Many years ago, Christian recording artist, Steve Taylor, released a parody song that pretty much ended his singing career and a brilliant run of successful albums. His release of “I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good” was a bridge too far for some folks in the executive suite of his recording label. The song is about an ice cream man that blows up the local abortion clinic because it is depriving his business of future customers. The best line in it is,
Excuse me, sir
Ain’t nothing wrong with this country
That a few plastic explosives won’t cure.
Yesterday on Facebook, I took my turn as the ice cream man of the Abolitionist movement. I asked what I thought was a legitimate and honest question to a post stating that “IVF kills more babies than abortion”.
The guy that posted it was someone I have been Facebook friends with for about a year and a half. He has about 4,600 followers and is constantly posting about the evils of IVF.
I asked, “[name deleted] can you start talking more about alternatives to IVF instead of just condemning it?”
Folks, I think that is a fair and honest question. I think that I stated so in my previous post. But the response from Abolitionists followers was off the rails weird.
“Like all sin the best alternative is the gospel.”
“Adoption.”
I then restated my question. “… what alternatives can be offered to people that think IVF is their only option?”
Restating the question did not help.
Abolitionists were dumbfounded that I would ask such a question. It was so outside of their wheelhouse that it simply didn’t compute with them.
One person said that folks at the IVF clinic simply need the Gospel.
I said, I’m not talking about the Gospel or adoption. What help can you offer a couple walking in the door of the IVF clinic that can’t have children the usual way but wants their own biological children?
At one point I said, we have centers to send people as an alternative to abortion clinics. Where can you send people instead of the IVF clinic? I even mentioned the saying, “You can’t beat something with nothing.” There were zero responses to that question. I can only conclude that they don’t feel an alternative should even be offered.
Other that shouting to infertile couples not to kill their own baby, they seemed to have nothing to offer.
After restating my question for the third time in the same Facebook thread, the original poster of the anti-IVF remarks then started private messaging me and demanded that I call him personally. It was then that I learned that he was a truck driver by profession. He said that he couldn’t text and drive, although he managed to message me several times when he was supposed to be driving.
I finally called him and spent the better part of an hour on the phone. He treated me like I was visiting junior high youth group for the first time and stepped me through his thought process on why IVF was evil.
During this call, it was claimed that there are one million fertilized eggs in cold storage in the United Stated. These eggs are considered property and depending on the clinic and lab arrangements, the biological parents may or may not be considered the owners of these children. (If life begins at the beginning, then they are children.)
At points in the conversation, the man seemed to confuse IVF with surrogacy. He also stated that most people at IVF clinics were not Christians as Christians know better than to pursue IVF which is why giving people at IVF clinics the Gospel is so important.
I reminded him that that was a false assumption. I told him that statistically, there is no difference in the abortion and divorce statistics between the general population and those who identify as Christian, so why would he expect people at the local IVF clinic to be any different? He was dismissive of my remark and didn’t believe it. For someone claiming to be pro-life, this bothered me. The statistics that I quoted on abortion and divorce have often been used to show the ineffectiveness of the Christian Church in the West. I also said that I have never heard any church speak from the pulpit on IVF or abortion. (I am not talking about some throwaway line in a sermon but an actual sermon on the topic.)
After letting him talk for quite a while, I again brought up what alternatives that he could offer. Again, he said the Gospel. I pressed him on it, and he suggested that it was our duty as Christians to adopt all one million kids in freezers and bring them all into the world. Adoption was mentioned as part of this discussion.
Folks. As we were ending the phone call, he promised to send me a URL to a website with alternatives but all I got from him was 3 memes on the evils of IVF.
He also said that a minister that is big in Abolitionists circles named John Speed had responded to my question. I told him that I hadn’t been on FB in a while.
Speed’s response was in five points which I will summarize below.
1 Pastors need to preach about the unethical nature of IVF and that there is no ethical version
2 Pastors need to research #1 to be convinced that IVF is unethical.
3 When infertile couples come to their pastor for counseling, pastor must know NAPRO tech and natural methods to deal with infertility
4 Adoption
5 If you really want a kid, try to get an embryo donated.
Folks, if IVF continues and Christians start adopting frozen children then I think the situation will get worse from the Abolitionist point of view, not better. More demand will require more supply. Only if IVF is ended first would this form of adoption be a good idea.
Later, the original poster of the IVF comment gave me 10 bullet points on the Facebook thread. They include: being content in your current situation, prayer, fasting, adoption, get your “baby fix” at the church nursery, or lastly seek an expert in fertility that is ethical. (Several of the points were duplicate ideas just stated differently.)
This advice was followed up with “Let us “not” to do evil (make and murder babies) so good may come (one baby delivered) to begin with.”
So, there you have it. Abolitionists don’t have any alternate ways of a couple conceiving a child. Their answer, just be happy you can’t have a kid or go borrow someone else’s.
Oh, the initial claim that IVF kills more children than abortion is demonstrably false; if for no other reason than there are few that can afford IVF. Last I heard, we have about 2. 5 million abortions annually and there are about 50 million per year worldwide. Sorry, but the math doesn’t work to support a claim that IVF kills more than abortion.