R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 608

Abortion: The Great Debate

In this foreword from Abortion by R.C. Sproul, George Grant reflects on the re-publishing of this important title:

In the two decades since this landmark book was first published, four different presidents have occupied the White House, seven justices have come and gone on the Supreme Court, and eleven sessions of Congress have held sway in the Capitol.

These federal magistrates have faced economic booms and busts. They have weathered terror attacks and foreign wars. They have witnessed the end of the Cold War and the rise of the al Qaeda menace. They have wrangled over corporate bailouts and health-care reforms. They have endured Tea Party protests, campaign scandals, personal embarrassments, and policy failures. They have been plagued on every side by mounting demands, frustrated expectations, declining resources, and diminished prestige.

Through it all, the divisiveness of the abortion issue has remained constant. The many and varied political turns of events during the past twenty years have done nothing to ameliorate it—much less, to resolve it. If anything, the divide over abortion has become more pronounced, more acrimonious, and more entrenched. While political gridlock on nearly any and every other issue ultimately has been overcome, no rapprochement on the issue of abortion is anywhere in sight.

Of course, matters have not exactly been helped by the fact that the politically protected international abortion business has grown into a multibillion-dollar industrial complex. Utilizing its considerable wealth, manpower, and influence, the abortion industry has proven itself adept at muscling its way into virtually every facet of modern life. It now plays a strategic role in the health and social-services community. It exerts a major influence on education, providing the majority of sex-education curricula and programs in both public and private schools. It carries considerable political clout through lobbying, campaigning, advocacy, and litigation. It is involved in publishing, broadcast media production, judicial activism, public relations, foreign aid, psychological research counseling, environmental policy-making, sociological planning, demographic investigation, pharmacological development, contraceptive distribution and sales, mass advertising, and public legal service provision.

Planned Parenthood, the oldest, largest, and best-organized provider of abortion and birth-control services in the world, has become a tenured player in all the great social and political issues of our day. From its ignoble beginnings around the turn of the twentieth century, when the shoestring operation consisted of an illegal back-alley clinic in a shabby Brooklyn neighborhood, staffed by a shadowy clutch of firebrand activists and anarchists, it has expanded dramatically into a conglomerate with programs and activities in 134 nations and on every continent.

In the United States alone, Planned Parenthood has mobilized more than twenty thousand personnel and volunteers along the front lines of the confrontational and vitriolic battle over abortion. Today those minions man the organization's more than 150 affiliates and its nearly one thousand clinics in virtually every major metropolitan area, coast to coast. It boasts a national headquarters in New York, a legislative center in Washington, regional command posts in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, and San Francisco, affiliate offices in 49 states and the District of Columbia, and international centers in London, Nairobi, Bangkok, and New Delhi. With an estimated combined annual budget—including all its regional, national, and international service affiliates—of more than a billion dollars, this leading light of the abortion industry may well be the largest and most profitable nonprofit organization in history.

As if that were not enough, the current Democratic administration in Washington—aided and abetted by the Democrat-controlled Senate and House of Representatives—is the most ardently pro-abortion in American history. With a bevy of executive orders, appointments, and administrative policy changes—to say nothing of its 2,407-page monolithic, partisan "health-care-reform" legislation, which removed the longstanding ban on federal funding of abortions in favor of a much more easily overturned executive order—the abortion industry has logged more gains during this administration's short tenure than in the rest of its history combined.

Yet the great divide persists. Despite its obvious cultural clout, its cavernously deep corporate pockets, and its carefully crafted public-relations efforts, the abortion industry has yet to prevail in the battle for the hearts and minds of most Americans. Public-opinion polls conducted during the first year of the Obama administration found that 51 percent of Americans now call themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion, while only 42 percent call themselves "pro-choice." In addition, the number of Americans who favor making it more difficult to obtain an abortion is up six percentage points in just five years. In 2005, 59 percent of respondents agreed it would be good to reduce abortions. Today, 65 percent take this view. One poll also found that fewer Americans, and fewer pro-life activists, are willing to compromise on abortion by finding some "middle ground." Indeed, support for finding a middle ground on the abortion issue is down twelve percentage points among conservatives and six points among all Americans. Yet another poll found that 58 percent of Americans say abortion is morally wrong most of the time. Just 25 percent disagree, and the rest have no opinion. The poll found women are more strongly pro-life than men, with 64 percent of women asserting that most abortions are morally wrong, a view shared by 51 percent of men. Meanwhile, still another survey found a majority of Americans, 52 percent, think it is too easy to get an abortion in America. That's up seven percentage points from two years ago, when 45 percent thought it was too easy.

