Sanctity of Life in the News

A new report reveals California’s plan to become a sanctuary state for people seeking to have an abortion. Should the US Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade next year, California governor Gavin Newsom says that the state is “looking at ways to support that inevitability and looking at ways to expand our protections.” The plan also calls for taxpayer funding of travel expenses for those seeking abortions and reimbursement to abortion providers if they provide these services, including transport and lodging.

While California aspires to become a sanctuary for those seeking abortions, Guatemala is poised to become the pro-life center of Latin America, according to Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei. During a recent visit to the US, the president remarked, “We seek to protect life and to prevent interference. We do not approve of abortion because of my faith but also my profession as a medical doctor.” At the same Institute for Women’s Health event, he announced a declaration formally naming Guatemala the “Pro-Life Capital of Ibero-America” (countries of the Americas where Spanish or Portuguese are predominantly spoken).

Other nations recognize the sanctity of life when it suits them. A new bill in New South Wales, Australia, recognizes the loss of an unborn child due to criminal acts. It’s good to see value assigned to life in the womb, but it is tragic when that value only applies when the baby is wanted.

This is also demonstrated in recent news from Italy. Facing a demographic crisis due to its extremely low birth rate, Italy has approved incentives for citizens to have more babies. The Family Act will provide a universal monthly allowance for children starting when the mother is seven months pregnant and ending when the child turns 18.

Facing a similar demographic crisis, China decided last year to raise their two-child policy (which increased from one child five years ago) to allow all couples to now have a third child. This comes in response to the country’s plummeting birth rate, which hit a record low in 2021. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country recorded only 10.62 million births last year, or 7.5 births per 1,000 people. Now, family planning policies have been stricken altogether from a new Chinese Civil Code, which allows room for the government to do away with birth limits entirely in the future.

Though vital for perpetuating societies, life is more than a mere commodity. Ultimately, human life is valuable because every person, young and old, born and unborn, is fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. From fertilization to death, human life should be cherished and protected, for God has made us. As the psalmist writes in Psalm 139:13–16,

You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.