Under a new rule announced by the Bush administration, "unborn children" now qualify for government health benefits. In promoting prenatal care, federal policy now defines childhood as beginning at conception.

Thousands of poor families will benefit from this change, and the abortion debate has shifted ground. The issue is no longer merely a woman’s right to choose birth or abortion. Federal policy now explicitly considers the rights of unborn children. In recognizing an unborn child’s right to healthcare, the government has taken an important first step in restoring the unborn child’s more basic right to life.

God’s Gift

"We hold these truths to be self-evident,” our Declaration of Independence asserts, “that all men are created equal.” Not born equal, not aspire to be equal, and not declared equal by the courts or the legislature – all men are created equal.

If God gives us our human rights, we cannot claim life is just “our choice.” If God does not give us our rights, we cannot claim there is any basis for those rights beyond mere political expediency. The abortion debate cannot be considered outside of the broader issue of God’s role as author of human life and dignity.

A Loss of Humanity

The magnitude of this national horror is overwhelming. The most frequent surgical procedures in the United States, abortions nationally kill 1.3 million children a year.

Beyond this tragic loss of life, our very humanity is being destroyed as we ignore God’s role as Creator. “As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.” (Ecclesiastes 11:5, ESV)

Hopefully, we will learn to cherish the gift of life and will learn to reverence the God who gave it.