Nations around the world are advising people to stay home, social distance from their family and friends, and wash their hands, all in an effort to save lives as the coronavirus continues to spread and the death toll climbs. But, at the same time, some of these same governments are making it as easy as possible for one group of people to be killed during this pandemic. What am I talking about?

A recent news article reported that women in England are now permitted to have a “home abortion” to avoid leaving their homes and heading to clinics as they seek to kill their unborn babies. So while the British government shows great concern for their citizens who might contract coronavirus, they are eager to allow women to kill their children in the womb—permitting them to do it right in their own homes. What utter hypocrisy!

These “home abortions” are what are known as chemical abortions. In this kind of abortion, a woman takes a series of pills that kill the baby by cutting of nourishment to the baby (the pill blocks the production of the hormone progesterone, and without it, the lining of the uterus breaks down and the baby no longer receives nourishment and blood). A second pill then induces contractions and bleeding to force the dead baby out of the woman’s body. This kind of abortion is used up to 10 weeks gestational age and the first pill is usually taken at an abortion clinic, with the second pill taken later at home. (These abortions can sometimes be reversed.) Now women in England can take both pills at home. This procedure is actually quite horrific. Many women don’t even know what they’re getting themselves into.

Of course, the article doesn’t describe the abortion this way—it uses terms like “terminate an early pregnancy,” “health care,” and “ending an unwanted pregnancy.” It describes the first pill as “stop[ping] the hormone that allows the pregnancy to continue working” (as if “continue working” makes any sense when talking about the growth of a child in the womb!) and the second pill as “encourage[ing] the womb to contract to pass the pregnancy” (you can’t “pass a pregnancy,” by the way!). They’ll use any wording to avoid saying what is really happening—a baby is being murdered and it’s a horrible procedure.

Our world is incredibly inconsistent. So many claim to care about lives as they seek to stop the pandemic and yet, at the same time, care nothing for an entire group of individuals—the unborn (as long as those unborn are “unwanted,” anyway). What tragic and horrifying hypocrisy! It really highlights that this is a spiritual battle we’re fighting.

In a biblical worldview we know that each of those babies is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), just as we all are. They are one hundred per cent human and a unique individual right from fertilization. Their lives have every bit as much value as mine or yours. Our value doesn’t come from whether we are “wanted” or “unwanted,” sick or healthy, old or young, born or unborn—it comes from being created in God’s image.