So why does it seem that the abortion Goliath's grassroots support is slipping at the very moment when its power and resources have reached their zenith? At least part of the reason may be the very nature of the abortion business itself—along with the inevitable fallout that accompanies it. Consider:

Although heralded by the abortion lobby as both "safe and legal," it is now apparent that abortion is merely "legal." The complications of this, the most commonly performed medical procedure in America today, are legion. They include sterility—occurring in as many as 25 percent of all women receiving mid-trimester abortions; hemorrhaging—nearly 10 percent of all cases require transfusions; viral hepatitis—occurring in 10 percent of all those transfused; embolism—occurring in as many as 4 percent of all cases; cervical laceration; pelvic inflammatory disease; genital tract infection; cardiorespiratory arrest; acute kidney failure; and amniotic fluid embolus.
As a result of these sundry complications, women in America have seen a massive increase in the cost of medical care. While the average cost of normal health maintenance for men has increased nearly 12 percent over the past fifteen years due to inflation, the average cost for women has skyrocketed a full 27 percent.
A spate of medical malpractice lawsuits from botched abortions has intensified the industry's already looming insurability crisis.
At the same time, the cultural and political stigmatization of abortion providers has dramatically reduced the number of qualified physicians willing to serve them. As a result, many clinics have been forced to rely on less adequately trained personnel—nurse practitioners and doctors who more often than not have failed in private or institutional practices.
Revelations about deliberately suppressed research data on various procedural risks—particularly concerning the established links between abortion and breast cancer—have raised new questions about the industry's medical objectivity and professional integrity.
New clinical evidence exposing the grave hazards of several of the other forms of treatment championed by the industry—from the deleterious effects of the RU-486 abortion drug and the Norplant contraceptive surgery to the inherent risks and complications in the use of intrauterine devices—have raised the specter of "wholesale institutional quackery."
The shadow over the industry's iatrogenic carelessness has been further darkened by its enthusiastic defense of the horrifying second-trimester "dilation and extraction" surgical procedure—commonly known as D&X or "partial-birth" abortion.
In addition, the industry has staked its tenuous reputation on the therapeutic usefulness of two very dangerous new chemical treatments—the Depo-Provera long-term contraceptive injection and the Methotrexate-Misoprostol abortifacient. Both drugs present grave hazards to women's health, according to a battery of recent clinical tests.
Horrifying new evidence of barbaric human-rights violations—including forced abortions, coercive sterilizations, and torturous disfigurement—associated with the Planned Parenthood- designed population program in Communist China has cast an ominous shadow over the industry's innumerable other tax-funded international activities.
Not surprisingly, the bridling of information about viable alternatives to the abortion industry's clinical, educational, and surgical services has provoked the wrath of a variety of health-care consumer advocates.
Parents, outraged at the promiscuity-promoting content of the abortion industry's affiliated sex-education materials, AIDS-awareness programs, and community-advocacy projects, have begun to organize grassroots efforts to bar organizations such as Planned Parenthood from schools, charitable networks, and civic coalitions in communities all across the United States.
Several punitive lawsuits initiated by the abortion industry—filed in an effort to close down pro-life adoption agencies and abortion-alternative crisis pregnancy centers—have begun to reinforce a perception that the organization is more concerned with the ideological enforcement of its agenda than with the health and welfare of its clients.
A series of negative public-relations campaigns launched by the well-heeled abortion lobby—against cultural conservatives in general and Christian conservatives in particular—has highlighted the industry's immoderate aims and set the standard for the increasingly shrill rhetoric and hysterical extremism of the pro-abortion movement.
Conflict-of-interest accusations have begun to circulate in Washington concerning the cozy relationships between certain past and present federal officials and the industry's voluble lobbyists on Capitol Hill.
A backlash against the massively unpopular "health-care-reform" legislation passed in early 2010 not only has brought renewed support for pro-life organizations, crisis pregnancy centers, and principled politicians, it has brought renewed scrutiny to the grisly abortion trade. New calls to enforce existing laws and enact stricter new ones bode ill for the industry's plans for growth and expansion.

