The Abortion Controversy Exodus 20:13 and Exodus 21:22-25 (Topical)
Abortion is the number one killer in the United
States: Here are some statistics from the U.S.
Department of Health & Human Services:
Murder by firearms: 17,000
Suicide: 32,000
Auto Accidents: 42,000
AIDS: 42,000
Other Accidents: 48,000
Pneumonia/Flu: 82,000
Cancer: 537,000
Heart Disease: 734,000
Abortion: 1,529,0001
It is perhaps most widely debated issue in our
society today.
Pro-abortionists demand that abortion is a right
and a woman should have enough control over her
own body to be allowed to choose whether or not to
have an abortion.
“We protect the mother’s right to decide when and
how many children she wants,” cry pro-abortion
organizations like Planned Parenthood and the
National Abortion Rights Action League.
Pro-lifers demand that abortion is murder and
should be punished as such.
"We protect the rights of the unborn child", argue
pro-life groups such as National Right to Life and
Operation Rescue. “They have a right to live.”
In a society so seemingly concerned with
individual rights, that would appear to be a valid
statement.
After all, we spend millions of dollars each year
to protect the rights of animals.
There are even laws that protect the eggs of some
animals placed on the endangered species list, but
there are no laws to protect the rights of the unborn
child.
Here are some more statistics about abortion in
America today:
 One third (33%) of all abortions in America are
done on non-white women, although nonwhites
constitute only about 13% of the country's
population. Since 1973, African-American
women have had almost 10 million abortions.
Current population of black Americans is 31
1
National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of
Health & Human Services published in World Almanac, 1996
www.ohiolife.org/stats/causdead.htm
million. Nearly 80% of Planned Parenthood's
abortion centers are located in predominantly
African-American neighborhoods.
 About one million teenagers become pregnant
per year. Slightly over half will choose
abortion. The number of births to teens is on the
rise. Some people who work with crisis
pregnancies believe that is because fewer teens
are choosing abortion. The number of teen
pregnancies (age 15-19) is declining, ranging
from 117 per 1000 in Nevada to 56 per 1000 in
North Dakota. The Centers for Disease Control
attribute the decline to a combination of more
teens choosing abstinence and the increased use
of contraception.
 California has the highest abortion rate in the
country -- 40 abortions per 1000 women (all
ages). Abortions are more concentrated in urban
areas and less available in rural areas.
 The number of medical schools teaching
abortion procedures has fallen by more than
50% since 1987. There are 580 fewer abortion
clinics in 1998 than there were in 1986.
 Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest
abortion provider. Seventy-five of their
affiliates perform surgical abortions. In 1996
Planned Parenthood performed 153,367
abortions and referred an additional 54,207
women to other abortion clinics, making
Planned Parenthood responsible for
approximately 16% of all abortions in America.
The highest number of abortions were
performed in 1990 (1.6 million reported). 2
 More than 40 million abortions have been
performed in the 27 years since Roe vs. Wade.
A 1992 study called the Worthlin Poll showed that
social or “birth control” reasons accounted for
approximately 93% of all abortions.
Those so-called “hard cases” of rape, incest,
health of the baby and threat to the life or health of
the mother account for less than 7% of all abortions.
The poll surmised that the reasons almost all
abortions are done are not the reasons for which the
2
Internet Article www.prolifeaction.org/Roe%20and
%20Doe.htm printed January 6, 1999
majority of Americans believe abortion should be
legal.
The bad news is that we are still killing babies.
The good news is that we are killing less of them
and the abortion rate is slowly declining.
Today’s message is more of an informative
message, but it’s designed to make you think about
your position.
I. Where did this controversy come from?
The right to decide whether or not to bear a child
was secured in 1973 by the Supreme Court’s
decision in Roe vs. Wade and its companion case,
Doe vs. Bolton.
Prior to these rulings, abortion was prohibited in
most of the 50 states.
Roe vs. Wade repealed all state laws prohibiting
abortion.
Doe vs. Bolton extended the right to abortion to
the entire nine months of pregnancy.
Exodus 20:13 says, "Thou shalt not kill."
The word "kill" in Hebrew implies intentional
killing of innocent human life, or murder.
It seems only natural that a society that punishes
murderers through life imprisonment, and in many
cases even death, would punish abortionists in the
same manner.
Yet in our society the murder of unborn babies is
legal.
We have even gone so far as to change the name
from murder to abortion.
This makes it more palatable, since we know that
murder, the taking of innocent human life, is illegal
in all fifty states.
What you might find interesting is that many of
those who fight so hard to kill innocent babies are
the same ones who fight equally hard against the
death penalty.
They fight to protect the guilty while killing the
innocent.
