Mercy Killing

In a recent interview on the TV show "The View," actress Anne Hathaway said, "abortion can be another word for mercy." This is such a troubling, disturbing understanding of mercy killing of an unborn baby. How could abortion possibly be merciful? First, what is mercy?

In a discussion with a lawyer, Jesus defined a neighbor as the one who showed mercy to a beaten man along the road (Luke 10:25-37). Mercy is the kind treatment of someone to relieve their trouble. In Jesus' parable, a good Samaritan bound up the wounds and cared for a man beaten along a path and left for dead. The Samaritan man had compassion for this man, even paying for a stay in a hostel. 

Compassion did not lead to ending the beaten man's life for suffering, but to heal. Mercy is healing, treating someone else well to promote good, to help someone in need. Could Hathaway mean mercy to the baby is best shown in ending the baby's life rather than care for both the mother and the baby? What trouble is the baby suffering from which requires mercy? The three troubles I am able to think of are (1) the baby suffers from a potentially troubling life due to unloving parents, (2) the baby suffers from a disability, or (3) the parents cannot support the child.

Killing an unborn baby is not merciful because the baby is unwanted by unloving parents. This logic would be haunting if used by abusive parents of born babies. Furthermore, human beings with disabilities are not signs that life is punishment and killing them is merciful. Life is worth living even with difficulties. I have seen in Christ's church a people with compassionate hearts adopting babies whose mothers could not care for. There is mercy in Christ who shows mercy through His people. 

If you are reading this as a pregnant mother, I encourage you to connect with Pathway to Hope in Hamilton, Ohio. They have merciful resources to help with pregnancy, connecting with placing your baby up for adoption, help for fathers, and plenty more.

Mercy is also defined in the Scriptures as bearing with others, or forbearance. Timothy Lane and Paul David Tripp define biblical forbearance brilliantly: "Forbearance is patience under provocation. It is willing to stand alongside someone in trouble even though it makes life more difficult." 

A baby makes life more difficult for a mother. Mercy bears with a life with more challenges. To see an unborn baby's life as something to silence with the cruel hands of killing simply because life is about to get more challenging or the baby will have difficulties due to disability is not mercy, but merciless.

Hathaway continued, "Just because you get pregnant doesn't mean you get to keep that baby." Hathaway admits abortion ends the life of a baby. She calls the unborn what a common sense epistemology knows as obvious: that life is the life of a baby.

Abortion is the execution of human life with an unjust trial, judge, and executioner devised to silence the life of the unborn who is helpless, voiceless, and hidden inside a mother's womb which God meant to be a place of safety for a growing baby. To redefine mercy as a cruel, merciless act is to call something evil good (Isaiah 5:20). It is unjust to legalize the death of an unborn baby due to inconvenience and call it justice.

People are looking for justice and mercy in a place of execution. America's demand for legal killing of babies, now wed with calling it mercy, is a Satanic twisting of the only place human beings may find justice and mercy. Calvary was a place of execution, and we in our sin are the executioners. Yet, God sent Jesus into the world to save sinners. God will not justify our sin by redefining mercy and justice, but with real mercy and justice punished Christ instead of sinners.

Christ's death was not a killing to put Him out of His misery, but to free sinners from the misery of sin and death. Mercy in the heart of God matched with His might and authority to execute Christ to give life to those who believe in Him rather than to place the punishment on them. We are to turn away from our unjust ways and thinking and toward God who is just and merciful to those who believe in Jesus. 

There is mercy for sinners in Christ who suffered and died for sinners, including those guilty of abortion. If you have had an abortion and looking for mercy, or would like to know more about God's forgiveness and salvation in Christ Jesus, please email me. I would love to tell you about our Savior and to pray with you.