Abortion has been a hot topic for decades. There are those who are 'pro-choice,' believing that it is a woman's right to determine whether or not she carries a baby to full term. There are those who are 'pro-life,' who believe that the purposeful extinction of a baby in the womb is tantamount to murder. Debaters on either side often get swept up in the definition of terms, wrangling over what constitutes a baby: is the organism developing in the womb merely a clump of cells until birth, or should it be given the full value of personhood at conception? Science can answer a lot of these questions, but science is silent when it comes to morality. As Christians, our definition of right and wrong needs to come from what God says. In other words, does the Bible tell us anything about the morality of abortion? Are the unborn full human beings or just clumps of cells? If fetuses are full human beings, then abortion is indeed tantamount to murder. If they are just clumps of cells, then perhaps abortion isn't that bad, after all. Ultimately the question is how does God, the Creator, look at it? While the Bible doesn't explicitly give us an answer, it does address the subject in roundabout ways. Examination of several passages indicates that abortion should indeed be viewed as murder; to interpret the passages otherwise requires a great amount of 'logic-stretching' informed not by the text but by cultural biases.
Isaiah 44.24 reads, 'Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: 'I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself." In this text from Isaiah we see that the Creator of the Cosmos extends His creative power to the womb; He is intimately involved in forming people not 'out of the womb' but 'from the womb.' It seems that personal identity - person-hood - is evident in the womb. Psalm 139.13-16 reads, 'For you [God] formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.' Here we see two key things: first, there is a reaffirmation that God is involved in the 'creation process' of the womb; and second, person-hood in the womb is reaffirmed (the psalmist's identity is intact while being 'knitted' in the womb). Another text is Luke 1.41-44, which recounts the tale of the pregnant Mary visiting her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, who was carrying John the Baptist. Verse 41 tells us that "when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby [John the Baptist] leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." Even in utero, John the Baptist was cognizant of Jesus' approach. Verse 44 tells us that "the baby in [Elizabeth's] womb leaped for joy." This is not the action of clumped cells! In Amos 1.13-15 the prophet condemns the sins of the Ammonites: "This is what Yahweh says: 'For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not relent. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders, I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah that will consume her fortresses amid war cries on the day of battle, amid violent winds on a stormy day. Her king will go into exile, he and his officials together,' says Yahweh." The Ammonites had committed a particularly heinous war crime in that they ripped open the bellies of pregnant women; some have argued that the atrocity wasn't so much what they did but either (a) the motivation behind it - enlarging their borders - or (b) the fact that it wasn't their choice to do so (it is a choice the pregnant women of Gilead were to make themselves!). This is nonsensical poppycock. The fact of the matter is that God looked upon their actions as utterly reprehensible and condemned them for it.
The passages above indicate that even in the womb, the value and experience of person-hood is intact. They indicate that the 'snuffing out' of unborn children is a heinous sin. Exodus 21.22-25 gives us a more poignant snapshot of God's feelings on the subject. The text reads: "When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." Here we see that the punishment for causing an unintentional abortion is 'life for life'; thus God views life in the womb as fully fledged human life, and to take it isn't just 'killing' a human but murdering one - and justice demands that murderers be killed (note, of course, that this doesn't mean Christians should start bombing abortion clinics!).
We must ask ourselves, "Why do people want abortions?" In the vast majority of cases, those who get abortions do so because children don't fit their personal desires or ambitions. Psalm 127.3 tells us that children are a blessing from God, but our culture hates God and His blessings. At the best, our culture is resistant to the biblical reality that children are a blessing - and this thinking has even infected the American church. Until recently, it was assumed by Christians that God wants His people to get married and have kids; it's part of the way that God's kingdom grows. Nowadays even Christians will postpone having children or will refuse to have children for personal or even political reasons. The clear testimony of scripture, however, is that mankind was created to procreate; that one of the foundational purposes of marriage is procreation; and that God desires His people to grow their families. These principles have been set aside for personal aims and ambitions. Our godless culture hates children and many Christians have been adopting that posture but with religious lace. Thankfully there are strong movements against such thinking in the church.
Many people will ask, "Well, is abortion okay in the context of rape?" What if you're raped and conceive? Is God okay with an abortion in that instance? Never mind that such an occurrence is extremely rare, because it has happened. Deuteronomy 24.16 tells us that 'fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.' Extrapolating from this principle, I would argue that abortion would not be justified in this case. Why should the child, though conceived in sin, be punished because of the actions of his or her father? To abort the conceived child would be to pile one injustice upon another. This is a tough pill to swallow, for it's certainly not fair to the mother. No one is saying that it is. But often in life, godly duty isn't easy and isn't what we would choose for ourselves.
What if you find out your in utero child has genetic defects? This is the worst nightmare of any soon-to-be parent, for good reason. We want what is best for our children; we want them to flourish; and genetic defects of all stripes can affect our child's propensity for such a life. In this case, is abortion justified? Exodus 4.11 tells us, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?" Remember that God is intimately involved in the in utero creation process; according to this text, genetic defects are even in His power. Defects are just that: defects. They come about due to the Fall and the death and decay that infects humanity. Whether or not God causes defects in the womb is beside the point, since at the very least He allows them for His own purposes. This means that those with defects are not worth less than those operating with a full deck. In utero babies with genetic defects aren't to be discarded but loved and cherished. Though many in our culture will opt for abortion when they learn that their child has genetic defects, the fact is that the majority of those who refuse to abort end up being grateful that they didn't.
The biblical testimony is that abortion - the murdering of an unborn child - is a heinous sin that needs to be resisted by Christians. It's sad that many Christians don't see a problem with it. They've been seduced by cultural thinking that forces them to turn a blind eye to what the Bible actually says. Our culture celebrates the murder of unborn children and values it as an expression of women's rights. It's assumed that a woman has the right to choose what is best for her body, even if that entails the murder of her own child. Those who have had abortions have, to put it bluntly, murdered their own children. The good news is that because of Jesus' sacrifice and God's grace, those who have murdered their children can confess their sin, turn from their evil ways, and be healed and accepted as full-fledged children of God.
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