The overwhelming opinion of pro-choice leaders
is that “harsh biblical terms like sin and murder
must be expunged from the Christian’s vocabulary”3
 Catherine Weiss, Director of the ACLU
Reproductive Freedom Project, in a statement
condemning the 1998 shooting of abortionist
Barnett Slepian, stated: “The American Civil
3 6
“World Magazine”, December 19, 1998, pp 16-17
Liberties Union deplores the violent acts of
anti-choice extremists. It is perhaps not
surprising that when abortion is described as
‘murder’ and fetuses are characterized as
‘babies’ the result is violence against providers
and clinics.” 4
What could be more violent than sucking an
unborn child out of his mother’s womb?
Or delivering a baby feet first, puncturing the base
of his skull with a sharp instrument, sucking his
brains out, then crushing his skull?
When a baby is no longer a baby but a fetus or a
neonate, it’s easy to justify killing them.
They would have us believe that the unborn child
is nothing more than a mass of tissue.
 Kate Michelman of the National Abortion
Rights Action League, in her response to the
Slepian death, stated, “Those in leadership of
the other side must acknowledge and admit that
their words drive unrestrained factions of their
own movement to commit these horrific acts…
They must stop referring to abortion to murder
and to doctors who perform abortion as
murderers.”5
Do you think it is our words that caused this man
to be killed, or the senseless, violent death of
millions of unborn children?
 Gloria Feldt of Planned Parenthood, in her
statement regarding Slepian’s death, said, “The
very existence of such a list (talking about
Slepian and those who were injured) is an
obscenity. It is a blight-a betrayal of the
principles on which this nation was founded-
personal freedom, tolerance, justice, and respect
for the moral autonomy of women.”6
What about the personal freedom of the unborn
child?
What about tolerating his presence for a few short
months?
After all, it is not his fault he is there.
What about justice?
4
Internet Article by Catherine Weiss delivered October 26,
1998
5
“World Magazine”, ibid.
Internet Article by Gloria Feldt delivered October 28, 1998
 What about all those laws that are supposed to
protect us from murder and manslaughter?
They apparently don’t apply to unborn children.
And where there is moral autonomy, there is no
morality.
You see, the abortion issue does not question
whether an unborn baby is a "life", but rather
whether the unborn baby is a "human life" or "a
person."
II. What makes a person?
How do you differentiate between life in general
and human life?
Is the unborn baby is a human life; is it a person?
If so, should it be protected under the constitution
of the United States?
Webster's 1977 dictionary states that "human"
consists of "having the form or nature of a person;
having or showing the qualities characteristic of
people."
"Person", based on Webster's, refers to "an
individual human being, especially as distinguished
from a thing or lower animal; a living human body."
If we use only these secular definitions of human
life and person, it would appear that the unborn
child really is a human life, a person, especially
since the unborn baby has some of the "qualities
characteristic of people" by day five.
By 8 weeks the child is a well proportioned,
small-scale baby: about an inch long, weighing
about 1/30 of an ounce.
From a Biblical perspective, human life begins
with the creation of the soul.
Genesis 2:7 reveals that man became a living soul
when God breathed the breath of life into him.
Job 33:4: "The Spirit of God has made me, and
the breath of the Almighty has given me life."
In Jeremiah 1:5 God says to Jeremiah, "Before I
formed you in the womb I knew you...”
Even though these verses would imply that life
begins at conception, many disagree with regards to
when the soul is created.
Many others do not believe there is a soul.
To appease the secular mind, one must depend on
a definition of personhood that moves beyond faith
into the reason of humanism.
To appease the Christian mind, one must depend
on God's word to define personhood.
Based on both the secular definition of human life
and the Biblical justification that human life begins
in the womb at conception, it is my opinion that a
life is a human life, a person, upon conception at
which time the being not only receives a soul but a
genetic code which identifies the developing life as
a human life.
Science seems to concur with my opinion.
Science has determined that the unborn baby is
alive from the moment of fertilization.
The baby has a heartbeat at 3 weeks and brain
waves at 6 weeks.
Incidentally, physicians routinely determine death
by the absence of brain waves even in cases where
the person’s heart may still be beating.
The unborn baby has 46 chromosomes in the cells
of his or her body, the scientifically verifiable
human genetic code.
Nothing magic occurs at birth which suddenly
makes an unborn baby a human life.
The baby is the same, whether inside or outside
the uterus and should be protected under the
constitution.
The bald eagle has no rights under our
constitution, but it is illegal to kill it or destroy its
eggs.
Should it be any less illegal to destroy our unborn
children?
III. What, then, is abortion?
Again, according to Webster, abortion is the act of
miscarrying.
Continuing our search for the meaning of this
word, we find that miscarry refers to the premature
birth of a fetus so that it does not live.
