/ Mark Loughridge

A Voice for the Voiceless

[On the 25th May Ireland votes to retain in or repeal from its Constitution the equal right to life of the unborn child.]

You can’t be a little bit pregnant and you can’t be a little bit human. But you can be a little human. And the things you say about a tiny human, you can also say about a bigger human.

You can be a big human who isn’t wanted. And you can be a little human who isn’t wanted.

You can be a big human whose life is limited, and you can be a little human whose life is limited.

You can be a big human who places a burden of care on others, and you can be a small human who places a burden of care on others.

None of those changes your humanness. In fact, in big humans it calls for all the rest of us to be more human. More compassionate, more supporting, more of a community.

And the little humans call us to be more human, not less. The hard circumstances that are cited to justify abortion (and which only account for less than 2% of all abortions) are opportunities for us to be more human as a society, not less so.

According to the World Health Organization 56 million people die per year from all causes—heart attack, old age, war, disaster, famine, cancer, crime, car crashes etc. Do you know how many we abort each year? According to WHO there are 56 million abortions every year. That means we kill as many human beings in the first 9 months of their existence, as death in all its forms takes after birth. Stop and ponder that. 56 million. Mankind matches death in all its forms.

The current rate of abortion is the equivalent of the tragedy of 9/11 happening every half hour, every day, every week, every month, all year. Or it’s like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami with its death toll of 280,000 happening 200 times per year.

What if we woke up tomorrow morning and the entire population of England was dead. Next year South Africa, next year South Korea. Then in one go: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland. All dead.
56 million—every year. And 98% are for social reasons—not rape or life limiting conditions. 56 million voices never heard.

If a plague were doing that, we would do our utmost to stop it. There would be a clamour of voices.

Yet we kill those who have no voice. You are called to be a voice for them in a culture that silences the unborn at a frightening rate.

In Proverbs 31:8,9 God calls us to be a voice for the voiceless.
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

On the 25th of May will you be a voice for the voiceless? Will you speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves?

For those outside of Ireland, will you raise your voices in prayer for our country and for the unborn voiceless of Ireland? Pray that Ireland will be a beacon of resistance against a culture of death for the rest of the world.

Mark Loughridge

Mark Loughridge

Mark pastors 2 churches in the Republic of Ireland. He is married with three daughters. Before entering the ministry he studied architecture. He enjoys open water swimming, design, and watching rugby.

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