The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:61–62)

When peer counselors in our pregnancy care centers reveal human biology and the testimony of Scripture on life within the womb, they often hear, “I didn’t realize!” Occasionally, this realization came with tears for the abortion that had occurred now that the truth is clear.

Advocates of abortion, hormonal birth control, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) work hard to hide the fact that life begins at fertilization. At that moment of fertilization, it is not anything other than life in its earliest stages. There is no coming metamorphosis or a new injection of “life juice” to bring on life. At fertilization, it is life, pure and simple.

When the truth becomes hard to ignore, the agenda is exposed: some life has more value than other lives. Specifically, an unborn child is less valuable than a born child. Judging from the reaction to the 2022 Dobbs ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, the public is willing to accept those terms.

Recently, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that an embryo created through IVF is a person, not property. Again, we saw the commitment to the ideology that some lives are expendable. The Alabama legislature passed a law that protects IVF as a procedure, even though countless embryos are destroyed in the process.

For a segment of the population wanting a child, IVF was their best hope. Many of them accept the loss of life. Others, however, who have had IVF and now hold a child in their arms, whisper, “I didn’t realize!”

Opposing IVF is easily manipulated to sound like a nosiness that deprives couples of a child. But when Scripture teaches that life exists at fertilization (Psalm 51:5), we must face the hard truth that IVF is one of the most dangerous experiences for life in the embryonic stage. Yet, as Peter found forgiveness in Christ, so do countless parents who didn’t realize the price that was paid. We would fail God not to speak the truth. We would fail others not to speak the truth in love. There is forgiveness.