By Thurman Hayes

Occasionally a statement will be made that simply epitomizes the fallenness and brokenness of our culture. Such a statement occurred recently at the “Rise Up For Roe” event, a rally which was organized by Planned Parenthood and NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws).

The event itself was all about stirring up opposition to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has been nominated for the Supreme Court. And what is their problem with Justice Kavanaugh? It has nothing to do with his qualifications for the job, which are impeccable. It has everything to do with the “right” to take the life of babies in the womb.

One of the speakers at “Rise Up For Roe” was Chelsea Clinton, who shares the view of her parents on the issue of abortion. That is to say, she promotes abortion on demand.

At the rally, Clinton said something that was chilling, barbaric and profoundly ignorant — all at the same time. Speaking of her enthusiasm for Roe vs. Wade, the disastrous and unconstitutional 1973 Supreme Court decision, which effectively legalized abortion on demand, Clinton said this:

“It is not a disconnected fact that American women entering the labor force from 1973-2009 added $3.5 trillion to our economy. Right?”

In other words, Clinton was making the argument that the right to kill babies in the womb has been a boon to our economy.

Now quite obviously, this argument is absolutely scary from a moral point of view, as it values money more than the life of a baby. But Clinton’s argument also reveals a laughable ignorance of economics.

First, it seems predicated on the idea that women can’t work outside the home unless abortion is legal.

Second, it ignores an issue that the economies of America and Western Europe have struggled to cope with for decades — the negative impact of falling birthrates on the future economies of these countries.

Think about this: Since 1973, 60 million babies have been aborted in the United States. Sixty million lives. Let that sink in. Clinton’s morally wretched argument for abortion is also wretched from an economic standpoint, because think of what those 60 million human beings could have contributed. Jeff Jacoby, writing in the Boston Globe, says of these millions of lost lives, “They would have generated an immensity of new value — more goods, more services, more innovations, more art, more businesses. Whatever the U.S. economy may have gained as a result of the post-Roe abortion culture, it plainly lost far more.”

But far more importantly, legalized abortion has contributed greatly to the loss of a moral compass. Ultrasound and sonogram technology has now made crystal clear what we all intuitively know — babies are being killed through abortion. What can you say about a country where people post pictures of those babies in the womb on social media and have the right to take the lives of those very same children?

Our nation needs revival. I thank God for justices like Brett Kavanaugh, and I pray that he will be confirmed to the Supreme Court and will there uphold the sanctity of life. But more than that, I pray for spiritual revival in our nation. We are spiritually and morally sick, and if that sickness is not healed, it will lead to nowhere but death.

Dr. Thurman R. Hayes Jr. is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Suffolk. Follow him on Twitter at @ThurmanHayesJr.