Look out SD, it's a bummer when that little face stares back at you

Last week Dr. Anthony Levatino was on Capital Hill speaking to members of Congress and why he is no longer a pro-choice abortion doctor. His story is intense. After he and his wife struggled with infertility for years (and finally adopted two children), they faced a far greater loss. Their little daughter chased her brother out into the street and was run over and killed by a car. Dr. Levantino, today a pro-life OB-GYN, reflected on all this at a press conference in DC last week…

“What do you do after a tragedy? You mourn for a while and you try to get back into your routine. I don’t know how long after her death I had to do my first D&E abortion. I remember reaching in and literally ripping out an arm or a leg and looking at it in the clamp and I got sick. When you start an abortion you can’t stop. If you leave anything behind, you [can] bet your patient is going to come back infected, bleeding or worse.

“I soldiered on and I finished that abortion.” But, Levatino said, something had changed.

“For the first time in my life I really looked at that pile of goo at the side of the table, and all of a sudden I didn’t see her wonderful right to choose, and I didn’t see the $600 wad of cash that I made in 15 minutes, and I couldn’t think about what a great doctor I was because I took care of her problem. All I could see was somebody’s son or daughter.”

“Imagine for a moment you are a pro-choice obstetrician-gynecologist like I once was,” Levatino said at the press conference. “Your patient today is 17 years old and she is 20 weeks pregnant. At 20 weeks, she has been feeling her baby kick for the last two weeks. If you could see her baby, she would be as long as your hand from the top of her head to the bottom of her rump, not counting the legs. Your patient is now asleep on an operating room table and you are there to help her with her problem pregnancy.”

Levatino went on to describe how he used a 13-inch instrument for “grasping” inside the uterus to remove the baby, piece by piece. “The toughest part of a D&E [dilation and evacuation] abortion is extracting the baby’s head,” Levatino said. “If you have a really bad day, like I often did, a little face may come out and stare back at you.”

Here's the thing with that little face… I've talked to a number of post-abortive women who speak of "that little face" and the repeated nightmares of barely but never really ever getting a glimpse of that little face. Some say that little face does regularly haunt them - that you can remove a baby from a mothers womb but that doesn't remove it from her heart.

However, to be theologically precise… that little face doesn't look back and forever haunt those responsible for his/her merciless death. That little face is directed God-ward. In the Book of Revelation it says those who innocent blood was shed continually cry out to God, "How long O Lord, how long until you avenge our blood?" Abortion is a justice issue for the unborn and it's only a matter of time. To be theologically precise, the face of God is the one to be concerned with right now.

In Isaiah 1:15, two things happen to the nation/state that tolerates the shedding of judicially innocent blood. 1) God will not listen to our prayers. 2) He turns his eyes from us. In other words, in our moment of great need, God will look the other way. Why? Because we turned our face from the unborn.

I can't say that little face will haunt every one in South Dakota who votes no on Initiated Measure 11. But what I can say with certainty is that a NO vote on Initiated Measure will result in God's face turning away from us. And that is far worse. The good news is his face is inclined toward people with a heart for justice and who repent of the shedding of innocent blood. When his face shines on a land and a people… great favor is unleashed. It's our CHOICE.

Here's an idea - send the link to this post/devotional thought to your friends and relatives in South Dakota so they understand the spiritual implications and dynamics of a NO vote and a YES for on Initiated Measure 11.