[Darris McNeely] Friday, June 24th, 2022, will be going down in American history as a landmark day. It was on that day that the American Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, which was the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states declaring that it was a constitutional right.

And for nearly 50 years, this has been probably the most, if not certainly in the top tier of divisive issues in American politics. No Supreme Court Justice has been nominated without first discerning what they're view about Roe v. Wade was about. Even presidential candidates had to come down on one side or the other.

And now, it's overturned. In that ruling, the Supreme Court basically said that there was no constitutional right to an abortion. To quote what they said, "The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey, which was another ruling dealing with abortion are overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and elected representatives."

The court went on to say this, "The right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition. In fact, before the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973, more than half the states considered abortion a criminal act."

The perspective on this is something that you're not going to always get unless you really read a wide perspective of media reporting on this. There's a lot of bias, polarization. I went and just read the ruling of the Supreme Court that was handed down, and to get most of my information about this.

The abortion debate, however, is not over in the United States. It's just been returned to the states. And so it will be up to individual state legislatures to enact laws regarding abortion. Many already have them on the books.

And so that's where the battleground will be. It's not over. But it has been declared unconstitutional. There is no constitutional right. Will this receive this debate in America? Well, we can hope and pray that it will. But unfortunately, the latest statistics show that abortions have been on the rise in recent years in the United States.

One report that I read said that one in five pregnancies are terminated by abortion, one in five, that's 20%. Think that through. What that means is that in five years, there'll be 20% less children in kindergarten, 20% less children on the playgrounds, the parks, and schools of America. That's the current situation.

But we certainly hope that there has been a corner turned in this. At least we can hope and pray that it will be. The United Church of God has had a very clear view about abortion, and our "Beyond Today" magazine and television. We have done programs on the sanctity of human life. We have written cover articles about the silent epidemic, which abortion has indeed been. Where children have been killed in the United States through abortion, fetuses that have been aborted since 1973, at least in the legal sphere, than were ever killed in any known past Holocaust among the nations and warfare. And that includes the World War II Holocaust of the Nazis against the Jews where nearly 6 million were killed.

It is a holocaust. Abortion, it has been a silent epidemic. God does regulate life. He gives life and only God can take life. This issue ultimately is not a political issue. It's a moral and certainly a spiritual issue. Life comes from God. He created it. It belongs to Him. And He sustains all life on this planet. He speaks very clearly through His Word about this very fact.

It is God who breathed into man the breath of life. And laws that He even gave to Israel and our teachings of Scripture show the sanctity of human life. Men like Jeremiah were known in the womb by God before their birth. It is a viable life. It is a human life. It is not some life form or anything less. We need to keep that in mind as we think about what has taken place. It was a landmark decision. There's a lot to think, and to talk about, and to understand regarding abortion. But first and foremost, keep in mind, that it is God the giver of life who sanctifies life.

That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.