{"id":317788,"date":"2024-08-28T10:39:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T15:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=317788"},"modified":"2024-08-28T10:39:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T15:39:50","slug":"pastor-misrepresents-pro-life-illiterate-defense-ivf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pastor-misrepresents-pro-life-illiterate-defense-ivf\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor misrepresents pro-life position in ‘scientifically illiterate’ defense of IVF"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Infertility is a heartbreaking struggle. Anyone who denies that lacks compassion and fails to understand the deep desire most people have to create a family. The pro-life stance, however, understands that every human life is inherently equal and valuable even during its first moments of existence beginning at fertilization. Dehumanizing those lives<\/a> will lead to the dehumanization of other lives, spreading the evil and false idea that some lives are expendable. Nowhere is this more evident than through in vitro fertilization (IVF).<\/p>\n

Recently, Pastor Jeremiah Johnston \u2014 described<\/a> on the Christian Thinkers website as a New Testament scholar, pastor, author, nationally syndicated radio host, Bible teacher, and apologist \u2014 shared his and his wife’s story of struggling with infertility, and their use of IVF to create a family. “The topic of infertility is intrinsically personal<\/a> and often painful, especially for women,” Johnston wrote in a piece for Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is indeed painful and personal, but the arguments this pastor presented about IVF require some serious correction.<\/p>\n

What the Alabama Supreme Court ruled and didn’t rule<\/h3>\n

Johnston claimed, “[A]n Alabama court decision<\/a> reignited questions about the personhood of embryos that had been put to rest years ago. Unfortunately, a small but vocal minority have fixated on this position, and it has certainly been no help to the pro-life cause or to families struggling with infertility.”<\/p>\n

Despite Johnston’s background as a Christian apologist (defender of the Christian faith), he appears to be very, very misinformed on certain points. If he believes that questions surrounding “the personhood of embryos” have ever<\/em> been “put to rest,” then he hasn’t been paying attention. And “the pro-life cause” has always held the position that every human being from the moment of fertilization has the right to life \u2014 no matter how those human beings were conceived. Making certain “exceptions” as to which humans have that right and which do not is a watering down of the true pro-life position.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Johnston listened to the unreliable mainstream media regarding the Alabama Supreme Court decision instead of verifying their claims for himself; what the Court actually<\/em> said<\/a> in its ruling in the case, brought by parents of embryos who had been destroyed at an Alabama fertility clinic, was that embryos can be considered children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnborn children are \u2018children\u2019 under the Act, without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Justice James \u201cJay\u201d Mitchell, writing for the court.<\/p>\n

The court did not<\/strong> establish personhood for embryos, but ruled that if embryos are destroyed against the wishes of the parents, without the consent of the parents, or in an accident at the fertility clinic<\/em>, parents would be allowed to sue under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.<\/p>\n

Fertility clinics in the state panicked<\/em>, because they know<\/em> that they are destroying human lives regularly with reproductive technologies, and that more preborn human beings die during the IVF process than are born; IVF businesses were afraid of being sued following the ruling, so many suspended their practices out of that fear.<\/p>\n

God’s plan, not man’s<\/h3>\n

Johnston stated, “As it had already been during many other doctor appointments, science and faith came together in our quest to become pregnant. Our relationship with God was essential, and we were inspired to do everything we could to become pregnant, which meant the financial and emotional risk of IVF.”<\/p>\n

But in saying this, Johnston is claiming that God finds the purposeful destruction<\/a> of human life during the IVF process acceptable. He is confusing God’s plan with his own. Every child that is conceived is made in the image of God, so we must ask ourselves: Does God approve of “weeding out” certain embryos in favor of the ones with fewer “defects” and then destroying the “defective” ones? Does God approve of producing multiple human beings in a lab and then “grading” them and selecting only the best for implantation, leaving the rest potentially in cold storage indefinitely?<\/p>\n