In short, one scandal after another has hit the abortion industry, its medical personnel, its educators, its researchers, its lobbyists, and its administrators. As a result, its "Teflon" reputation is starting to wear a little thin and its "grand illusion" has begun to lose its luster.

As a result, Dr. Sproul's incisive analysis in this book is as relevant and necessary today as it was in the last decade of the twentieth century. Indeed, he points the way to the only possible resolution of this deeply emotional issue.

Once before in American history, a national pro-life consensus was forged, laws were changed, and life was protected. At the outset of the nineteenth century, abortion was actually legal—if only marginally—in every state in the Union. By the end of the century, the procedure had been universally criminalized.

Most of the legal changes came during a relatively short twenty-year period, from 1860 to 1880. In less than two decades, Christians were able to recruit hostile journalists, ambivalent physicians, reticent politicians, and even radical feminists to the cause of mothers with crisis pregnancies and their unborn children. They succeeded overwhelmingly despite the vast wealth, power, and political clout of the burgeoning abortion industry. At a time when the nation was riven with strife over the recalcitrance of chattel slavery, the proliferation of abortion, and the challenging of the most basic principles of American liberty, they demonstrated in word and deed that every human being is made in the image of God and is thus sacred.

The popular press made information about abortion available to the average man on the street. The medical associations made physicians aware of the physical risks and the moral compromises inherently involved in the procedure. Lawyers, politicians, and judges enacted the legal constraints necessary to criminalize abortion profiteers. But it was the church that catalyzed and spearheaded the wildly successful pro-life efforts of the nineteenth century.

It is probably not surprising that pro-life stalwarts of nineteenth-century America did not simply say "no" to abortion; they said "yes" to women in crisis. They said "yes" to the poor and desperate. They said "yes" to the confused and afflicted. In short, they fulfilled their servanthood mandate simultaneously with their prophetic mandate.

Lives were saved, families restored, and the men and women who dedicated themselves to the cause of the sanctity of human life laid a remarkable foundation of liberty for future generations. America at last seemed poised to fulfill her promise—as the land of the free and the home of the brave.

May it be so yet again. And may God be pleased to use this book as a means to bring to pass this, the church's great work of standing for truth, justice, and mercy in the midst of a poor, fallen world.

—George Grant, foreword from Abortion by R.C. Sproul
Franklin, Tennessee
January 2010

$5 Friday - A Look at Ethics & Abortion

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As we approach another anniversary of Roe v. Wade, today's $5 Friday specials focus on abortion, ethics, and God's law. Sale starts 8 a.m. Friday and ends 8 a.m. Saturday EST.

View today's $5 Friday sale.

Thank You for Supporting Ligonier in 2010 & Looking Ahead at 2011

The year 2010 has quickly come and gone with 2011 well underway. We press on confident that the Lord is working all things together for our good and His glory. I am grateful for all of His blessings in this past year and look forward to what He has ahead as we begin our fortieth year of ministry. Our Ministry Partners and the support of so many students has helped to advance the mission of Ligonier Ministries, and we are thankful to count them as a partner in the ministry of the gospel.

I am pleased to report that December 2010 was, financially speaking, the strongest December ever in the history of Ligonier Ministries. Our donors' contributions have helped us end the year in the black, revenue wise, which puts us on a good footing at the beginning of 2011. We continue our capital campaign to raise funds for our new campus to support Ligonier Academy of Biblical & Theological Studies and Ligonier's new international headquarters. Being that we will have significant expenditures related to this campaign in the coming year as we welcome our first undergraduate class, we ask that you will continue to pray for the success of this important fund-raising initiative. More information is available at HereWeStand.info.

