No mercy for innocent baby

THE EDITOR: The familiar sound of our National Anthem continues to ring in our hearts during this Independence season. May he always bless our nation. The question of legalisation of abortion, however threatens this blessing. Much has been said and written about this important question. However, we must not forget that our decision in this issue is another addendum to the rise or fall of our nation. John Bunyan in his classic Pilgrim’s Progress states “the book does not promise that the road will be easy but in the end it promises eternal life!” The legalisation of abortion is no easy road but we must never let our decision making be clouded entirely by the emotion of the moment. We were reminded by Dr Haywood Robinson at a recent seminar that three parties are involved in the issue - the father, the mother and the foetus/baby.

He referred to the case of rape, to which those who support legalisation often refer. He posed the question, “Does this sound reasonable? In the case of rape we give the rapist a prison sentence, we give the mother counseling, and we give to the baby, the innocent party, capital punishment the death sentence.” Let us not confuse the limitless mercy and love of our Heavenly Father with the “selective” mercy of mankind which isolates or chooses to be “merciful” to the mother but at the same time is merciless to the baby. Is this not a wake up call for us to renew our acquaintance with a merciful Father who demonstrated his love (and mercy) toward us, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us? He is the same Heavenly Father who is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

DR JUDITH HENRY
Port-of-Spain