QUESTION (submitted by a group of young people):
Should abortion be permitted or not?
ANSWER:
Summary: At what point during the growth and development of the unborn life within a pregnant woman, from fertilisation through to birth, does it become human? Certainly not only once the child is born, nor only when it can survive outside the womb. We all began life this way and we are all made in the image of God. How can ending an unborn child’s life be right or good?
Abortion refers to terminating a pregnancy that, in the normal course of nature, would result in a newborn infant coming into the world. Many millions of abortions are carried out every year. It is becoming common in some countries to abort unborn children with any real or suspected abnormality, and many girls are aborted in cultures where sons are preferred, leading to a significant imbalance in the ratio of males to females. Supporters of abortion argue that it is a woman’s right to end her pregnancy at any time should she so choose.
We are all mortal – that is, we expect to age and eventually die. Death is all around us, and it is a part of life. Some people die, sadly, even before they are born, others as infants, while others live on for more than a century. We do not know when our time will come to leave this world. However, the Bible teaches us that human life is unique because we were made in the image of God. We are not merely animals, and we are bound by a moral law that teaches us that murder is a sin against our fellow man and against God.
Pregnancy is a unique situation because a human being is growing and developing within the body of another human being. There are two people living in one body, as it were. We cannot talk about pregnancy without having very clearly in our mind that there are two people involved – the mother and the child. It is dishonest, even deceitful, to speak of abortion as no more than a matter of a woman’s reproductive health.
Of course, early in the pregnancy the new life is tiny and does not look like a child, and it will be many weeks before the child can survive outside the womb. But it is still human – we all began our life this way.
When a pregnancy is terminated a human life is ended. We cannot say that the unborn child only becomes human when he or she is born – that is plainly absurd. Nor can we argue that during the period when the unborn child cannot survive outside the womb it is not human – that too is absurd. Once the child is conceived, the mother has within her a new human life. Since to kill a newborn infant is plainly wrong because it is a human being, then to abort an unborn human child is also wrong.
In extremely rare cases a doctor may have to end a pregnancy to save the life of the mother, but this is not relevant to the argument for abortion. It is no different from the dilemma faced by first responders to an emergency when they have to decide among many casualties who to treat first.
There are many reasons why a pregnancy may be regretted by a woman. It may be to do with mental or physical health, finance, social status, lifestyle, relationships or something else. At such a time she will need compassion, support, assistance and guidance, but how can killing the innocent and precious child be the right, the best or the only answer?
Christians are called to respect all human life, including the aged and the unborn, and to offer support and help to those struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. Whatever the law of the land may permit, we are to submit to a higher law, the law of Christ, and to love our neighbours as ourselves.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you…” (Jeremiah 1:5)
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