In addition to the beginning of our undergraduate program at the Bible college this fall, there are other exciting events and outreaches planned for 2011. We are celebrating 40 years of ministry this year and will be working to expand our reach in many different areas. I have a few writing projects that will be published through Reformation Trust and others. Tabletalk continues to address pressing biblical, theological, and cultural issues, and we are hopeful that the broadcast of Renewing Your Mind will increase just as it did in 2010. Our new teaching fellows — Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Steven Lawson, and R.C. Sproul Jr. — will play an active role, especially at our national conference on March 24–26, which will also feature John Piper and me. We have ambitious plans to expand our reach into the Spanish-speaking world, beginning with a translation of The Reformation Study Bible that will release in a few years. I will continue my pulpit ministry at Saint Andrew's and work on other new Ligonier teaching resources as well.

All in all, we are overjoyed at the opportunities available to us in the year ahead, and we look forward to all that God will bring our way. We are confident in His loving providence and are thankful to be a part of His mission in this world. Thank you for standing with us in our proclamation of His holiness to as many people as possible.

Your servant in Christ,

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A Body of Divinity

The last several decades have witnessed the publication of a wealth of classic theological treasures.  Some of these, such as Francis Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology and Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics, are translations, making these classic works available in English for the first time.  Others are reprints of volumes that have been out of print for decades, or even centuries.  Publishers such as Banner of Truth, Soli Deo Gloria, Reformation Heritage Books and Christian Focus Publications' Christian Heritage imprint have been at the forefront of this recent effort to bring back long out-of-print works. 

[image error]In 2007, another of these publishers, Solid Ground Christian Books, reprinted a true classic, A Body of Divinity by Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656).  Probably best known for his work on biblical chronology, Ussher was a highly regarded puritan leader and theologian.  In 1615 he drew up the Irish Articles of Religion, which were later to become a source for the divines who wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith.  In 1625, Ussher was appointed Archbishop of Armagh, and he remained in this office until his death.

Ussher's influence on the work of the Westminster Assembly went beyond the Irish Articles.  According to A. A. Hodge, Ussher's book A Body of Divinity "had more to do in forming the Catechism and Confession of Faith than any other book in the world; because it is well known that although Archbishop Ussher was not himself present in the Westminster Assembly, he was twice invited to attend and sit there, and that this book, which he compiled as a young man, was in circulation in this Assembly among the individuals composing it" (Hodge, Evangelical Theology, 165).  According to Hodge, then, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms reflect the theology of Archbishop Ussher.

[image error]If this historical relationship to the Westminster Assembly were the only significance of Ussher's work, it would be sufficient to establish the value of studying it.  Thankfully, however, A Body of Divinity is worth studying also on its own merits as a richly theological work.  Written in a catechetical question and answer format, Ussher covers all of the major topics of systematic theology.  Following the main body of the text, this work also includes two brief catechisms, the first a very basic introduction to the Christian faith, the other for those who have devoted more study to the doctrines of the faith.

Ussher's Body of Divinity is a foundational text of Reformed systematic theology.  For students of Reformed theology and puritan history, it is a must-read.  It is also highly recommended for any Christian who desires a deeper grasp of the essential doctrines of Christianity.

The Precious Gift of Baby Talk

John Piper's contribution to this month's issue of Tabletalk is on the subject of language. "Human language is precious," he says. "It sets us off from the animals. It makes our most sophisticated scientific discoveries and our deepest emotions sharable. Above all, God chose to reveal Himself to us through human language in the Bible. In the fullness of time, He spoke to us by His Son (Heb. 1:1–2), and that Son spoke human language. In like manner, He sent His Spirit to lead His apostles into all truth so that they could tell the story of the Son in human language. Without this story in human language, we would not know the Son."

While language is a precious gift of God, it is not perfect. Piper says that it is "imperfect for capturing the fullness of God." He explains that in "1 Corinthians 13, there are four comparisons between this present time and the age to come after Christ returns." You can learn about those comparisons and why they matter by reading "The Precious Gift of Baby Talk."

