President Trump announced yesterday that he was canceling his planned tariffs on US allies in Europe over US control of Greenland. The announcement came after he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte agreed to the “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security. Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump also stated that he was ruling out military force to acquire the island.
As Dr. Ryan Denison explained in Tuesday’s edition of The Focus, missile defense systems that form a primary deterrent against attacks on the US rely heavily on Greenland’s location. Melting ice caps have opened shipping lanes that were previously closed; Russia and China have increased their presence in the region. There are also significant rare earth minerals, oil, and hydrocarbon reserves on the island.
All of this argues for Greenland’s escalating geopolitical and military significance for the US in these fraught days. Nonetheless, Mr. Trump’s statement that he would not use military force or tariffs to acquire the island was met with approval. In fact, only 17 percent of Americans support the US taking Greenland; only 8 percent support using military force to do so.
Such reticence is understandable. A basic principle undergirding the world order is that nations are sovereign and that no country has the right to impose its values on another.
Let’s apply this thesis to the most urgent moral issue of our day.
What is the leading cause of death worldwide?
January 22 is the saddest anniversary of the year. More than sixty-five million babies have lost their lives in the US since the Supreme Court discovered a “right” to abortion in the US Constitution on this day in 1973.
More than a million babies in the US were aborted in 2024. This makes abortion the leading cause of death in America, far outstripping heart disease, the second-leading cause of death, with 680,981 fatalities. Abortion is also the leading cause of death worldwide: globally, more than seventy-three million babies were aborted just last year.
According to World Health Organization estimates, abortion accounted for nearly 52 percent of total deaths worldwide. Think about that for a moment: More than one in two deaths around the world were by abortion. If a disease was causing such horrific fatalities, it would lead the news every day. As it is, I would presume that you’re only now learning this.
At the same time, the world is facing an escalating demographic crisis. The global fertility rate for 2025 was 2.2 children per woman, the lowest level in recorded history. For the fourth year in a row, China reported more deaths than births last year as its birthrate plunged to a record low.
This matters because people are living longer than ever, meaning that fewer young people will be working and contributing to the support of more retirees. Over time, there will also be fewer people to buy goods and services, so economies will shrink, further exacerbating financial pressures.
Imagine the difference millions of aborted lives would make to this burgeoning crisis. You don’t have to wonder: according to the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress, $6.9 trillion is lost each year from work that aborted individuals would have contributed to the American economy.
And there is a worldview factor here as well. A dear friend and I were discussing this issue the other day, and he noted that when people have no children or grandchildren, they are less invested in the future and more focused on what seems best for them in the present. As a result, they mortgage the future for themselves and everyone else as well.
When my room was bugged in Russia
Despite these global consequences, it is commonplace for Americans and even many evangelical Christians to respond to the abortion epidemic with the claim, “I don’t believe in abortion, but I have no right to force my beliefs on others.” I have heard this personally in conversations, radio interviews, and responses to speaking engagements over the years.
I understand the sentiment. When I was in St. Petersburg, Russia, some years ago, we were warned that our hotel was likely bugged by the government and that my roommate and I should not discuss our religious beliefs even in the “privacy” of our room. When I was in Beijing, China, I was permitted to teach the Bible only inside an international church closed to Chinese citizens. In Cuba, I had to be very careful to say nothing negative about the Communist government—even in private conversations—on the assumption that government infiltrators were listening.
To have the government or anyone else force their beliefs on us feels like an invasion of our basic freedoms. The same sentiment is behind the pro-abortion protester’s sign, “My Body, My Choice.” And it is behind those who advocate for same-sex marriage and transgender rights. And those who champion the “right” to death by euthanasia.
What makes abortion different?
Gandhi on “the true measure of any society”
In a recent survey, 96 percent of the 5,577 biologists who responded affirmed the view that human life begins at conception. This was not a survey of evangelicals: 89 percent of the respondents also identified as liberal and 63 percent as non-religious.
Nonetheless, their scientific position aligns with the clear declaration of Scripture. David said to God, for example: “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
This means that an unborn baby is scientifically and biologically just as human prior to its birth as after its birth. Consequently, it has the same scientific and biological right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as anyone else. But he or she obviously has no way to defend themselves in their mother’s womb.
This is what separates abortion logically from all other “rights.”
Abortion advocates claim that pro-life proponents are “forcing” their beliefs on them. But is a woman who chooses abortion not “forcing” her beliefs on her unborn child?
Which of the two is more vulnerable?
At their core, criminal laws “impose” societal values on would-be perpetrators to protect those who would otherwise become their victims. We do this to defend those who might not be able to defend themselves.
Can a baby in a womb defend himself or herself from abortion?
Mahatma Gandhi reportedly observed,
“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
How would the “most vulnerable members” of our society “measure” you today?
Quote for the day:
“He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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