Based on Webster's, we could conclude that
abortion is the unassisted termination of an unborn
person.
We could reasonably assume that abortion isn’t
something one does, but rather something which
happens naturally, such as in those cases when an
egg might not attach itself properly to the uterine
wall, or for some other unexplained reason.
One is led to believe that abortion is something
that happens spontaneously, without outside
assistance.
Once one interjects outside help, it no longer
becomes abortion, but rather murder, if we hold to
the dictionary definition that would suggest that
abortion is the unassisted termination of an unborn
person.
 Pro-choice proponents seem to suggest that we
should change the definition of abortion, since they
don’t want to call it murder.
They have stated emphatically that those of us
who preach that abortion is murder are nothing but
hate-mongers who have vilified, harassed, and
threatened people associated with abortion with the
most hate-filled language.
They want abortion to be called a “woman’s right
to reproductive freedom.”
Some pro-choice Christians argue that, since the
word "abortion" does not appear in Scripture, God
doesn't have anything to say about it.
God does have something to say about abortion.
We can see his view of abortion as we briefly
examine the passage in Exodus 21:22-25, which
imposes harsh penalties for injury to an unborn
child.
IV. God's view of abortion (Exodus 21:22-25)
Verse 22 indicates that if two men are fighting and
accidentally strike (or hurt) a woman so that she
delivers her baby prematurely, but no serious injury
(harm or mischief) comes to either of them, the men
will be fined as the husband demands and the court
allows.
Verses 23 through 25 tell us that if the mother or
the unborn child are seriously injured, the law of
retaliation is invoked.
The law of retaliation issues what the Bible refers
to as "degree of harm penalties."
God gave these to us to make sure the punishment
fit the crime.
Punishment could be no greater than the crime
committed.
For instance, robbery wouldn’t constitute the
death penalty, but killing someone would.
In this passage we see that if the mother or the
baby dies as a result of two men fighting, the person
who caused the death is also to be put to death.
This passage of Scripture refers to a case where
injury to the mother or unborn child is purely
accidental.
Doesn't this show the extreme importance God
places on the unborn child?
If the punishment for an accidental homicide is
death, how could one possibly come to the
conclusion that it is acceptable in God's sight to
intentionally take the life of an unborn child?
God says it is not acceptable.
It is sin, no matter how acceptable the pro-choice
folks try to make it.
 Mother Teresa, in an address to President
Clinton said, “I feel the greatest destroyer of
peace today is abortion, because it war against the
child—a direct killing of the innocent child—
murder by the mother herself. And if we accept
that a mother can kill even her own child, how
can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
CONCLUSION:
Life is the constitutional right of every human
being.
If you invited a person into your home, and then
decided that your visitor was not welcomed and you
killed him, you would undoubtedly be tried and
convicted of murder.
Doesn't the same analogy apply to an unborn
child?
The unborn child is a visitor in a woman's body.
Just because she decides the visitor is not
welcome is no ground for taking its life.
Men and woman are well aware of the potential
for pregnancy each time they have sexual
intercourse.
If sexual intercourse results in the conception of
human life, both partners must be willing to accept
the responsibility for the child, since both are
equally responsible.
Both partners must be held accountable.
The argument of abortion is not about rights, it is
about responsibility.
Most human beings simply refuse to accept
responsibility for their own actions and certainly
will not accept the consequences when what they do
results in something unfavorable or unwanted, such
as pregnancy.
The argument which revolves around rights has
been discussed and debated ad nauseam.
Everyone wants "their rights" and oppose
anything that might even be perceived as a violation
of "their rights."
We must begin to teach our children to take
responsibility for their actions, but we can’t
possibly do that until we begin to take responsibility
for our own actions.
It is a sad commentary on the human race when a
society resorts to redefining what makes a human
life a person in order to justify killing innocent
human beings.

INVITATION:
You might disagree with me about the abortion
issue, you might feel that abortion is an acceptable
right, but I challenge you to search Scripture and
see what God says.
Do you know we really don’t have any rights.
We have privileges, but no rights.
It is not our right to murder innocent children, no
matter what the situation.
As the father of five, I can tell you that having
children is a privilege.
God granted me the privilege of raising five
children.
He didn’t have to, but he did because He trusted
me with His possessions.
I believe that if we continue to kill our babies that
God could easily revoke our privilege of bearing
children.
The wombs of women could become strangely
barren, and they would have no clue as to why.
It is my prayer that you will get involved in the
fight against abortion.
I do not advocate killing abortionists, or bombing
abortion clinics.
I do not even advocate picketing abortion clinics,
though much good has been accomplished through
those peaceful protests.
What I do advocate is this: Prayer
These are God’s children.