ABORTION ABORTION is one of the most controversial and divisive is and it affects millions of Americans. . Forty-nine pereent of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and half of these are terminated by abortion. HISTORY OF ARORTION Contrary to popular belief, debate and polarization over abortio: Other cultures, such as classical jon. Plato even wrot - i ‘The Jewish historian Josepha: anded to raise all children and a woman who does so shall be: judged a murderess of children, for she has caused a soul to be lost and the family of man to be diminished.” ‘The consensus of the early church was that abortion and infanticide were mux der. ‘The Didacke (also known as the “Teaching of the’ Twelve Apostles") was a com> pilation of apostolic moral teachings at the end of the first century. It commandes. “Do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant.” The Epistle of Bam abas, an early second-century theological collection, also laid down a strong admo- nition against abortion and infanticide: “You shall love your neighbor more thes 38 also wyABORTION 39 your own life. You shall not slay a child by abortion. You shall not kill that which hus already been generated.”5 Athenagoras, a second-century apologist, wrote in a letter to Emperor Marcus Aurelius: “We say that women who Fick oaseaanbucbaeal to give an account of it to Gos Clement of Alexandria wrote that “our whole life can proceed according to God’s periect plan only if we gain dominion over our desires, practicing continence from the beginning instead of destroying through perverse and pernici $ " are given birth by Divine Prov- Tullian also wrote in his Apology that “murder is forbidden once and for all. We may not destray even the fetus in the womb.” Augustine condemned abortion and crit icized married couples who attempted to avoid having children: “Sometime this lustful cruelty or cruel lust comes to this, that they even procure poisons of steril- oxy and if these do not work, they extinguish and destroy the fetus in some way in she womb, preferring thar their offspring die before it lives, or iV it was already alive in the wor ki eit was bor . This discovery Jed to the realization that a ization of the ovum so that the teen states had passed abortion statutes that allowed! Soon there eas a backlash to the liberalization of these laws, and it appeared as if many of the lews would be overturned. However, on January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court banded down its Ree o Wuule decision which went even further than the most pet- missive abortion laws passed by the various states ABORTION PROCEDURES Although most people are aware of the existence of abortion, many do not know abortions ate performed. Here are at least seven ways they arc performed. lation and curettage is commonly called D & C. The physician dilutes the ix with a series of inscruments to allow the insertion of a curette—a loop- ped knife—into the womb. he instrument is used to scrape the placenta from uterus and then cut the baby apart. ‘he pieces are then pulled through the The tiny body must then be reassembled by an attending nurse to make sure s remain in the womb to cause infectior40 CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN PLAIN LANGUAGE pregnancy. The mouth of the cervix is dilated. A hollow tube with a knife-like iged tip is inserted into the womb. A suction force twenty-eight times stronger an a vacuum cleaner literally tears the developing baby and the placenta to pieces. ¢ pieces are sucked into a container. aline injection is also known a: strong salt solution is injected hrough the mother’s abdominal wall into the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. ‘The baby then breathes and swallows the solution causing internal poisoning and burning. In a few hours the unbom child dies from salt poisoning, dehydration, and morrhaging. ‘Uhe mother goes into labor and delivers a dead (or dying) baby. involves the use of prostaglandin hormones that are injected into e womb of released in a vaginal suppository. This causes the uterus to contract and deliver the child prematurely. A saline solution is sometimes injected first, illing tho baby before birth, in order to make the procedure less distressful for the ther and medical staff. s commonly called a D & F. and is used @HGMENED sgnancy. The doctor dilates the mother’s corvix and uses forceps to reach into the uterus, Ie grasps the arms and legs, dismembers the body, and rushes the skull to remove it. The placenta and smaller pieces are removed by suc » is performed in(GREURRE ree cy. This procedure involves opening the womb surgically and re~ ing the head inside, the doctor inserts scissors in the skull of the baby and sucks out the