How does one group of people murder another and sleep at night? Answer: they don’t. German soldiers didn’t slaughter humans, Southern whites didn’t lynch humans, and Planned Parenthood isn’t killing humans either.

The infectious pathos, rising from the pit of hell and blackening the darkest periods in human history, is an idea, an idea that a hierarchy of human and subhuman exists. Men who kill men in cold blood lose sleep; men who kill beasts don’t. In Germany, they called the subhuman creatures the Untermenschen. The German propaganda Der Untermensch (thought to be edited by Hitler’s right-hand man, Heinrich Himmler), manifested the serpent’s whisper this way:

The subhuman is a biological creature, crafted by nature, which has hands, legs, eyes, and mouth, even the semblance of a brain. Nevertheless, this terrible creature is only a partial human being. Although it has features similar to a human, the subhuman is lower on the spiritual and psychological scale than any animal. . . . Not all of those who appear human are in fact so. Woe to him who forgets it!

Though it may appear to be human, it isn’t. It may look like it is made in the image of God, may look like an actual man, woman, or child — but it isn’t. Its color, disability, or lack of development betrays the fact that the terrible creature is only partially human. And as history repeatedly teaches: when “they” are not fully human, “they” — when their dignity inevitably conflicts with our interests — become not at all human. Our evil, having arrogantly defied God’s law (thou shall not murder, lie, steal), goes on to defy mathematics: rounding three-fifths down to zero.

Fourth-Term Abortions

In the American theater, we have moved from despising dark subhuman creatures we brought into cotton fields to despising creatures hidden in the dark whom God placed in the womb. They appear human, but the parent’s desire for the child often determines whether it is in fact so. Since Roe v. Wade the serpent, conspiring with our Supreme Court and government of appointed representatives, has swallowed millions upon millions upon millions of boys and girls whole. The biggest city in America, the one that terminates more black children than it keeps, has led the way with its recent repeal of the state’s protection for abortion survivors. Adam and Eve’s offspring bite from the (Big) Apple, bringing death to their children.

Now, to the most recent developments. No longer can we call the unseen, unheard, unheld creature in the womb a subhuman — we now rise to such boldness as to include the child staring us dead in the face outside of the womb. Senator Ben Sasse recently called the Senate to vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which sought to protect infants born after a botched abortion.

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) said the bill was “anti-doctor, anti-woman, and anti-family.” The head of the American Gynecologists named it a “gross interference into the practice of medicine, putting politicians between women and their trusted doctors.” Senator Sasse captured the clarity of the moment, saying, “I’m going to ask all one hundred senators to come to the floor and be against infanticide. This shouldn’t be complicated.” And on the floor, he said, “This isn’t about clumps of cells. This is fourth-trimester abortion.”

The Baby on the Senate Floor

The bill states, as unemotionally as I can impart, that a baby who has survived the abortion should be protected with the same rights as a child who was born otherwise (to parents who wanted him or her to live in the first place). In other words, should the murder get “botched,” the bill prevented the attempted murderer — after seeing the baby regrettably pass through the birth canal alive — from finishing the job. If the abortionist was thwarted by the defenseless child, the lab coat couldn’t have a second go. It sought to establish fair play outside of the American Colosseum.

A similar bill, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, passed unanimously (with full bipartisan support) back in 2002, but did not include criminal penalties for doctors, nor specify what medical care must actually be provided for the survivor. But the new bill states that anyone present would be legally obligated to protect the child and admit it into a hospital. Should anyone leave the baby to die on the table — after previously overseeing its torture — they could be charged with a fine and up to five years in prison. Should they take active means of killing the child, they could be tried for murder.

Schizophrenic Uncle Sam would go, should the bill pass, from funding such hits with taxpayer money, to punishing them, as he did on Kermit Gosnell, who is currently serving several life sentences for three counts of first-degree murder because he cut the spinal cords of three babies who survived botched abortions at his clinic. Jailed, not because he was an assassin, but because he cleaned up after shoddy attempts at assassination.

So, on Monday, the baby lay again on the Senate floor. Friendless. Wombless. Defenseless.

Separated from the “health issues” of his mother. A child with ears, hands, legs, eyes, and mouth — and “even the semblance of a brain.” Staring at this child — no cover of skin hiding it, no plantation boundaries veiling it, no concentration camps concealing it — 44 of 47 Democrat senators voted down the bill and left the child on the table. And there, the baby lies.

Where Will This End?

Have we forgotten how to weep? Oh, how I lament my own hardness of heart — how can I write these words with dry eyes?

After the angel of death executed judgment on the Egyptians, we are told, “There was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead” (Exodus 12:30). As Herod hands the weapon again to the second-rate angel of death and walks away, tweeting to his followers how he stood for women’s rights, do we cry a great cry? Do we share God’s horror at our ability to terminate pregnancy and infancy?

Make no mistake: God hates our child sacrifice at the altar of convenience. “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 18:21). Such giving up to Molech was unhesitatingly a capital offense (Leviticus 20:2). And should God’s people “close their eyes” and pretend like they did not see it, scrolling right past it in their news feeds, they too would incur God’s wrath (Leviticus 20:4–5). Child sacrifice is such an abomination before a holy God that it “did not even enter into his mind” (Jeremiah 32:35).

America is in the middle of a holocaust. Can we now, legally and otherwise, look at children out of the womb and kill them? In failing to pass this bill, our representatives have, for the meantime, given their answer. It’s no secret that we’ve been talking about killing babies all along — there it lies. And instead of nursing the child, we dispose of it. Instead of collecting fingerprints, we leave none behind. Lord, have mercy on us.