A Christian’s Thoughts on Abortion
I
really didn’t want to get political so soon after I said was taking a break
from this topic, and I really didn’t want a high profile topic like abortion,
but God has a sense of humor like this, and I feel I must put in my two cents.
Maybe it’s because I have plenty of pro-choice friends on social media blasting
their pride in abortions (or the fact that people should be able to choose to
kill their fetus) and even so-called conservative pages condemning Alabama and
Georgia in their new laws being passed (and Missouri for considering it). Some
of these people fought past issues with fertility to have the children they
have in their arms today, so the apparent hypocrisy that I see infuriates me as
well as breaks my heart. I wanted to give my thoughts on abortion, look at scripture
to see if God values the unborn, and what I think the United States government
should be doing about it. I don’t want to bash anyone, but I did want to give
my thoughts as to the current events as to what is going on.
First
off, let’s define my terms about abortion (that are supported by medical
science). A fetus is an unborn human child that is in the womb of their mother.
An abortion is a conscious decision to terminate a pregnancy, resulting the
death and discarding of that fetus, that human child. This ends a human life,
and outside of the womb I think plenty of people would call that murder. There
are those who believe that they have a constitutional right, derived from the 14th
amendment and Roe v Wade, that they can choose to not be a mother, and
terminate the pregnancy for whatever reason. Granted, there is a spectrum of
people that think certain reasons are justifiable, but what bugs me is that
some people think that there is a line where killing an innocent human being is
acceptable. This child has no fault save existing in the womb of their mother.
This bugs me because people (probably some of the same people that advocate for
abortion) have issue with capital punishment, for people who are convicted
murderers in the United States. This begs a question as to where we grant value
to life. Naturally, I think that life begins at conception, and that we should
grant that value to human life as soon as we know it is there. So what is the
difference between abortion and the death penalty? I think I have already laid
it out, a fetus has done nothing to deserve death save existing. A convicted
murderer has taken human life, they have broken a law of which the consequence
is death. We have this now, and we had this in the Old Testament. We even have
verses in the New Testament that tell us we should expect the full force of the
law if we choose to break it. So I think we need to stop beating around the
bush and call abortion what it is, the intentional taking of innocent life, aka
murder! I think discussing capital punishment is a separate issue from
abortion, but I would be willing to discuss it in the comments.
Now,
let’s get down to the details, why do people seek to terminate their
pregnancies? Some claim that the pregnancy can endanger the life of the mother.
I think this is a legitimate claim, because I want to avoid as much death as
possible. The question is, how many times has a pregnancy lead to the death of
the mother? The best number I found at the CDC is that 50,000 cases of Sudden
Maternal Morbidity in 2014. This results in unexpected short or long term
complications to the woman’s health. Since this can’t be predicted, I’m not
sure if the argument holds water any more, and most medical professionals that
I have talked with say that the odds of a pregnancy being life threatening are
extremely low. Unfortunately, it can’t be predicted, so the loss of the mother
may not be avoidable in that extreme circumstance. Let’s compare that number of
50,000 to the number of pregnancies reported in 2014 (3,985,924) and to the number
of abortions performed (652,639). So we see a very small number of SMM vs
reported births, but the abortion rate is still 13 times higher than that
number of complications, so not everyone is having an abortion due to
complications. (Disclaimer, I do realize that I am using numbers of SMM, which
are post-delivery or during delivery, but I couldn’t find exact numbers of
complications during pregnancy, so I am just using this as an example). I am
also putting links in the reference section of this post that have multiple
articles talking about abortions never being medically necessary.
Some claim they don’t want a
deformed child (say one with Down’s syndrome for example). To me, this strikes
me like an argument I’ve seen with vaccinations. The argument for not
vaccinating your child is due to some (proven false and fabricated) data that
vaccinations lead to a higher rate of autism, so some parents don’t vaccinate
their children. This opens the children to possible death through certain
diseases because the parents didn’t want to deal with a “deformed” child.