brains. The head collapses and the baby is brought out to die. The American Medical Association has documented that partial birth abortion is never a med- lly necessary procedure.18 BIBLICAL ARGUMENTS AGAINST ABORTION Any student of the Bible knows that the Scriptures say nothing directly about abor- tion, So why do most Christians oppose abortion? What biblical principles can be axe These cern must be addressed. First, what about the silence of the Bible on abortion? The answer is simple. Abortion was so unthinkable to an Israclite woman that there was no need to evenABORTION al 0:2: 45). " Therefore, abortion was so abhorrent to the Israelite mind that it was unnecessary = have a specific prohibition to deal with it in the law. One of the key passages giving a biblical view of the sanctity of human life is which is the inspired record of David’s praise for God's sovereignty & his life. David began by acknowledging that God is omniscient and knows what David is doing (wv. 1-3). God was aware of David's thoughts before he ex- peessed them (v. 4), Wherever David might go, he could not escape ftom God, whether he traveled to heaven (v. 8) or ventured into Sheol (v. 9). Ged is in the =motest part of the sea (v. 9) and even in the darkness (vv. 11-12). David con- acs the origin of his life and confessed thar For you created my i ing; I praise you because Tam fearh mth and wonderfully made; your works are wonderfal, 1 know that full well. cane ihe SE ee pelea hag, ¢ days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (wv. 13-16). Here David described God's relationship with him while he was growing and de seloping before birth. The Bible docs not speak of fetal life as mere biochemistry, that became David because he was already Being ; Verse 13 speaks of God as the Master Craftsm: [a verses 14-15 David reflected on the fact that he was a product of God’s cative work within his mother’s womb, and he praised God for how wonderfully God had woven him together. David drew a parallel between his development in Sc womb and Adam’s creation from the earth. Using figurative language in verse 15, he referred to his life before birth when he “was made in secret, and skillfully ‘wrought in the depths of the earth.” This poetic allusion hearkcens back to Genesis 27, which says that Adam was made from the dust of the earth. David also noted that ). This state- Seat shows that God knew Dayid even before he was known to others. The term sanslated “unformed body” derives from the verb “to roll up.” When David was Somming as a fetus, God's care and compassion were already extended to him. The42 CHRISTIAN RTHICS IN PLAIN LANGUAGE reference to “God's eyes” i God in the life of an individual or a group of people: Other verses show divine involvement in the formation of ‘he word trans- ‘ormed” is used in Genesis 2:78 to describe God's special creation of Adam. It is also used of a potter fashioning clay into a vase or other piece of pottery. In essence God fashioned Jeremiah in the womb for his prophetic ministry. ibe how God called out various servants of God while they vomb, God called Isiah 1 ecrve: a 1). God czeated Samson for his ministry and put his mother under that same dietary regi ‘ J of the Lor said to Samson's mother, ive Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not cat anything unclean, be- cause the boy will be a Nazirite of God before birth until the day of his death.’ Then Manoah [Samson's father] prayed to the Lord: ‘O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is te be born’ ” (Judg. 13:7-8). Another significant passage is Psalm 51, which David wrote after his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and which records his repentance. David confessed that his sinful act demonstrated the original sin that was within him: “Surely T have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5). David concluded that from his conception that he had a sin nature, which implies that he carried the image of Ged from the moment of conception, including the marred image scarred from sin. Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-27; 5:1; 9 6). Bearing the image of God is the ‘essence of bamaniess: And though Gade 0 Ce Psalm 51:5 also supports the /raducian view of the origin of the soul. According to this perspective human beings were potentially in Adam (Rom. 5:12; Heb. 7:9-10) and thus participated in his original sin. The “soulish” part of humans is transfered through conception. Therefore, an unborn baby is morally accountable and thus is fally human key passage that points to the humanness of the unborn child is Luke 41-44; “When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, ind Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: lessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you bear! But why am J so vored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound ofABORTION 43 your grecting reached my ears, the babi MAWOMDeNped OE OW ” John the Baptist’s prenatal ability to recognize Mary by leaping “for joy” illustrates his men- sland spiritual capacity. Also of note is that the term used to describe Johan in his prenatal state is “baby.” The eame Greek word is used for a baby inside the womb and outside the womb (cf. La S "i z - 3215).1* ‘calm 31:5, Another argument against abortion can be found in the Old Testament legal coe, specif cll MEMS DORR nen eo ae fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be Sned whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is ‘These verses seem to teach that ifa woman gives birth prematurely, but the baby not injured, then only a fine is appropriate, However, #f the child dies, then the law of retaliation (dex zavionis) should be applied. In other words, killing an unbom baby | the same penal Some commentators have come to a diffe e yerses 22-23 refer only to a_cas ‘There are at least two problems wath this interpretation. First, the normal Hebrew word for @aiweaeyais not used sa this passage (cf. Gen, 31:38; Ex. 23:26; Job 3:16; Hos. 9:14). Most commenta- tors now believe that the action described in vers: QED not ar Sccond, even if the verses do describe a miscarriage, the passage cannot be used to justify abortion. ‘The injury was accidental, not inten- Sonal (as an abortion would be), Also the action was a criminal offense and pun- sshable by law. OTHER ARGUMENTS AGAINST ABORTION In addition to various mber of other ar- euments speak agai compelling, For mother. To say the mother's Dis geneti- cally different from the mother. A developing embryo is also genetieully different from the sperm and egy that created it. A human being has forty-six chromo- somes (sometimes forty-seven chromosomes). Sperm and egg each have twenty- three chromosomes, A trained geneticist can distinguish between the DNA of an arguments against44 CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN PLAIN LANGUAGE Another set of medical arguments against abortion surrounds the! one set of criteria has been used to define death, could they also be uscd to define fife? Death used to be defined by thef@essation of heartbeab A If the cessation of heartbeat could define death, could the onset of 2 heartbeat define life? h- If heartbeat was used to define life, then nearly all abor- tions would be outlawed. Physicians now use a more rigorous criterion for death “SEMRMWAERGRUE A flat EEG (clectroencephalograph) is one of the most important criteria used to de- termine death. If the cessa onset of brain wave activin would outlaw at least a majority of abortions. Opponents of abortion also raise the controversial issue of fetal pain.Deesehe GGERMIENNENINNIEIND Th- evidence scoms trisly clear aod consiorene Consider this staternent made in a British medical journal ‘Try sticking an infant with a pin and you know what happens. She ope ry and also pulls away. He opens his mouth and pulls hiss dchat Obviously other medical criteria could be used. The point is simple. Medical science leads to a pro-life perspective rather than a pro-choice perspective. If med- ical science can be used at all to draw a line, the clearest line is at the moment of conception. Tn addition to medical arguments, there are legal arguments against abortion. The case of Ree v. Wade violated standard legal reasoning. The Supreme Court de- cided not to decide when life begins and then turned around and overturned state Jaws against abortion. Most of the Court’s decision rested on two sentences: “We need not resolve the df When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to atrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s know!- edge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.” Although these sentences sounded both innocuous and unpretentious, they were neither. The Court’s nonde- cision was not innocuous. It overturned state laws that protected the unborn and has resulted in over 30 million abortions (roughly the population of Canada) in the United States. decision also seemed unpretentious by acknowledging that it did not know it if the Court did not know, then it should have acted “as if” was in the womb. A crucial role of government is to protect life. GovernmentABORTION 45 cannot remove a segment of the human population from its protection without ad- equate justification. The burden of proof should lic with the life-taker, and the benefit of the doubt should be with the life-saver. Put another way: “When in doubt, don’t.” A hunter who hears rustling in the bushes should not fire until