Do you hate to see graphic abortion images? I hope you do. I know I hate to see them. While some really sick people like them and some really callous people couldn’t care less about them, most people, without completely handed over consciences, hate to see them. But different people hate to see them for varied reasons. We will look at a few key reasons in this post.

First, we will look at one reason the guilty unbelievers hate to see the pictures. The women who willingly choose to murder their babies and the men and other women who encouraged them to do so. They hate to see them because their conscience has not been completely seared yet. The Holy Spirit was sent to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (Jhn. 16:7-8), and most murderers will be convicted of their sin and pained in their hearts God has written His law on (Rom. 2:15). When a woman who has murdered her child and those who encourage them to do so sees a reminder of what they have done, they can become incredibly angry or incredibly sad or both. It does not matter what reasons they try to excuse themselves for, when the Holy Spirit convicts them of sin, emotions follow.   

Next, we will see why the same people above often get even angrier when they have children, they did not murder with them, and those children see the images of murdered babies and have questions for their parents.  

Now, small children who know nothing about abortion sometimes see these images and are emotionally affected negatively by them. Again, as we all should be. However, in most of those cases the negative feelings of the children are primarily sadness and concern. Because if the image is of a recognizable baby, the children have concern and sorrow for what has happened to the baby. Naturally, the child then asks something like, “Mommy/Daddy who hurt the baby?”

It is at this moment that the baby murder supporting (and especially those who have taken part in such murder) parent is placed in a very uncomfortable situation by their living child. A situation the Christian with the abortion image made possible. And now they are angry and as they lash out their poor children become scared. Not because of the image but because of the anger of their parent(s). They know they can’t tell their child, “Well sweetie sometimes when mommies don’t want a baby or feel they can’t handle a baby they abort them.” Because the child will then dig for what abortion is. And the parent will have to admit it is killing the baby.

Now of course they do not want to have that conversation. However, your graphic picture coupled with their child’s honest question has put them in this moral dilemma. So, they must get mad at you because they surely can’t be mad at themselves and admit their sin. And it is easier to blame you than their child. Because it is you who exposed the unfruitful work of darkness and brought that evil deed they would rather hide to light (Eph. 5:11, John 3:19).

In short, again the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. Jesus made clear in John 3:20 that they hate the light, so they of course hate seeing graphic abortion images. As the Apostle Paul expounds on Jesus’ truth here in saying that that which becomes visible is light (Eph. 5:14).

We could cover other nuanced reasoning here for why nonbelieving folks hate graphic abortion images. However, no matter their invalid reasoning (all reasoning to justify baby murder influences the lost person’s hatred of the images) the emotions always stem from conviction of sin by the Spirit. This leads to emotions of sadness and anger.

But what about us? Why do Christians hate graphic abortion images? The answer varies in secondary ways. But I will be brief and hit the key difficult to admit reason first. Then I will cover why that answer is true.

Deep down we just do not care enough about the murder of preborn image bearers. It really is that simple. The Holy Spirit convicts us too. Especially us. Think about it.

Let us say you were shopping in Fred Meyer or Wal Mart with your small children and a news alert came across all the big screen TV’s as you were walking though the electronics section. On that alert you saw a madman at Jo Lane Jr. High throw grenades and fire off his gun at children and staff and saw people blown to bloody bits. Then he turns to the camera being shakily held by the kid who just got found out and the mad man says, “I’m headed to Fremont next. Death to the next generation!” Then he shot the student with the phone.

Now, what would your primary concern be? Would you march over to the manager and say something like:

“Listen, I’m a Christian and I hate people being murdered as much or more than anyone. But how dare you put that on TVs for my children to see? Now my kids are asking questions about this evil I was in no mind to have to explain today. They’re likely to have nightmares now after seeing that. Murder is wrong but exposing that to the public, especially children, is simply wrong. Nobody needs to see that!”

I sure hope not!

