Face to Face with the Number One Cause of Death

For almost three years now, we’ve been inundated with the news about Covid-19, the coronavirus pandemic. While we should be concerned about this potentially deadly virus, consider how it stacked up in 2020 against other causes of death worldwide.

Our concern is understandable. If a person doesn’t touch alcohol, death by alcohol abuse can be avoided. If a person doesn’t smoke, death by smoking can be avoided. While depression and other causes for suicidal thoughts can be a challenge for many, suicide can be avoided. But the coronavirus can strike anybody. We can take steps to lessen our exposure to the coronavirus, but it remains a threat. And those things that can impact us personally are the things over which we most raise a call of concern.

What is missing from the above chart is the number one cause of death in the world: abortion.

By itself, death by abortion surpasses the other seven causes combined! In light of that, what don’t more people show the same concern for it as they do over Covid-19 and cancer?

To be sure, many people do raise an alarm about abortion. It remains a controversial and hotly debated topic across the political spectrum. Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned and the issue of abortion has been returned to the states, the debate has not lessened; it has only shifted locales.

The above statistics reflect deaths in 2020 [Source], and while we can assume abortions in the US will decrease as many states prohibit abortion, millions of unborn children continue to die. So how do we respond? Let me ask this question again: What don’t more Christians show the same concern for the death of the unborn as they do other causes of death?

The reason is because it doesn’t affect us personally. We’re concerned during cold and flu season because we’re susceptible. Covid-19 can be a real threat. But abortion is not something that threatens us personally. So many in the church do not directly interact with those who see abortion as an option for the situation in which they find themselves. The unspoken practice among so many Christians is this: Abortion is tragic, but it is someone else’s problem.

Once a year, the church recognizes the ongoing problem of abortion. We bemoan its practice. We pray that it will stop. We grieve for the countless unborn children who will never know the sheer joy of sunshine, an ice cream cone, or a parent’s love.

Let’s continue to grieve and pray—and let’s do so more than once a year.

But can we do more?

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This post supports the study “Valued by God” in Bible Studies for Life and YOU.

Podcast

Join Lynn Pryor and Chris Johnson as they discuss this topic:

https://ministrysites.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/bsfl_adults/BSFL_ADULTS_WIN23_U2S1.mp3