Is Abortion Wrong?

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What are the definitive arguments on Abortion? We must consider it from all of the various points of view, including morality, science, women, government, civil rights, viability, and compassion. Which arguments make sense? Should we consider the arguments of violence from the right, or Planned Parenthood from the left? What’s the most compassionate thing to do?

Morality

The Bible forbids taking another person’s life in Exodus 20:13. Although some would argue that this somehow excludes the life of the unborn, the Bible doesn’t exclude any life. Exodus 21:22-25 specifically addresses the unborn where it tells us how we should handle the situation where a man injures “a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely.” The punishment is to be in accordance with the injury done to the child, to the extent of “life for life.” In other words, if he kills the unborn child, then by Old Testament law the man should suffer capital punishment. In today’s society, this would not only outlaw abortion, but it would also implicate the mother and the doctor in the crime.

Isaiah 49:1 is a supporting text: “Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.” God called Isaiah before he was born, implying that his life began before his birth. Based upon the above scriptures, it’s obvious that life begins at conception, and unjustly taking any life is forbidden.

Science

Life inside the womb should be at least as clear to the scientific community as the “clear evidence” of the fossil record. Ultrasound technology, photographic-like 3D / 4D images, and (more recently) DNA evidence make it impossible to deny the reality of the life of children inside the womb. Just ask any doctor who has performed complex fetal (prenatal) surgery on children as young as 18 weeks of gestation.

Mothers

What about the argument that a mother should have the right to do whatever she wants with her own body? Well, there are limitations upon our liberties, and we’re all glad that there are. A person is free to do as they choose only until their behavior hurts someone else. A person has the freedom to get drunk, but not to drive drunk because that endangers others. A pregnant mother is not at liberty to hurt her unborn baby, for example, by taking drugs that will harm the baby. Likewise she is not free to ask a doctor to kill her unborn baby, any more than she is free to ask him to kill her infant or toddler.

Government

Some argue that our Constitution protects all “citizens” but not all living people, and that a child doesn’t become a citizen until he is born. If they want to split hairs on this, then we should redefine citizenship. If an 18-week-old fetus has the right to have surgery (during the first half of the pregnancy), then it seems obvious that both life and citizenship begin at conception. If children of illegal aliens, who are not U. S. citizens, have the right to a free public education, surely an unborn child has the right not to be killed. Aren’t we a bit inconsistent when our governments often charge killers of a double homicide when a pregnant mother and her baby are killed, yet it’s OK if the mother asks her doctor to kill her unborn baby?

Civil Rights

Abortion may be the last civil rights issue, especially when considering its effect on the African-American community. Although African-Americans make up only about 13% of the U.S. population, Black mothers account for over 35% of all abortions. Some 16 million African-American babies have been legally aborted since 1973–about 1,876 each day. We have murdered 30% of our African-American population through legal abortion–a black baby genocide.

Violence

Although death by abortion is a grossly violent act, that’s not what makes abortion wrong. Abortion is wrong because it unjustly ends a person’s life, regardless of the degree of pain and suffering inflicted upon the victim.

Planned Parenthood

Of course Planned Parenthood should not sell the body parts of aborted babies, but that’s just a consequence of abortion. Abortion is wrong because it’s murder, and the selling of body parts is a separate crime.

Viability

The question of viability should not enter into the discussion of abortion. Viability refers to the ability of a person to maintain himself, and it is used as a vague notion for when a baby is able to live outside of the womb; i.e., without prenatal help. All babies are human beings, regardless of age, and destined to walk this earth the same as you and I, and we all need help in one way or another. Whether we kill a 10-week-old baby or an 18-week old baby that has already survived surgery, we have killed a human being either way. We can’t set some man-made cutoff based upon somebody’s opinion of when a baby is viable. The next step would be to establish viability as the point where the baby needs no help to survive–maybe two years old, or five years old. After all, can a two-year-old maintain himself without help? Likewise an unborn baby needs our “help” not to kill him.

Compassion

How can we pretend to have compassion for children who are starving, homeless, or in poverty when we don’t care about children in the womb? Isn’t it even more compassionate to refuse to kill a completely innocent child than to feed a starving one? Of course, abortion is wrong.

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