A Christian’s Response to Abortion - Purdue University
A Christian’s Response to Abortion
By: Gene Gosewehr
If you’re like me you try to keep updated with most of current affairs. I watch the news every now and then and try to read a few articles in the school paper everyday. And if you’re like me you may have noticed the increased number of news stories concerning abortion. One reason for this is that January 22nd of this year marked the 32 year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 was a pivotal point in American History for two reasons. One, because it legalized a practice that the great majority of Americans at the time did not agree with, and two, it marked one of the many peaks in Americas moral decline and dissension from Godly things. I personally am bewildered at how this decision to legalize abortion was made considering our Fifth Amendment states that no person can be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Now, maybe it’s just me, but the deletion of an innocent fetus seems to be depriving that child of life, and a ruling my partisan judges who were never elected to their position does not constitute “due process of law”. It always bothers me when I see worldly people supporting this atrocity, but that feeling is multiplied immensely when I see those who claim to be Christians supporting abortion. Many of these say that the Bible doesn’t speak on abortion and that we should be supportive of a woman’s right to govern her body as she chooses. Let me say, before going much further, that the Bible certainly has its fair share of scripture to consider when looking at abortion. But before getting into that I’d like to touch on a few of the social and scientific arguments against abortion to recognize the errors in this thought, without even looking at what God has to say.
A large debate within this topic is defining when life actually begins and what it is to be a human. The pro-choicers try to argue that the baby is not alive or human until it is born, seemingly legitimizing the extermination of the fetus because, according to them they aren’t killing a living being. If you subscribe to this belief, consider the following evidence.
➢ The baby’s heart starts beating 18-25 days after conception.
➢ By two months in, brain activity is readily apparent.
➢ By two months the feet, hands, head, organs, etc. are all in place, even fingerprints are evident.
➢ The unborn child hiccups, sucks their thumb, wakes, sleeps, responds to touch, pain, cold, sound and light.
Do these sound like the actions of a non-living being? Another argument is that women wanting an abortion are simply choosing what happens with their bodies, and that to take away this right would be impeding on women’s rights in general. Consider this: An unborn child has two legs, two arms, ten fingers, a head, a heart, etc. To suggest that this unborn child is a part of the woman’s body equivocal to saying that the woman has four arms, four legs, twenty fingers, two hearts, etc. In the February 18th opinions section of Purdue’s Exponent, Jeremy Remo, a member of Purdue’s staff, summarized this argument in the following words, “The genetic code of an unborn child consists of half the chromosomes of the mother and the father. Since the genetic code of the unborn child is not the same as that of the mother, it is by biological definition foreign tissue, and therefore not part of the woman's body.” These arguments should be sufficient for anyone to see that without even considering the morality of abortion or God’s attitude towards it, the very reasons argued for it cannot stand up against the easiest of criticism. Now, for those who believe that God condemns abortion, and more importantly for those who do not think God is concerned with this issue, consider the following scriptural evidence.
To begin, I’d like to establish the easily recognizable fact that God hates the death of innocence. Proverbs 6:16-17 tells us this exact thing, “There are six things which Jehovah hateth; Yea, seven which are an abomination unto Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood…” Also in Deuteronomy 27:25, “Cursed be he that taketh a bride to slay an innocent person.” Each of these passages refer to the innocent death of a person, so what then is a person? God answers this question with equal clarity. Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou cometh forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee.” God knew Jeremiah even as he was in the womb. If Jeremiah’s mother decided to have an abortion she would have been killing one whom God recognized as a living soul. In Luke 1: 41,44 Mary spoke to Elisabeth saying “the baby leaped in my womb for joy.” The word for baby in this passage is the Greek word brephos. It is the very same word used in Luke 18:15 and Acts 17:19 referring to young or newborn children. Therefore, brephos is used in reference to an age of human beings, not a parasite or a non-living fetus, as some abortion advocates claim. Finally, one of the clearer biblical passages in this matter is found in Psalm 139:13-16, “For thou didst form my inward parts: thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks unto thee for I a fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. My frame was not hidden from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; and in thy book they were all written, even the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was none of them.” David’s repeated reference to himself in this passage infers that he is talking about a human being, even when in the womb. It is blatantly obvious at this point that God acknowledges us as living humans while in the womb. Despite the scriptural evidence, we as Christian’s are to called to cherish the life we are blessed with and use it to please God. Christ died on the cross so that we may have the hope of attaining salvation and eternal life in heaven. How hypocritical is it then to condone a practice that takes away the simple hope of life on earth?
Since the ruling in 1973, over 42 million unborn children have been legally exterminated. Couldn’t one of these children have been a future president, or a Pulitzer Prize winning scientist? Perhaps we’ve destroyed one who could have brought more peace to this world than it has ever seen. Many pro-life organizations shove pictures of dead babies in people’s faces to get the point across that this is nothing more than a legal holocaust happening right in front of us. I do not believe these methods are necessary to explain the immorality and negative impacts of abortion. Simply walk by an elementary school during recess and listen to the laughing and playing. Watch closely as a child hugs their parents. Try your hardest not to choke up when a child takes their first steps or says their first words. No amount of inconvenience or attempts at legitimacy can justify taking these things out of this world.
References
Thompson, Bert, “God’s Attitude Towards Abortion”, 2001
Katz, Nicci, “Abortion Statistics”, Women’s Issues
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