I hope that you would immediately pray for those suffering in the tragedy. Then if your children asked you why those children were hurt that you would answer your children with the biblical truth of the wickedness of men and use that opportunity to highlight the comfort and forgiveness found only in Jesus and His gospel. Then I hope you would seek to see what you could do as soon as possible to help those who were suffering. More than that, see what you could do to stop the further suffering and death this madman and others like him bring.

So, if you would not get angry, or frustrated, or ever consider chewing someone out for showing graphic destruction of image bearers of God being murdered outside the womb, why do you do so with Christians who biblically expose the abortion holocaust in our midst? A holocaust where literally thousands of defenseless image bearers are murdered daily.

I know the immediate knee jerk response is, “It’s not the same.” Well, in a sense I agree with you. It is not the same. The holocaust museum displaying the murders of countless of our Jewish neighbors several decades ago, pictures of our black neighbors beaten and murdered as slaves in eighteenth century America, or even the sadly increasing examples of school/church/nightclub/etc. shooting pictures and videos showing people fearful, dead, and dying, all differ from preborn babies being murdered.

For starters, very few of the tragedies that we read in our histories or that come across our news feeds are of mothers murdering their born children. It happens but it is exceedingly rare. Also, while those murdered outside of the womb may be innocent of any crime worthy of death by any human court (undoubtedly some are), they are image bearers who have sinned against God and man. Babies in the womb while possessing a sin nature, have not lived sinning against God and man alike. And finally, no other image bearers except those in the womb are murdered while God is in the very act of knitting them together!

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” – Psalm 139:13

So yes, in some profoundly serious ways it is different. It is much worse!  

But it is no different in this important way. Babies in the womb are no different than people of any age out of the womb in that we are all equally image bearers of God and deserve equal dignity, equal protection, and equal justice. Does any Christian deny this?

Then if responses to these real abortion images, like the response to the fictional scenario described above are wrong (and they are wrong), how have we as Christians come to respond this way? How is it that we just do not care enough?

Again, we could discuss many reasons. I could go into psychological responses due to mass training, herd mentality, etc. But the Bible is more than sufficient. Like sheep we go astray, following the goats (Isa. 53:6). We do so often due to the snare that is the fear of man (Prov. 29:25). It becomes ingrained in us to seek the honor and glory that comes from men rather than from God (Jhn. 12:43). We respond like we have been trained to respond by a godless reprobate society under the wrath of God.

I lay a substantial portion of the blame for this on the preachers in American churches. While wicked people outside the Church approve of and even celebrate the murder of preborn image bearers of God, most pastors are afraid to even call it that. We prefer the sanitized term, “abortion”. If it is spoken of at all it is only once a year on a single Sunday message tied to the Roe v Wade SCOTUS decision. Not to God’s word that declares, “You shall not murder.” – Ex. 20:13

By and large pastors are more concerned with the feelings of mothers who have murdered their babies than they are about the babies that have been murdered, those still being murdered today, and the countless others that will continue to be! So, they rarely if ever speak about it. When they do it is with little power as it focuses more on legislation failures than lives snuffed out and the horrible blood guilt of our nation.

Most church going people of all ages in America have heard little to nothing about our national sin from either the pulpit or parents. While the under shepherds in the churches have led the way we the sheep have willfully followed. We all carry our share of blame. Our culture shows this to be true by the lack of salt and light we’ve spread. Woe on us if we do not repent!

In closing, why should we hate to see graphic displays of the murder of preborn image bearers of God in the womb who’ve been ripped out of the His very hands as He forms their inward parts, by the will of their mother to be burned, starved, torn apart, crushed, and discarded into the trash or flushed away? The answer is rightly seeing the question.

By God’s grace I pray you now see both question and answer clearly and you are stirred up to love and good works (Heb. 10:24). I pray that now every time you see those images whether by yourself or even in the presence of your dear living children, your love for God and for your voiceless and most vulnerable neighbors, you’ll swell with the love God gives you to strive to fulfill as best you can the first two great commandments of love He has given us.

babies’ bless us as we grow daily in repentance and love for His glory, saved souls, and babies lives!