Here I Stand

There was once a great man who managed to upset the religious leaders of his day.  They were screaming for his blood because he had both bypassed their own power structure, and had gained a large popular following. He had taught those under his influence that the traditions they had received were wrong, distortions of the Word, and called them to something far older, something far more biblical.  And the world was being turned upside down. Those in authority accused the man of heresy, demanding that he cease and desist.  And then, the most amazing thing happened. The history tells us that "…while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, 'Do you hear how many things they testify against You?' But He answered Him not a word, so that the governor marveled greatly" (Matthew 27:12-14.)

Jesus gave no dramatic speech. He did not thrust His chin out, confess that He could not recant because His conscience was captive, turn on His heels and walk off. Instead He went like a lamb to the slaughter. He submitted Himself to the scribes and Pharisees, to the Roman empire, and more important, the Emperor Beyond the Sea.

Luther did the right thing, standing on the Word at Worms. And we, too often, do all the wrong things in his name. We think that the glory of that story is that he stood his ground, that he was courageous, immovable, a rock. And so we go in search of the same opportunities. We boldly stand, and walk out of our churches because this possible inference of that potential trajectory of the other postulation in the pastor's off-the-cuff remark might impinge on an important doctrine. We boldly defy the American empire, refusing to tell their census taker how many toilets are in our house. We boldly dishonor our parents, because we think them to be not quite as honorable as we are.

Luther is a hero not because he was bold, but because he was meek, not because of his stance, but because of where he stood.  I suspect that great speech at Worms was delivered not with bravado, but as a plea, that he whimpered rather than thundered. Luther is a hero because he was willing to be slaughtered for the sake of the Lamb. It was not because he stood, but because he knelt, in submission to the Word.

It is a good thing to want to do great things for the kingdom. It is a better thing to understand that the better thing is almost certainly to submit to those in authority over you.  The greatest thing Jesus ever did was not His miracles. It was not the proclamation of His message. It was not even the walking out of the tomb alive. The greatest thing Jesus ever did was to say, at the greatest possible cost, "Yes, Father." May His grace and power teach me to do the same. May those in authority over me marvel.

Tender Grace

"I see men like trees, walking" (Mark 8:24). What a strange experience. Walking trees are not a normal sight for normal people. But the man who saw "walking trees" was a man in transition. He was at an intermediate stage between total blindness and full clarity of vision. He was, as we shall see, a representative of all Christians in their progress toward pleasing God.

When the Bible records the miracle healings wrought by Jesus, the healings are usually instantaneous and complete. Jesus did not partially raise Lazarus from the dead. The man with the withered arm did not recover in stages. In most other miracles, the person was changed instantly.

So the episode recorded in Mark's Gospel is unusual. It records the healing of a blind man in two stages:

And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Him, and entreated Him to touch him. And taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes, and laying His hands upon him, He asked him, "Do you see anything?" And he looked up and said, "I see men, for I am seeing them like trees, walking about." Then again He laid His hands upon his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly. (Mark 8:22-25, NASB)

This is a story of the power and the grace of Christ. It is a story of tender grace. When Jesus was approached by people concerned about the plight of the blind man, the first act He performed was to "take the blind man by the hand." Holding his hand, Jesus led the man out of town.

Picture the scene. The Son of God surely had the power to heal the man on the spot. Instead, Jesus led him away from the crowd. He ministered to him in private. The blind man was not a spectacle for the curious to gaze upon. Our Lord directed the man's steps. Never in his life did the blind man have so secure a guide. There was no danger of falling, no menace of tripping. He was being led by the hand of Christ.

Had Jesus' act of tenderness ended at that point, I'm sure it would have been enough. The blind man could tell the story to his life's end. "He touched me!" he could exclaim, and he would have savored the experience forever. But Jesus was not finished. He took the next step.

When they were away from the crowd Jesus did something that could offend our sensibilities. He spit on the man's eyes. Now, to have someone spit in our eye is to experience a shameful, degrading insult. But the purpose of Jesus was not to insult, but to heal. He touched the man and asked him if he could see anything.

It was at this point that the man began to see men as walking trees. He saw what any blind man would give anything to see. His vision was dim, blurred—but he could see. Moments earlier he could see nothing. His eyes were useless. He lived in perpetual darkness. But now, suddenly, he could discern moving forms. He could detect the difference between light and shadow. A new world was opening before him. No longer would he require that someone lead him by the hand. He could throw away his cane.

