Abortion – Killing the Innocent
Anti-Abortion is Pro-Life
The greatest gift God has given is life – first physical life and then spiritual life. The terminated fetus has no opportunity for either.
The human baby is an amazing organism. Because man is created in the image of God, he has a greater potential than a computer, greater psychological drive than any animal, and greater creative ability than any machine. Every baby is made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:27).
We have his life (physical) because we are made in God’s image. Then when we are born again, we are transformed into the image of Christ (II Corinthians 3:18); then we have spiritual life.
Some think murder is a sin because of self-preservation. That is, if someone murders and is allowed to repeat the act, “I” may be next. Hence, the whole race could be wiped out. Self-preservation should be basis enough to outlaw murder, but God’s Word goes further.
The answer is found in the first prohibition against murder, “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6). It is a sin to murder because we are created in the image of God. When a doctor terminates a fetus/child, he is destroying the person who is made in the image of God. Abortion is a rejection of God and His commandments.
Arguments for Abortion-on-Demand
The arguments for “abortion-on-demand” sound deceptively simple. Those who argue for “abortion-on-demand” contend it should be allowed because:
- Criminal abortion would be eliminated
- Unwanted babies would not be brought into the world
- Females who have been raped would not be forced to carry the product of someone else’s crime
- Overpopulation would be controlled
- The poor would not be discriminated against since the rich can purchase their solution but the poor are left without resources for their problems
- Potentially handicapped children would not be forced to live in their condition
- Mothers with suicidal tendencies would not be driven to self annihilation. However, these surface reasons are deceptive.
“Abortion-on-demand” is one of the most destructive techniques ever fostered on a Christian-founded nation. For hundreds of years our western culture has specifically protected the right of every individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is an inalienable make-up of our laws and an unequivocal right of all. Consider the following:
When Does Life Begin?
- At conception human life begins. The fetus is a new being entirely separate From its father and mother because it has a different chromosomal make-up.
- At conception the fetus is alive because it has the capacity to replace its own dying cells.
- At conception the fetus is alive needing food and time to grow into an adult human.
- The fetus is just as much alive and human “before birth” as it is “after birth”; it is not a different life.
- The human heart begins to beat at 18 days.
- At six weeks activity or electrical impulses begin in the human brain. Activity can be recorded on the electroencephalogram.
- Children have been born prematurely at 19 weeks and six days after the mother’s menstrual period and have become perfectly normal children. Therefore, if some children can survive at this pre-mature age, why can we not attempt to save all fetuses/children at this age, rather than terminate their life
- The body of the child belongs to the child, just as the body of the mother belongs to the mother. The mother is not aborting a part of her anatomy; she is aborting that which two people placed in her.
- Since we have not given the right of a mother to terminate the child’s life after birth, why should she have the right to terminate the child’s life before birth
Methods of Abortion
- The D&C abortion utilizes a sharply curved knife. The fetus is cut into pieces, and the placenta is scraped from the inside walls of the uterus. Someone usually reassembles the parts of the body after the abortion to make sure the uterus is empty; otherwise the mother will bleed and become infected.
- Suction abortion utilizes a powerful suction to tear apart the developing baby and suck it into a jar. Sometimes the smaller parts are recognizable. This is one of the most common methods of abortion used today.
- Salt poisoning is performed after 16 weeks when enough liquid has accumulated in the sac around the baby. A large needle is injected through the mother’s abdomen into the baby’s sac, and a concentrated solution of salt is injected into it. The fetus breathes and swallows the salt and is killed. It takes about an hour to terminate the baby by this method. The mother goes into labor and delivers the dead baby.
Answers to Objections
- Abortion is not birth control. Hence, it has nothing to do with overpopulation. Birth control prevents new life; abortion kills the new life. Programs to teach couples how to regulate the number of children are acceptable. It is never acceptable to kill human life.
- An unwanted pregnancy does not mean an unwanted baby. There are thousands of people looking for a baby to love and rear. Some of the most productive people in the world have grown up in adoptive homes.
- Rape and abortion are smoke-screen issues. In a Minneapolis-St. Paul study, there were zero cases of pregnancy for 3,500 cases of rape treated in hospitals. Even when there is pregnancy as a result of rape, love and help is the answer, not murder of an unwanted child.
- The question of aborting potentially handicapped persons (illustration – a mother who has measles during pregnancy) is not an issue. There is no difference in malformed and normal persons in their degree of life satisfaction. Every one of them has a soul.
- The after-effects of abortion on a pregnant woman are a determining consequence. There are potential increases in sterility, miscarriage, tubal pregnancies, premature babies, and psychiatric problems.
- Abortion is not safer than childbirth. Twice as many mothers die from legal abortions as from childbirth.
- The question of abortion concerns the entire civilized world. Abortion is a human rights issue.
Is It Better to Abort Than Raise a Child in Poor Circumstances?
There are some serious issues about abortion in case of incest, rape, severe birth defects, etc. If we make our decisions based on our heart, we might choose an abortion in these cases. But look at it from another perspective; we are talking about a human life. We are talking about taking a human life because of the method by which they have come into this world, i.e., through incest, rape or by some other means. Again, I would say take another look, can we really take an innocent life? One who has not have a voice in the matter?
The other issue is quality of life. Yes, we may think the quality of life is very low. However, our quality of life may be very low in comparison with an Einstein, or the creativity of Mozart. Isn’t quality of life a relative perspective? Do we have the right to judge what quality of life is acceptable?
Consider the case of an unmarried pregnant black woman who delivered her child in a poor farming town north of Jackson, Mississippi. The child could not be adequately cared for by the mother, so she was passed between relatives and was ultimately sexually abused to linger in an unloved, poverty-stricken lifestyle.
Some could look back onto this young girl’s background and poor quality of life and perhaps justify abortion. Today, you may know her as Oprah Winfrey, a highly successful talk show host, broadcasting executive and philanthropist.
Christians Should Fight for Innocent Life
Jeremiah 1:5 tells us this: Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. This verse clearly teaches us that even in the womb we are complete individuals, with body, soul and spirit, and that God intimately knows us and has a plan for our lives.
Psalm 22:9,10; Psalm 119:73; Job 31:15 and Job 10:8 teaches that God is the author of life and that, with His own hands, He forms each individual person in the other’s womb. Scripture even indicates that we are known by God during the pre-embryonic stage of development:
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works: and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect: and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them (Psalm 139:13-16).
We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. It is God who made us and not we ourselves. We, as parents, are only instruments in God’s plan of procreation. Therefore, to terminate a baby’s life within the mother’s womb, is the same, in God’s sight, as terminating the baby’s life after it is born. It is on the basis of the above scripture verses that we believe the Bible teaches that abortion is murder.
