INTRODUCTION--- (Here is information from an encyclopedia.) "The PlannedParenthood Federation of America was organized by Margaret SANGER. Her firstbirth control clinic (1916) was closed by the police, but Sanger opened another in1923. Her National Birth Control League, founded in 1915, became the PlannedParenthood Federation of America in 1942 and then, in 1963, the Planned Parenthood-World Population organization. Planned Parenthood offices provide thegeneral public with information on family planning. Its headquarters is in New YorkCity, and approximately 750 centers in communities throughout the United Statesconduct research and offer medical services, including contraception informationand devices, abortion, and sterilization."

1. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, is an interesting person.
1. At age 17, she rejected Christianity, and became an active Socialist (1896).
2. In her hatred of the teachings of religion about sexual restraint, she wrote insupport of total sexual liberation in her publication The Woman Rebel, callingmarriage a "degenerate institution," and gained noteriety for her many sexualliaisons.
3. She embraced the philosophies of Malthusianism, and Eugenics.
1. Malthusianism is the 19th Century economic philosophy of ThomasMalthus, who calculated that the world would be overpopulated, and thatmasses of people would starve, if the growth of the population was notcontrolled. (The earth now supports 5 Billion souls, easily.)
2. Eugenics is "The study of hereditary improvement of the human race bycontrolled selective breeding." (Adoph Hitler and his Nazi followers werealso avid students of this ideology.)
4. When the "Super Race" and genocide policies of Hitler's government becameknown during World War II, "Sanger was forced to disguise her own positionof agreement with this ideology. She was shrewd enough to realize that hernotions of Radical Socialism, sexual liberation, and population manipulationwould never engender enough support to usher in the revolution she soardently believed in. She quickly abandoned publication of her Birth ControlReview, for which she had commissioned Dr. Ernst Rudin, the director of theNazi Medical Experimentation Program, to write, and (in 1942) changed thename of her organization, The Birth Control League, to Planned Parenthood.."(Source: Life Issues, Inc. publication)
5. She once wrote that "The most merciful thing a large family can do to one ofits infant members is to kill it."
2. However, if all of this is true, and we can credit Margaret Sanger (who died in1966) for much of the scandal of abortion in our time, emotional reaction to heris not what this lesson is all about.
1. We want first to examine some of the medical evidence for the presence ofhuman life in the womb before birth, then....
2. We will consider Bible evidence.

LESSON---

1. When is an Embryo in the womb a human being?
1. This is the question that many are reluctant to resolve, because of preconceived views, though the medical establishment has the evidence.
2. The child conceived in the womb is an individual (not a part of the woman'sbody to be discarded like an appendix).
1. The Embryo borrows its Chromosome arrangement from two differentsources, the mother and the father, and its pattern is very individual.
2. The blood supply of the mother is never mingled with the blood of theEmbryo, but the nutrients from the mother's blood are passed throughan amazing membrane to the blood of the Embryo.
3. The blood type of the Embryo will most often be different from themother's, or even the father's. (NOTE: It may not apply, but a principle ofScripture is that "Life is in the blood." Leviticus 17:11 "For the life of the fleshis in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement foryour souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life." Mythought is that, using modern micro surgical techniques, if the blood wasdrained from the so-called "fetus" it would die within the womb.)
4. Medical researchers have detected the infant embryo's heart beat 18 daysafter conception.
1. Its brain waves can be measured after 45 days by an EEG.
2. At two months, it is sensitive to touch and pain.
3. By three months, it can grasp an object, and all its body systems arepresent and functioning.
4. But, in a recent year, 1,438,180 babies were aborted in the first threemonths of pregnancy.
3. In the face of this evidence of a living individual in the womb, The SupremeCourt ruled on January 22, 1973, in Roe vs. Wade, that abortion on demand isthe private decision of the pregnant woman at any point of the infant'sdevelopment!
2. The Bible evidence is not even considered by the courts, even though it confirms modern research.

1. Job says that it is God who "fashions" us in the womb. "Did not he that mademe in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?" (Job 31:15).
2.David wrote by inspiration, "For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didstweave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully andwonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul knows it very well. Myframe was not hidden from Thee, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wroughtin the depths of the earth." (Psalm 139:13-15).
3.It is revealed by the inspired Luke that "Now Mary arose in those days and wentinto the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zachariasand greeted Elizabeth. And it happened that when Elizabeth heard the greeting ofMary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, said, 'Blessed are you among women,and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the motherof my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greetingsounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.'" (Luke 1:41-44).

1. John, then, had viable spiritual life, even in his mother's womb, aspromised in Luke 1:15, "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and hewill drink no wine or liquor; and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, while yetin his mother's womb." (NASB)
2. Paul made a similar claim for himself, in Galatians 1:15. "But when He whohad set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through Hisgrace."...... (This verse takes some explanation, to make it compatible withthe Bible's teaching on Predestination.)

4.Add to these evidences of life before birth the prominent themes in the Biblethat show the sanctity of life, the yearnings of women for children, thepunishments of those who take life, and we must be moved to opposeabortion, as it is viewed today.

1. "There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocentblood...." (Proverbs 6:16-17).
2. "Deliver them that are carried away unto death, And those that are ready to beslain see that thou hold back. If thou sayest, Behold, we knew not this; Doth nothe that weigheth the hearts consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not heknow it? And shall not he render to every man according to his work?"(Proverbs 24:11-12).

APPLICATION-- In this election year, much passion is being displayed over thisissue, with many anti-abortion people vowing to vote for no one with any form of a"pro-choice" stance, and some have even descended to violence and murder toexpress their views.

1. I do not advocate radical actions on this subject, but Christians should be carefulto exercise responsibility regarding the sanctity of life in their vote.
2. Have you ever noticed that all the people who advocate abortion are living?
1. It is best to examine the motives of pro-choice advocates, because their viewsare not based on Bible principles. (If they are not compatible with Biblicalprinciples on this matter, how will they act in other moral situations?)
2. Christians need to hold firm to their principles, and vote their conscience.