Jesus was not finished. He applied a second touch. With the second touch the things that were blurred came into sharp focus. Now the man could clearly distinguish between trees and men. Now he saw trees standing still, their branches swaying gently in the breeze. He saw men as men, walking. He could discern the difference between short men and tall men, fat men and thin men, young men and old men. He was beginning to recognize the minute facial characteristics that provoke recognition of distinctive personal identities. Perhaps he could have done it before by means of touch. Possibly he could have run his fingers over a person's face and recognized certain people. He surely would not have noticed the unique sounds of different people's voices. But now he could keep his hands in his pockets and still know who was standing before him. The first face he saw clearly was the face of Christ. For him it was the beginning of the blessed vision.

Though the Bible doesn't say so, it appears certain that his eyes were not the only part of the man that was healed. With the touch of Christ comes also the healing of the heart. His heart of stone had been changed to a heart of flesh, pulsating anew with spiritual life.

The story of this healing was not intended as just a parable of the Christian's spiritual renewal. The event was a real miracle in space and time, a prodigious display of the power of Christ. But it serves us well as a parallel of spiritual renewal.

The Bible uses the metaphor of blindness to describe our fallen estate. We are all men born blind. We enter this world in a state of spiritual darkness. We do not see the things of the kingdom of God. By nature we have scales upon our eyes, cataracts so thick that we cannot even perceive men as trees, walking. It requires a special act of tender grace for us to see the kingdom of God.

Twitter Highlights (1/16/11)

Here are some highlights from the various Ligonier Twitter feeds over the past week.

Tabletalk Magazine Yes, you can receive a FREE trial subscription to Tabletalk magazine. See here: http://GetTabletalk.com



Ligonier Academy Ideas have consequences, your choice of college is critical. Prayerfully watch this video clip with RC Sproul http://vimeo.com/18675919



Reformation Trust ...we never fear God the way we should, we never love Him as much as we ought, & we never obey Him with a totally pure heart -@JohnMacArthur



Ligonier The people that were most comfortable with Jesus were the outcast sinners...they had no illusions about their own righteousness. - RC Sproul



Tabletalk Magazine Oh how many can look at their faces in a mirror all morning, but their eyes weary when they look on a Bible! (T. Watson)



Reformation Trust The sooner we begin serving where there is a need, the sooner we will begin to learn where the Lord is leading us in our service to Him.



Ligonier True leaders of the Christian faith love believers and pagans alike and risk the hostility of both to build the kingdom of God.

 

You can also find our various ministries on Facebook:
Ligonier Ministries | Ligonier Academy | Reformation Trust | Tabletalk Magazine

Moving Out in Faith

Abraham went to a far country at the bidding of God. He was not young and foolish. He was advanced in years, being seventy-five years old when God said to him: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you" (Gen. 12:1).

Abraham's move was not a temporary trip for purposes of study or relaxation. It was to be a permanent uprooting for himself and his immediate family. It meant leaving both his father's house and his fatherland. It meant leaving everything that was a part of his security. He left his home, his property, his business contacts, his doctor, and everyone else that was integral to his community. He took his wife, his nephew, and some servants. The only other person who went with him was God.

What made Abraham's departure all the more startling was that he had no idea where he was going. He was a pilgrim with no place to call his home. But he went with a promise, a sacred pledge from God Himself that the Lord would show him a land wherein Abraham would become the father of a great nation.

This moment in his life was memorialized by the author of Hebrews: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance" (Heb. 11:8).

Coram Deo: Is God asking you to move out by faith in some area of your life or ministry?