he knows what is in the bushes. Likewise, a Court that does not know when life begins should not declare open season on the unborn. ‘The burden of proof in law is on the prosecution. The benefit of doubt is with the defense. This is also known as a presumption of innocence. The defendant is assumed to be innocent unless proven guilty. Again the burden of proof is on the entity that would take away life or liberty. The benefit of the doubt lies with the defense. he Supreme Court clearly stated that it did not know when life begins and en violated the very spirit of that legal principle by acting as if it just proved that o life existed in the womb. Even more curious was the fact that to do so, it had to ore the religious community and international community on the subject of the born. Had the religious community really failed to reach a consensus? Although some intramural disagrcements existed, certainly the weight of evidence indicated that a Western culture founded on Judeo-Christian values held abortion to be morally wrong. People with widely divergent theological perspectives (Jewish, Catholic, evangelical and fundamental Protestants) shared a common agreement about the humanity of the unborn. The same could be said about the international legal community! ‘The unborn were protected by various international ‘ill maintain the utmost respect for and ne QD tn (“The child by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, ocuments like human life, from needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”). One of the strongest legal arguments against abortion was that the Supreme Court decided not to decide when life begins. Then it violated one of standard le- gal principles that the burden of proof should lie with the life-taler. The Court did not prove its case and should not have overturned the laws of state laws governing ¢ Supreme cision in Ree v. Wade ‘ated personhood from hu- manity. In other words, the justices argued ie., a member of the species Homo sapiens) ince only persons46 CHRISTIAN PTHICS IN PLAIN LANGUAGE are given Fourteenth Amendment protection under the Constitution, the Court argued thamaborionscould-pevlegallatjecrtainftimesy The Court's position lef to doctors, patents, Or even judges the responsibility of arbitrarily deciding when per- sophood should be awarded to human beings. Whe Court's cleavage of personhood and humanity made inevitable the ethical Sli¢'e down society’s slippery slope. Once the Court allowed people to start draw- ing, lines, some drew them in unexpected ways and effectively opened the door for infanticide and euthanasia. ‘The Court, in the tradition of previous line-drawers, opted for biological crite- tia in their definition of a “person” in Roe a, Wade. In the past, such criteria as im- plantation or quickening had been suggested, The Court chose the idea of viabil- ity and allowed for the possibility that stares could outlaw abortions performed aiter a child was viable Bur viability was an arbitrary criterion, and there was no biological season why the line had to be drawn near the early stages of develop- ment. The line, for example, could be drawn much later. The ethicist GAURAMBEY frequently warned that any @GRMEHETOMEOREOR (COuule GeANY BE also ised las anlarpumient fninambcide.”* As if to illustrate this point, Francis Crick demonstrated that he was unconcerned about the ethics of such logical extensions and proposed 2 more radical definition of personhood. He suggested in the British journal Nature that if @@U@HHIGWWERS eonsidered to be leally born when two days old, it could be examined to see whether it was an ‘acceptable Giember of human society MO bviously this is not only an argument for abortion; it is an argument for infanticide. Other line-drawers have suggested a cultural criterion for personhood SAshiey MMOntAN, for example, argued that @]N@WBOHH Baby smOEUUly: human until he or GhESimpidec! byweuleteal inMGeHees later” Accin, thie is more than just an argu- ment for ebertion; it is also an“axgument for infanticide, More recently some line-drawers have focused on a mental criterion for person~ hood. Joseph Bletcherécpucd in his Book Mamanhaol that ‘HuManennitoul sone minimum of intelligence or mental capacity are not persons. no matter how many of these oxgans are active, no matter how spontaneous their living processes are.” This is not only an argument for abortion and infanticidy; itis also adequate justi- fication fofuthanasia and the potential climination of those who do not possess 2 certaiATQ2Tn other writings Pletehe? cuppestod that an@R@iM@lal’ was not truly a “person” unless he has an 1Q of at least 40.2” By separating personhood from humanhood, the: Supreme Court opened the door for such