Have you heard France just enshrined the “right to abortion” in its constitution? NPR correspondent Eleanor Beardsley covered the story in her article “France makes history by enshrining abortion rights in its constitution”.[1] She says France made this move as a fearful response to the United States overturning Row v. Wade, which did not prohibit abortion in the United States (unfortunately) but turned the regulation of abortion over to state government where it should be.
Did you know sea turtle eggs are protected? In 2021, a couple of men in Miami, FL, were sent to prison for poaching sea turtle eggs.[2] Why would anyone get upset about poaching eggs? Those aren’t turtles, after all. They are just clumps of cells—no life at all, right? But we know the truth: those eggs are turtles.
President Macron said (quoted in the article), “I made a commitment to make women’s freedom to have an abortion irreversible by inscribing it in the constitution.” He says it’s about women’s “freedom.”
What about the baby’s freedom?
Beardsley quotes a lady at the end of her article as saying, “The right to an abortion could come under threat one day, we don’t know. This is a way to guarantee that our daughters and granddaughters will have the same rights we have.”
What about the baby’s rights?
Limited Authority of Government
The United States Constitution, praise God, does not legalize abortion in any way, shape, or form. In the first paragraph, we find our Constitution was meant, in part, to “promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
What about the baby’s welfare? What about the blessings of liberty to our posterity?
The second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence begins, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” (Emphasis mine, NAW).
Those wise men who wrote the Declaration of Independence understood that, if we have rights at all, those rights are not granted by men, nor by governments of men, but by a Sovereign God Creator. Government, therefore, has authority only to protect those rights; it has no authority to change, remove, or redefine human rights. President Macron and the French government have no authority to grant women a right to kill their unborn child; neither do they have the authority to remove the right to life from the poor baby.
As naturally and logically follows, the government is under God’s authority and responsible for recognizing and enforcing the rights God has given every human being. Romans 13.1–7 teaches “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Also, the government “is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”
Governments of men not only are divinely appointed, but they have a divine mandate. They do not exist of their own will or power, and they do not have authority except granted to them by God. Most human governments grossly overstep the boundaries God has drawn for them, but that does not remove the fact that God did institute them in the first place. Government is good and necessary, but they often go bad.
Legalizing Abortion in Louisiana
Our Louisiana state government recently heard the reading of a proposed bill HB 245,[3] which intends to fully legalize abortion in the state and remove any threat of legal action against those who help mothers obtain abortions or those who are active in the abortive process. Here is the overview:
Proposing to amend and reenact Article I, Section 20.1 of the Constitution of Louisiana, to provide rights and protections for an individual’s pregnancy-related decisions; to prohibit government interference in an individual’s pregnancy; to provide for submission of the proposed amendment to the electors; and to provide for related matters.
They want to “provide rights…for an individual’s pregnancy-related decisions.” We have already seen above that the government does not have this authority. Either a person has the right or does not, and the right comes from the Creator, not a legislative body.
They want to “prohibit government interference in an individual’s pregnancy.” I cannot help but see Pilot washing his hands as he simultaneously orders Jesus’s crucifixion. You can say you’re not guilty, but the baby’s blood is still on your hands because God instructed you to protect that innocent, helpless life.
In order to legalize abortion, they seek to strike out text currently in our state constitution that says, “To protect human life, nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.” They must erase the language of life so they can replace it with language of death.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
Isaiah 5.18–23
who draw sin as with cart ropes,
19 who say: “Let him be quick,
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
and let it come, that we may know it!”
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!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!
[1] https://www.npr.org/2024/03/04/1235217454/france-abortion-rights-constitution
[2] https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/poachers-93-protected-sea-turtle-eggs-sentenced-prison
[3] https://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1347777