Loss for abortion is victory for sanctity of life

There’s a battle going on in America for the sanctity of unborn life. A major win was achieved at the Supreme Court just a few months ago, and now another victory has been won in California.

When California instituted a mandate that employers must include elective abortions in employee health insurance plans, three churches stood up against the state. 

One of the pastors declared that he’d go to jail if necessary before his church includes abortions in health insurance plans. 

With help and representation by the non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom, these churches filed a lawsuit against the state of California. 

And they won. A court has now ruled in favor of the churches, declaring the state’s mandate unconstitutional. 

This victory exemplifies two things.

One, is that the fight to protect the life of the unborn continues on. 

Remember, the decision this year by the Supreme Court did not eradicate abortion in America …it gave those decisions back to the states and the people.

And so it is on us to stand at the frontlines. Three pastors and their congregations stood up and stood firm. Now the largest populated state in the nation has lost in their fight to force abortion. And the other critical issue here at hand is that of religious liberty, that of the sacred versus the secular.  America was founded by those seeking religious freedom. 

Recall the famous sermon in 1630 by Puritan John Winthrop, founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, one of the nation’s first colonies.

“For we must consider, that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and by-word through the world.”

But the religion, and the freedom to practice it, that was most important to John Winthrop and many of the founders of this country is least important to many people with political power making decisions today.

Faith and freedom go together, but too many with power push a belief that church must be subjugated to government. As our nation moves further away from these founding ideals, from our faith, and towards sin, especially the sin of taking an unborn life, it can be disheartening to consider the future of our nation.

But three churches in California showed us that the future of life and liberty is not lost, and we may yet again be that shining city on a hill.