bizarre line drawing. Thi biblical persPECtiveiencleanthathumanibe GRGSERSAISGIPEISOUE created in thelimage|at\God. ‘Those who protnote abortion try to separate these two issues and thus open the door to dangeraus line-drawing and such issues a4 infanticide and euthanasia.ABORTION 47 ANSWERS TO PRO-ABORTION RHETORIC The abortion debate has been full of rhetoric on both sides, but those supporting the right to abortion have been especially good at throwing out clichés in this de~ bate. The pro-life movement needs to be able to respond to pro-abortion rhetoric in an effective way. One of the most frequent clichés is this: “Every woman has a right to contro! REHOWAIBOGY? We need to consider the four elements of this slogan. First are the words “every woman.” Plalf of the aborted fetuses are female, 80 abortion is not ex- actly pro-woman, So the cliché only applies to grown women seeking abortion, not to females in the womb who would grow up to be women if they were not aborted. Second is the statement “has a right.® Our legal system does not recognize an ab- solute right aver one’s body, We do not allow someone the@Gigh@ tS Beedninlnnd then drive a cat: We do not give people an absolute right to use dangerous drugs, to commit suieide,or to walk around without clothes. Third is the verb “to con’ trol.” If a wom2n wants to control her own body, she could have prevented the Pregidacy belSHEbappened) Absvinence is 100 percent effective. The final words are “hez own body.” As already discussed (BRE BRANEy Means sete areicoobodies, In a sense the baby controls the mother’s body through various hormonal cues. The fetus would be rejected as forcign tissue if it were not for the placenta that creates an effective barrier between mother and child. The argument that 2 woman has a sight to control her own body may sound good, but flaws emerge as we begin to analyze it. Another @igheiis, Abprhonlshouldibelevenpnromansilepallnight? As already noted, 2 woman does(®ot have an absolute legal right over her own BOW) This is especially true when it comes to abortion that ends the life of the one in the womb. The Bible clearly shows that abortion is taking another human.|ife(Evenanlinjuly @ an wabora baby vesulted in exacting/a/pebalty (Ex 21:22-25) just as if the child were already born. A woman may have many legal rights, but these must also be tempered by the fight to life of the one in the womb: A third cliché is, ‘Whe fetus is mere tissue and not a person Lhis sloganignores the previous bifilieal arzuments about the humanity of the fetus (Psalm 139) and the arguments that the unborn @igady posses the Gonmupted umapeloliGod, (Ps, 51:5). God’s care extended not merely to tissue that would become David, but to Hii (personal pronoun). God callediaaany yO laiLestament prophets |toycheir min - Siry While yeni heim mothers womb (Samson, Isaiah, Jeremiah). These men werd Snore than-jueispiccesiGhpTOlopEARM they were prophets God called to ministry. Pro-abortion advocates often argue, (MBSrGmpsyeheybesEl solution to a crisis) GEREN Often an unplanned pregnancy seems ie a crisis, but on further re- dection it can become a wonderful blessing. But even if the child was conceived un- der stress or duress, two wrongs do not make a right. The Bible teaches that it is wrong to add sin to sin (Is. 30:1~2).(fa mother cannot care for the child, she can)48 CHRISTIAN ETILCS IN PLAIN LANGUAGE Ps, 27:10)(ABBPHOMISM DeHenlop? . The proliferation of crisis pregnancy centers around the coun- try (there are now mote crisis pregnancy centers in the United States than there are abortion clinics) provides an effective means for a woman to deal with her crisis Pregnancy. A corolla or A woman facing a crisis pregnancy often feels the only solution to her problem is abortion and so she fails to consider the potential implications, in- cluding infertility and « scars. In the Bibl have the firm promise that if we c: 1:5-7), on Him, He will answer us (Jer. 33:3; James STEM CELL RESEARCH An issue closely related to abortion is human stem cell rescarch. The stem cell is- sue surfaced in November 1998 when scientists at the University of Wisconsin were successfully able to isolate and culture human embryonic stem cells.” The federal government provides funding for adult stem cell research and provides lim- ited funding for embryonic stem cell research using the existing stem cell lines al- ready developed. Stem cells derive their name from their similarity to the stem of a plant that gives rise to branches, bark, and every other part of a ph that is why there is so much scientific and political attention being paid to stem cells. The ps stem cell research is enormous and intoxicating. (NEMO The moral problem with the research is that to