The Roe Generation

The oppression of the People of Israel in the land of Egypt began with fear of their multiplication. Though this reproductive tendency was in obedience to God, it was viewed as a threat. When enslavement and bondage were not enough to suppress the People of Israel, Pharaoh turned to genocide and population control.

One of the survivors of this period was Moses. We first read of him in Exodus 2. “And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son.” (1:1-2). Through a series of providential events, Moses' life was preserved and he was not a lost member of his generation.

One could be forgiven for thinking Moses was the oldest child in his family based on him being the first child mentioned after “a man of the house of Levi went and took as a wife a daughter of Levi.” In fact, he had a brother, Aaron, whom we later find out is three years older and a sister who was already looking out for her little brother just after he was born. We later read that the man was named Amram, his wife was Jochebed, and their children were “Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriam.” Their children are also listed in this same order later in the official ecclesiastical record of the People of Israel. Moses definitely was not the firstborn, so why is he the first child we hear about from this couple?

This could be because Moses was their first child whose life was threatened under this new regime. The children of Amram's family seem to straddle a generational divide between those who were born in a time when the blessing of Joseph and Israel in Egypt was remembered and those born after it was forgotten. This could also speak to why God uniquely chose Moses to lead his People out of Egypt. Aaron's life may have never been threatened by this oppression. From his very earliest days Moses had a visceral understanding of the oppression under which the people of Israel lived.

Our country faces a similar divide today. January 22, 1973, the day the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, marks a distinct generational dividing line between those born when abortion was illegal and those of us born when it was legal. There is a stark difference between one side of this line and the other. When my mom found out she was expecting me, three years after Roe, a nurse told her, “You know, you don't have to keep it.” Well, she very much wanted to keep me, and I'm very thankful she turned down that offer.

Generational transition is not new for America. President Kennedy was born in 1917, a year before my maternal grandparents were born. In his inaugural address, he spoke of how “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century.” Just as leading the People of Israel out of bondage was led by someone born in bondage, so too, leading America out of the bondage of Roe and abortion may end up being led by someone born after Roe—someone who has a visceral understanding of what it means to know that a third of this generation has been torn apart in the womb and disposed of as waste, and that the other two thirds were all one gruesome sales pitch away from destruction and never seeing the light of day.