“I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little” (Job 10:19,20).

In this lament, the patriarch Job was complaining about all his trouble and wishing that he had died in the womb. With only a little imagination, however, one could almost hear very similar words on the half-formed lips of a babe in the womb, in the throes of a painful abortion.

The American Civil War was the saddest in our history, with more Americans killed (and by their own brethren!) than in any other war. Yet this was nothing compared to the casualties in the modern civil war being waged by irresponsible parents against their defenseless, unborn babies. In one recent decade, more than 13 times as many helpless children in our country were slaughtered by abortion than all the combat-related deaths in all the wars in America’s history.

Today, we honor Abraham Lincoln for preserving the union and finally bringing the bloody Civil War to a close. But the price was dear, and many feel that the Civil War itself was a token of God’s judgment on the nation because of its crime of enforced slavery. And if this is so, what kind of judgment must God be preparing for a nation that engages in an infinitely bloodier civil war against its own children!

That these unborn children are truly human, with eternal souls, is evident from many Scriptures (e.g., Psalms 139:14–16; Job 3:11–19).

Lincoln was called the Great Emancipator of his day, but the unborn children silently plead for freedom today. Jesus said: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). HMM