The abortion issue has been a difficult one for me since high school. The facts about abortion haven't changed, but my opinion on it sure has. In high school, I was pretty strongly pro-choice (at least when it came up in discussions with my debate partner). Even my Christian faith, which I felt was an important part of my life, didn't compel me to be pro-life. The ethical issues surrounding abortion made me feel that the country was better off if the government didn't interfere in what I thought of as a medical decision.
Today driving home, though, I started wondering what God thinks of the act of abortion, especially 14 weeks or more in. Ultrasounds show us the amazing development of fingers and toes in fetuses, and we can hear their heartbeats and sense other amazing aspects of their development. To go into the womb and rip the fetus from its place of development seems to me to be an act of extreme violence. To do something like that in Biblical times would be unthinkable, but then in Biblical times they had all kinds of sanctions against adultery that have more or less gone by the wayside, and today we have unfettered "scientific" ways of thinking that justify questionable activities. Jesus showed us that those sanctions against adultery were in many ways hypocritical -- I'm thinking of the famous story in which Jesus says, "let you who is without sin cast the first stone" -- but I don't know that he disagrees with the principle of protecting people against sin. After all, Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to end it.
Is there room for compromise on the abortion issue? I don't really know. The prospect of outlawing abortion completely seems impractical and raises the spectre of women using coat hangers or throwing themselves down stairs to accomplish the same goals. But the fact that people are infinitely fallible shouldn't dissuade us from standing up for the right thing. Pro-life activists say that life begins at conception and are willing to fight for unborn persons as full-fledged human beings. If that's so, then abortion can be defined as murder, and there is little room for any exception, even in cases of rape or incest, or for tiny embryos in lab settings used in stem cell research. If, on the other hand, one believes that the beginning of life is a complex matter that involves many factors, such as the viability of a fetus, then abortion becomes somewhat more palatable. I think life clearly begins long before a fetus is viable, and it is more than a medical question whether to end a life. I'm still waffling a little on abortion, but I'm more pro-life than I was.
1 comment:
I think it's awesome you are more wanting to know what God thinks about this issue rather than what science or politicians think about it.
I recently found this:
http://www.cny.org/archive/eg/eg102308.htm
And it would definitely be helpful to rent or purchase used copies of the National Geographic DVD's mentioned in the article. I've seen bits & pieces of both & even being "pro-life" I was still stunned at what they can now see in the womb. And it only affirmed my belief that life BEGINS at conception. I used to believe that baby didn't really "feel" much of anything until a certain point. Not so. Even at our first ultrasound, the baby was only 6 weeks old. Clearly we could see a head, 2 arms, 2 legs & the beginning of feet & hands. It didn't move until the dr. nudged it with the ultrasound gadget he was using. Reflexes, maybe. But it immediately settled down afterwards. Incredible. And the baby was no bigger than a tiny bean at that point!!
Psalm 139:13 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I highly recommend reading all of Psalm 139 as there are additional verses that pertain to God specifically creating each & every one of us IN OUR MOTHER'S WOMB.
I have a lot of conflict with IVF, test-tube babies, etc. because of this chapter in the Bible. But I can't deny that those people have souls, that they were still created by God & deserve every right to life as a child in the womb.
Keep asking those questions - they are good for all of us to ponder & helpful to be confident in why we believe what we believe.
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