British medical doctor and pro-life advocate Calum Miller addressed delegates at the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) General Assembly in Seoul on Tuesday morning, urging churches around the world to “choose life” and to respond with both truth and compassion to what he called “by far the largest cause of death globally.”
“We face as Christians in my country where abortion is legal, one in three pregnancies end in abortion,” Miller said. “That means there are many people in our churches personally affected.” He reminded church leaders that the issue must not be treated as secondary among the Church’s many social concerns. “There are so many issues that church leaders are burdened with, and it is easy to make abortion just another issue,” he said. “But this is not just another issue.”
‘The largest cause of death globally’
Miller estimated that “there are maybe 50 million abortions around the world every year and a hundred million parents carrying that loss for the rest of their lives.” Calling abortion “the largest cause of death globally,” he noted that it is not caused “by disease or by accident, but by our own hands.”
Showing a video of an unborn child at nine weeks of gestation, Miller said, “This is not a clump of cells or a parasite. It is a child made in God’s image.” He referenced Scripture to underline the spiritual and moral weight of the issue. “Jesus tells us that when we ignore those most in need of help, we ignore him and put ourselves at risk of eternal fire,” he said, referring to the biblical term for hell, which he said “was famous because it was the place where the Israelites slaughtered their own children.”
Quoting Jesus’ words, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them,” Miller said that children “matter to Jesus even when they are at their smallest, weakest, and most vulnerable in the womb and outside it.” He added, “The intentional killing of children was the best way Jesus could describe hell itself.”
A global and generational shift
Miller said that churches must “advocate boldly, firmly, and graciously and compassionately against abortion,” warning that failure to do so would undermine their moral witness. “Unless we are able and willing to advocate boldly, firmly, and graciously and compassionately against abortion, I do not think we will convince Jesus that we really care about children,” he said.
He described a rapid shift in global attitudes toward 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 the Irish people voted to legalize abortion, including 85% of young people,” he said.
Miller warned that similar changes are taking place elsewhere. “We did a survey of students and young professionals in the Philippines last year,” he said. “We found that even in the Philippines, 70% of young people supported legalizing abortion.” He said that between 2008 and 2019, 27 countries had liberalized their abortion laws, and that the trend “is spreading at a frightening pace across every region in the world.”
Referring to countries that had changed their laws in the past 30 years, Miller said, “You might think that your country is a strongly conservative Christian country, but the likely reality is that millions of dollars are pouring into your country to pressure your legislators and your young people to promote abortion.”
Pressures in developing and developed nations
He listed several nations where he said abortion legalization efforts are active, including Haiti, Dominica, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Poland, Chile, Brazil, and South Korea. “Right here in Korea right now, there is a push in the National Assembly to legalize abortion all the way up until birth,” Miller said. “If you want to work together to help your country stay pro-life, please come and talk to me or message me on the app, and I would love to help.”
He said that the global spread of abortion laws threatens the long-term future of nations already facing declining birth rates. “Whether you live in the most liberal or the most conservative country in the world, this is something that will destroy the future of all of our countries,” he said. “Outside of Africa and the Pacific Islands, almost no countries have enough children even to survive.”
‘A moment to choose life’
Miller concluded by returning to the biblical perspective on life and family. “Scripture tells us that children are a blessing, that we must be fruitful and multiply,” he said. “It tells us that life and death are set before us and we must choose life. It says Jesus came to give life in abundance.”
Speaking to the global gathering of evangelicals in what he called “the country with the lowest fertility rates in the world,” he said, “I pray we can make this a profound moment of change, a moment for the people of God to choose life — not only in our own lives and in our churches, but for our nations as well.”