obtain human embryonic stem cells, the embryo is destroyed. Embryos needed for human embryonic stem cell re~ arch can be obtained from three sources: (1) in vitro fertilization used to produce ‘bryos, (2) frozen embryos that are spare embryos left over from in vitro fertil- ion, or (3) the human cloning of embryos.ABORTION 49 In addition to the moral problem is the scientific reality that embryonic stem cell research has not been successful. Although human embryonic stem cells have the potential to become any type of human cell, no one has yet mastered the a spi nbc (NGG Gao RAB Hee Eh ‘Numerous stories of the problems with human embryonic stem cells are surfiuc~ ing. One of the more notable comes from China, where scientists implanted hu- man embryonic stem cells into a patient suffering Parkinson's only to have them sransform into a powerful tumor that eventually killed him.?? Lost in all of this discussion is che Riad EERE. Proponents of em- Sryonic stem cell research argue that an embryo or fetus is a ‘] i ‘Yet at every stage in human developrnem identity as human beings. not have the right EEE because it is unwanted or located ina test tube in a fertility clinic. Also lost in this discussion is the success of using stem cells from sources other than embryos. Successful clinical trials have shown that adult stem cells may pro- vide cures for such diseases as multiple sclerosis, theumatoid arthritis, and system- atic hipus. Some studies seem to indicate that adult stem cells create “fewer biolog- ical problems” than embryonic ones. No moral concerns surround the use of human adult stem cells since they can be obtained from the indivichal requiring therapy. Stem cells have also been found in tissues previously thought to be devoid of them (neural tissue). And human adult stem cells are also more malleable tha iously thought. For ex: Bone marrow cells can even migrate to these tissues via the circulatory system in response to tissue damage and begin pro- ducing cells of the appropriate tissue type? Human adult stem cell research is already effective and raises none of the moral questions of human embryonic stem cell research. Even biotech industry propo- nents of embryonic stem cell research believe that we may be twenty years away fom developing commercially available treatments using embryonic stem cel HOW CAN THE CHURCH BE INVOLVED? ‘st, in~ . Some may Involvement can range fro ng legistators i59. CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN PLAIN LANGUAGE Although it seems unlikely that abortion will be outlawed in the near futuze, in vidual Christ anunbesofchings 2 he ste on ASST legislation requiring parental consent or am number of abortions in America declined from 1.03 million in 1992 to $54,000 in 2000. This correlated with changes in state laws. In 1992, no states were enforcing informed consent laws, while 27 states were doing so in 2000, And the number of states that adopted parental involvement statues rose from 20 states in 1992 to 32 states in 2000. a “The Bible admon- ishes Christians to be in prayer for their leaders (1 Tim. 2:1-2). The church and in- dividual Christians should also be in prayer for various pro-life organizations (na~ tional, state, local), can i one- ty And groups or crisis time or monthly) when we give of our time and talents (as volunteers for pro- pregnancy centers), we help reduce the financial needs of pro-life . Churches should consider providing finances for e- search indicates that f women who visit a pregn: seport that they are considering abortion 2 ‘9 percent when the women are through counseling. But that number increa: GERMAN ce teasound ionages” @ Fourth, churches should also ERT Christians should be- come informed through Christian media (TV, radio, newsmagazines) and organi zational newsletters. They should also attend local rallies, debates, marches, and pickets. And Christians should disseminate this information through their chusches and encourage action by the congregations. @ CD oe Christians should find out if their ital action. In some So- where cial action also includes voting intelligently about candidates and knowing they stand on the issue of life. important action step. Christians should support or start a . They should also inform local churches of its existence and the extent of its services. Churches should consider funding a center as part of their local missions outreach and even provide counselor training not only for volunteers but also for members of the con- gregation. Some churches have even developed AQHEPREMM BOM within the congrega-ABORTION 51 ton, This miiy STO oo Pastors. should involve anothe: woman to a local center. In addition, pastors those exploited by abortion in their congregation.