British doctor and pro-life advocate Callum Miller addressed delegates at the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) General Assembly in Seoul on Tuesday morning, calling on churches around the world to “choose life” and respond with both truth and compassion to what he called “the world’s biggest killer”.
“As Christians in my country, where abortion is legal, we face a situation where one in three pregnancies end in abortion,” Miller said. “That means there are many people in our church who are personally affected,” he said, reminding church leaders not to treat this issue as secondary to the church’s many social concerns. “There are so many issues facing church leaders that it’s easy to reduce abortion to just another issue,” he said. “But this is not just another issue.”
“World’s biggest cause of death”
Miller estimated that “probably 50 million people abort each year around the world, and 100 million parents carry that loss for the rest of their lives.” He called abortion “the world’s biggest cause of death,” noting that abortions are caused “not by disease or accident, but by our own hands.”
“This is not a clump of cells or a parasite. This is a child made in the image of God,” Miller said, showing a video of a fetus at nine weeks pregnant. He cited the Bible to emphasize the spiritual and moral importance of the issue. “Jesus teaches that when we ignore those most in need, we are ignoring Him and putting ourselves at risk of eternal fire,” he said, referring to the Biblical term for hell, which was “famous because it was the place where the Israelites slaughtered their children.”
Quoting Jesus’ words, “Let your children come unto me, and do not disturb them,” Miller said children “are important to Jesus even when they are at their smallest, weakest, most vulnerable, both in and out of the womb.” He added: “The deliberate killing of children was the best way Jesus described hell itself.”
global generational change
Miller said the church must “stand boldly, decisively, and graciously and compassionately against abortion,” warning that failing to do so would undermine the church’s moral witness. “If we don’t have the ability and the willingness to stand up boldly, decisively, and graciously and compassionately against abortion, I don’t think we’ll be able to convince Jesus that we truly care about children,” he said.
He explained the rapid change in global attitudes towards abortion, citing the example of Ireland, where public opinion changed dramatically within a few years. “In 2013, only a third of the population said they supported abortion. But just five years later, two-thirds of Irish people, including 85% of young people, voted to legalize abortion,” he said.
Mr Miller warned that similar changes were occurring elsewhere. “We conducted a survey last year among students and young professionals in the Philippines,” he said. “Even in the Philippines, we found that 70% of young people support legalizing abortion,” he said, adding that between 2008 and 2019, 27 countries liberalized their abortion laws, and the trend is “spreading at an alarming pace to every region of the world.”
“You may think your country is a very conservative Christian country, but the reality is probably that millions of dollars are flowing into your country to pressure legislators and young people to go pro-abortion,” Miller said of countries that have changed their laws in the past 30 years.
Pressures in developing and developed countries
He cited several countries where he said efforts to legalize abortion were active, including Haiti, Dominica, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Poland, Chile, Brazil and South Korea. “Right now, here in South Korea, there is a push in Congress to legalize abortion up to birth,” Miller said. “If you want to help your country stay pro-life, please talk to me or send me a message on the app and I’d be happy to help.”
He said the global expansion of abortion laws threatens the long-term future of countries already facing declining birth rates. “Whether you live in the most liberal country in the world or the most conservative country, this is destroying the future of all of our countries,” he said. “Very few countries outside Africa and the Pacific Islands have enough children to survive.”
“The moment when you choose your life”
Mr. Miller concluded by returning to the Bible’s view of life and family. “The Bible teaches that children are a blessing and that we should be fruitful and multiply,” he said. “It tells us that life and death are before us and we must choose life. It says that Jesus came to give us life in abundance.”
He spoke to a gathering of evangelicals from around the world in what he called “the country with the lowest birth rate in the world.” “I pray that this will be a moment of great change, a moment of life choice for the people of God, not only in our own lives and in our church, but also in our nation.”
