,

effectively in this

cause yet?

For some of you it

might be really

obvious, for others

it might be a bit of

a journey, growing to

understand what's

going on and how

you can meaningfully

contribute to this

cause.

And that's okay.

I've been on that

journey for myself a

long time now.

And with each

passing year it's

becoming clear what I

can do and what I

can't.

You may be in a

truly busy season of

life in which

everything is

important and so

maybe all you can

manage is something

small but regular.

Others of you may

have a bunch of

time to give but

just you're not sure

what to do.

There are lots of

opportunities.

Let me just list off

a bunch of them.

First of all, make it

your goal each year to

do something for the

unborn.

Maybe you're at the

very beginning of

this journey and

your goal for this

year is simply to get

more information about

the issue, about

what's really going on

and what the

opportunities are.

How can you do

that?

You can come talk to

me.

You could come sit in

on a meeting of our

local pro-life group

and ask questions.

No commitment

necessary.

You can do some

research online about

what's happening with

this in our province or

our country.

You can watch the

movie Unplanned, sort

of a docudrama following

the story of Abby

Johnson.

There are lots of

good websites that have

good information about

the issue and how to

talk about it with

other people.

You could attend an

event or a conference

on the subject that

will help you see what's

going on behind the

scenes.

In fact, our local

pro-life group will do

whatever we can to pay

your way to go,

including hotel fees

if we can swing it.

We're a small group,

but we would love to

see people go and be

informed on this.

There are excellent

books on the subject

that you could read.

And as you learn more

about what's going on

with this issue, you

can begin to prayerfully

make some goals about

what fits for you,

what you can manage to

do that's regular and

beneficial to the

cause over the next

year.

Let me just give you

some ideas of what

kind of opportunities

exist.

Wouldn't it be great

to see the attendance

at the March for Life

explode from just 200

to suddenly 5,000?

Think about the message

that would send to our

province and our

government year after

year.

It's one day a year.

It's a couple hours of

that day.

Or maybe you know of a

young single mother or

a pregnant gal in our

community.

maybe you could simply

offer to help that

person out with

babysitting every other

week.

For many young women,

the deciding factor

between getting an

abortion or not is

whether they have

people in their life to

support them and get

and help them.

Perhaps you could be one

of those people for

them.

I know of a young gal in a

nearby community who not

too long ago told a

Christian woman that she

was pregnant.

She was thinking about

getting an abortion.

And by talking to this

Christian woman, the young

gal decided to keep her

baby and is very glad that

she did.

And it wasn't anything

special that this Christian

woman said to her.

She just encouraged her not

to have an abortion, to

think carefully about making

that decision, to think

about carrying the child to

term and putting it up for

adoption and offered to

help her out however she

could.

Simple conversation for

women to have.

Along those lines, even

just building a friendship

with a young person is a

great way to participate.

Maybe just do a fun

activity with them, take

them out for a round of

golf or an ice cap from

Timmy's, whatever you do,

build a friendship with

them.

Guy or gal,

both could be responsible

for a pregnancy somewhere

down the line.

And you could easily have

opportunity to speak into

their lives at just the

right moment.

They might even take what

you say to them and speak

that same wisdom and

encouragement to their

friends and offer their

support to them.

Or, maybe you decide to

make it your participation

to pray every week about

this issue for a year.

prayer.

Maybe you find another

person to share that with

and to keep accountable to

that goal.

Or even better, meet with

them and pray with them.

Even if it's just 15 minutes

a week, pray with them

about it.

God does amazing things in

answer to prayer.

Then there's the whole

political side of the issue.

We need to get more pro-life

butts in the decision-making

seats in our province and in

our country.

And the amazing thing about

this is, is that it can

require very little effort

sometimes.

It can be as simple as

taking out a cheap

membership for a year and

voting in a nomination race

for a pro-life candidate or

leader.

In fact, there's such a race

going on right now for the

leadership of the

Conservative Party.

And whatever you think about

the Conservative Party and

that whole thing going on,

let me ask you this.

Who would help the cause of

the unborn more in Canada?

Jean Charest or Leslyn

Lewis, an unashamedly

pro-life member of

Parliament who has openly

promised to bring it up in

Parliament if elected?

Your vote can help make the

difference between those two

for ten bucks in a few

minutes of your time.

If you're interested in that,

you'll have to get your party

membership by next Friday.

Or if you're just interested

in that in general, you can

look up the pro-life

organization right now.

It starts right now, .ca.

Their sole purpose is to

connect pro-life people with

those significant voting

moments that can make all the

difference in getting pro-life

people into those positions in

political parties and in the

decision-making seats in our

nation.

Maybe as you think of having

conversations about this issue,

you know that you struggle.

You find it tough to talk about

this with people, not sure what

to say.

But what if I told you that there

were young men and women here in

Canada today who aren't just

having conversations with people

about abortion all the time but are

changing the minds of people about

abortion all the time?

There are.

What if you could enable them to

have more conversations with

people full-time through some

regular monthly giving?

Local pregnancy counseling centers

are on the front lines and they

need financial support.

Other groups like the Canadian

Center for Bioethical Reform are

training young people to engage our

culture effectively with the truth

about abortion.

And they have countless stories about

women who changed their mind, who

made a different choice than they

were planning to make, and kept

their babies.

There are all kinds of ways to be

involved.

If you live on land outside of town,

you can raise awareness by putting

up a sign.

We got a whole bunch of signs we

just ordered.

Charles is getting two of them.

They're great signs.

We'd love to put one up on your yard

by the road if you have land.

We got the pro-life flag up at the

back.

That's the new international pro-life

flag.

We're going to fly that in the month

of May.

If you want a bumper sticker or a lawn

sign of that flag, we can get you

that.

Or if you're online, if you are on

social media and you regularly post

things on there or share things on

there, you could post and share the

occasional video clip related to the

issue.

I'm not talking news clips, but clips

that are made to change people's

minds.

The Choice 42 satire clips, we watched

a couple, are great.

The live action clips are great.

The 3D animated clips of development in

the womb are great.

You never know what somebody will see

as they're stumbling through your

profile looking at stuff and oh, they

watch this and that seed is sown in

their minds.

There are so many opportunities out there

and as I said before, it might take some

exploration to find your niche, your

thing, the thing that fits you.

But it's one of the worthiest causes in

Canada today.

The life of every child in the womb is

absolutely worth fighting for.

And so let's not give up the fight.

Let's not sit on the sidelines and wait

for someone else to come and do it for

us.

Let's get in the fray.

Let's see if we can do something.

I'm going to end with this.

On Friday evening, I gave a talk and led

discussion on abortion with the youth.

I gave them freely the opportunity to be

honest and just tell me whatever they

think about it.

What's their opinion?

When is it okay?

When is it not okay?

Up till what point in the pregnancy?

Most of them were somewhat okay with it

up to a point in the pregnancy.

And one of them afterwards, a 15-year-old

girl said to me, this was after the time,

she said, you changed my mind.

And I thought, if everything I've done and

said and put into this saves only one

life, it will have been worth it.

God's not asking us to change the whole

world.

He's just asking for us to be faithful and

to lovingly move towards whatever needs we

can in our neck of the woods.

And there are some little ones in our neck

of the woods who are deeply in need.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, this is a heavy topic.

And we pray and ask that you would work with

great power in our country.

We pray for just laws that protect the life,

the lives of human babies in the womb.

We pray for the change of hearts in people all across our

society.

And we pray and ask that you would show each one of us how

we're meant to participate.

Lead us in that.

Guide us in that.

Give us wisdom.

Show us how we can join in this fight.

And we pray and ask that you would bring glory and grace

and life through us.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.