Hebrews 11:8–10: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterward receive as an inheritance. And he went out, now knowing where he was going. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

15 Reasons the Abortion Industry is Losing Its Support

Why does it seem that the abortion industry's grassroots support is slipping at the very moment when its power and resources have reached their zenith? At least part of the reason may be the very nature of the abortion business itself—along with the inevitable fallout that accompanies it. Consider:

Although heralded by the abortion lobby as both "safe and legal," it is now apparent that abortion is merely "legal." The complications of this, the most commonly performed medical procedure in America today, are legion. They include sterility—occurring in as many as 25 percent of all women receiving mid-trimester abortions; hemorrhaging—nearly 10 percent of all cases require transfusions; viral hepatitis—occurring in 10 percent of all those transfused; embolism—occurring in as many as 4 percent of all cases; cervical laceration; pelvic inflammatory disease; genital tract infection; cardiorespiratory arrest; acute kidney failure; and amniotic fluid embolus.
As a result of these sundry complications, women in America have seen a massive increase in the cost of medical care. While the average cost of normal health maintenance for men has increased nearly 12 percent over the past fifteen years due to inflation, the average cost for women has skyrocketed a full 27 percent.
A spate of medical malpractice lawsuits from botched abortions has intensified the industry's already looming insurability crisis.
At the same time, the cultural and political stigmatization of abortion providers has dramatically reduced the number of qualified physicians willing to serve them. As a result, many clinics have been forced to rely on less adequately trained personnel—nurse practitioners and doctors who more often than not have failed in private or institutional practices.
Revelations about deliberately suppressed research data on various procedural risks—particularly concerning the established links between abortion and breast cancer—have raised new questions about the industry's medical objectivity and professional integrity. 
New clinical evidence exposing the grave hazards of several of the other forms of treatment championed by the industry—from the deleterious effects of the RU-486 abortion drug and the Norplant contraceptive surgery to the inherent risks and complications in the use of intrauterine devices—have raised the specter of "wholesale institutional quackery."
The shadow over the industry's iatrogenic carelessness has been further darkened by its enthusiastic defense of the horrifying second-trimester "dilation and extraction" surgical procedure—commonly known as D&X or "partial-birth" abortion.
In addition, the industry has staked its tenuous reputation on the therapeutic usefulness of two very dangerous new chemical treatments—the Depo-Provera long-term contraceptive injection and the Methotrexate-Misoprostol abortifacient. Both drugs present grave hazards to women's health, according to a battery of recent clinical tests.
Horrifying new evidence of barbaric human-rights violations—including forced abortions, coercive sterilizations, and torturous disfigurement—associated with the Planned Parenthood-designed population program in Communist China has cast an ominous shadow over the industry's innumerable other tax-funded international activities.
Not surprisingly, the bridling of information about viable alternatives to the abortion industry's clinical, educational, and surgical services has provoked the wrath of a variety of health-care consumer advocates.
Parents, outraged at the promiscuity-promoting content of the abortion industry's affiliated sex-education materials, AIDS-awareness programs, and community-advocacy projects, have begun to organize grassroots efforts to bar organizations such as Planned Parenthood from schools, charitable networks, and civic coalitions in communities all across the United States.
Several punitive lawsuits initiated by the abortion industry—filed in an effort to close down pro-life adoption agencies and abortion-alternative crisis pregnancy centers—have begun to reinforce a perception that the organization is more concerned with the ideological enforcement of its agenda than with the health and welfare of its clients.
A series of negative public-relations campaigns launched by the well-heeled abortion lobby—against cultural conservatives in general and Christian conservatives in particular—has highlighted the industry's immoderate aims and set the standard for the increasingly shrill rhetoric and hysterical extremism of the pro-abortion movement.
Conflict-of-interest accusations have begun to circulate in Washington concerning the cozy relationships between certain past and present federal officials and the industry's voluble lobbyists on Capitol Hill.
A backlash against the massively unpopular "health-care-reform" legislation passed in early 2010 not only has brought renewed support for pro-life organizations, crisis pregnancy centers, and principled politicians, it has brought renewed scrutiny to the grisly abortion trade. New calls to enforce existing laws and enact stricter new ones bode ill for the industry's plans for growth and expansion.

In short, one scandal after another has hit the abortion industry, its medical personnel, its educators, its researchers, its lobbyists, and its administrators. As a result, its "Teflon" reputation is starting to wear a little thin and its "grand illusion" has begun to lose its luster.

*****

From Dr. Grant's foreword to Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue (Reformation Trust, 2010). Read the entire foreword here. The above citations are footnoted in the book.