Personal Hygiene and Abortion: A Serious Conflict of Convictions

Every time you brush your teeth or comb your hair or wash your body, you are making a declaration to yourself and to the world: I have intrinsic value as a person, and I am somebody worth caring for.  Every time you eat and every time you drink you are preaching a message to the people in your life: I am worthy of fighting for.

Tragically, there is a fatal disconnect between this simple logic and the philosophical, ideological, and consumerist logic of abortion.  Those who make great efforts to take care of their bodies and prolong their lives somehow don’t see a need to do the same to those in their womb, or in the womb of the one whom they are pressuring to abort.  Ironically, throughout the entire abortion procedure, there is a tremendous amount of care given to the mother to keep her healthy and alive, even if only to prevent litigation.  But as for what remains of the life that was . . . well, there is no longer a need for hygiene.

When self becomes the center of your worldview, manipulation and predation are inevitable.  Everyone and everything becomes a means to an end, and abortion is only one logical conclusion of a self-centered life.  Of course, I’m speaking here of the majority of abortions performed for “personal” reasons which were not necessary to save women’s lives.  And when you doubt the goodness and justice of God, you can justify anything as long as you come out ahead.

Many doctors and mothers and fathers got out of bed this morning and made themselves presentable, so that they could look their best when ending the life of others.  Here is a serious conflict of convictions: valuing life in order to devalue life.

What they need is to plead the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, who alone can make them presentable, and can raise their flesh incorruptible.  They will find mercy and grace though they have taken life.  And we stand condemned with them as blasphemers and haters of God.  But along with them we may secure our redemption in the One whose life was taken yet had the power to take it back up himself.  What might seem like a serious conflict of interests between us and God has been set straight in Christ.  He is both just and the justifier of those who know Christ, whether or not their personal hygiene is great.