The two headlines reveal the variant values placed on human life by Americans.

“March for Life 2015 forty-two years after Roe v Wade we still march on” and

“CBO: Saving unborn babies from abortion will increase the budget deficit“

Those who march for life today in cities across the nation recognize the intrinsic value and worth of every human life.  Those seeking to estimate the burden to society of protecting children whose mothers wait for more than five months of pregnancy before deciding to terminate them, see things differently. How then do we count the cost of a human life? Is a person a blessing or a burden?

Fifty-six million American babies have been terminated in the past 42 years. What might their value have been to society? What might they have added to our common life? What might they have discovered, achieved, learned and taught us? To suggest, as the CBO financial analysis assumes, that many or most of those people would have been a burden on the rest of us is not only an economically derogatory assessment of the women who have late term abortions, it is pessimistic about the children whose lives are in the balance. Who knows that one of them wouldn’t be the next Bill Gates?

So, what’s a life worth?

From God’s perspective, who the Bible says “knit you together in your mother’s womb,” and describes your pre-born form as “fearfully and wonderfully made,” you are precious.  And from God’s perspective the orphan who never amounts to anything in the world is as precious in His sight as the billionaire Nobel Peace Prize winner.  You may remember Mother Theresa … this is the truth that she embraced and the value she expended her life seeking to teach the rest of us.

If people are just well-organized accidents of the intersection of time and chance and matter, as some would have us believe, then the CBO’s assessment makes rational sense. If the Bible is right and every human being has intrinsic value then we all better head out now to join the March for Life.

Related articles:

Abortion and the gospel, by Russell Moore, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Christians declare solidarity with unborn at March for Life, by Mark Tooley, Institute on Religion and Democracy

Cardinal: No pro-life victory without reaching the marginalized, by Matt Hadro, Catholic News Agency

March for Life: 42 years after Roe v. Wade, half of Americans say abortion is morally wrong, by Melissa Barnhart, the Christian Post

When no experience is necessary, by John Knight, DesigingGod.com

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