Sounds pretty selfish right? Now let’s apply that to the parent that sees that
their children might or might not have a genetic defect, but is still a viable
pregnancy. I have seen plenty of families that have children with genetic
disabilities, and I doubt any single one of them would say that they would have
better lives if they had aborted their special needs child. I understand that
there are some defects that lead to the child only living a few weeks at most
outside of the womb. I cannot armchair general this and tell you what to do. I
pray that you never have to make that decision, and that my wife and I don’t
have to make that decision either in our future. I would state my preference to
continue the pregnancy and let God take the child if that is His will, because
I don’t want to make that call myself (similar to my arguments against suicide
from a few years ago).
Some
claim they can’t afford another child. I would ask why you haven’t taken the
precautions to prevent an unwanted pregnancy first. I know there are also cases
of the parents not planning well financially, but I still don’t see this as a
defensible reason to terminate a pregnancy, as (at least in the United States)
there are plenty of welfare programs to assist families (WIC/EBT and the like).
I could go on and on, but there is
still one tragic reason that is our elephant in the room, what if the mother
was raped and impregnated that way? This is another one that I could probably
never dictate like some armchair general; all I can do is provide what I have
learned and studied. First, do not mistake this as an apologetic for rape, as I
think this is one of the worst acts that can be done to another human. I would
not wish this done to anyone. The victim of rape is already going to have
serious trauma to work through, and now we have the possibility of a pregnancy
for this victim, with their assaulter being the father. Should an abortion be
performed here as a means of trying to let the victim move past this horrific
trauma? Some say yes, but from what I’ve read, it may just make the trauma
worse. My wife, who works as a counselor, says that no matter what, the trauma
of that rape is going to stay with the victim (without outside intervention
from friends, family, or counselors). We also see that many women who have
abortions have elevated rates of mental illness, so I can only imagine the
distress that a rape victim who has an abortion as an attempt to heal is going
through. We can also discuss the idea that the child conceived in rape is
separate from the rapist, that child has done nothing wrong. The child was
conceived in the absolute worst of circumstances, but the child didn’t ask for
that. It’s killing someone for the crime of another, even if that crime brought
the child into being.
So I’ve talked about the possible
reasons for abortion (I’m sure it’s not a comprehensive list), but I haven’t
brought in a whole lot of scripture yet, so let’s take a look at scripture. We
can start with Exodus 21:22-25, which talks about fining someone if they cause
a woman to miscarry, but they face the death penalty if both mother and child
are lost. Now, this fine is determined by the husband and the court, but it is
interesting that we see an apparent disparity in consequence. Does God have a
different value for the unborn and already born? I think this is solved by
looking at different translations, and the Hebrew of this passage (John Piper
of Desiring God helps with this). People who advocate that God places a
different value on the unborn child are probably using the RSV version that has
some language that makes it seem that no injury happens to the woman after the
miscarriage. If we use something like the NIV or the original Hebrew, we see an
implication that the child is born prematurely, but alive. Then if there are
further injuries (complications that injure the child during the premature
birth), then the life for life and so on applies to whatever happened to the
child beyond the premature birth. So we see that God values human life, even in
the womb. We have poetic passages in the Old and New Testament, that God had
plans for us, even before we were knit together in our mother’s womb, or before
the foundations of the world (Jeremiah 1:5, Ephesians 1:4, etc.). We see a God
who knows what it takes for us as humans to come about, and places value on all
of the processes and “clumps of cells” that go in to bringing about each and
every unique human being.
So do I think that the United
States government should be involved in stopping abortion? Yes and no, I do
follow the logic that if abortion is illegal, then there are those that will
resort to desperate measures to get rid of unwanted pregnancies, and some
methods could lead to children born with disabilities like fetal alcohol syndrome
and the like. I think what we need is what the Resurgent and others are calling
for, a culture that will reach out and help the single mother, the child after
it is born, the poor families trying to get by, the absentee father trying to
get a job to pay child support. We need pregnancy centers that will reach out
to pregnant women to explain all of their options other than abortion. We need
adoption reform so that children aren’t left in limbo in government or foster
care for months and years, scared and alone. Some of these do require
government (such as adoption reform), but others just need us as a society to
stop looking inward and looking out for our fellow American, and our neighbors
around the world. Like I said at the beginning, I am just trying to look at
arguments that I have seen in favor of abortion, dissect them, and give my
thoughts as honestly as I could. I obviously disagree with the pro-choice
crowd, but I want a discussion to happen so God’s love may abound. May God
bless you and have a good rest of your day.
References
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