A Biblical Response To Pro-Abortion Arguments
By Brannon S. Howse
The idea that a woman should be free to end her pregnancy because “it is her body” begs the question of whether or not a woman even has a right to do whatever she wants with her body. Having the “right to choose” sounds seductively appealing to American ears, but the fact is that it is not now nor has it ever been true that any woman has a right to do anything she wants with herself. Is it legal, for instance, for a woman to commit suicide? No, women who try it are regularly arrested and taken to jail or a mental hospital. Can a woman lawfully shoot her veins up with methamphetamines or use her nose to snort cocaine? No. Is a woman allowed to sell her body for sex? Walk naked at a shopping mall? No again. Laws apply every day that prohibit women from doing certain things society deems unacceptable with their bodies. So to forbid the aborting of a child comes with plenty of legal precedence.
The idea that abortion is doing something with a woman’s “own body” begs another serious question of whether or not an in-utero baby is part of the mother’s body. Before the days of contemporary science, it may have been possible to intelligently assert that the baby and the woman are one. Nowadays, though, the idea is ludicrous in light of what we know. Kerby Anderson points out the unmistakable separate identity of a fetus:
[quote] At conception the embryo is genetically distinct from the mother. To say that the developing baby is no different from the mother’s appendix is scientifically inaccurate. A developing embryo is genetically different from the mother. A developing embryo is also genetically different from the sperm and egg that created it. A human being has forty-six chromosomes (sometimes forty-seven chromosomes). A sperm and an egg each have twenty-three chromosomes. A trained geneticist can distinguish between the DNA of an embryo and the DNA of a sperm and egg. But that geneticist cannot distinguish between DNA of a developing embryo and the DNA of a full-grown human being. [end quote]
In Exodus 21:22-25, we read there was punishment for causing harm or death to an unborn child, and Psalm 51:5 explains that a baby even has a sin nature. It is also noteworthy that the Biblical Greek word for “baby” is the same whether referring to a child inside or outside of his or her mother, clearly suggesting that God views the born and unborn baby equally. The Biblical worldview argues that abortion is murder, and the Ten Commandments is clear on that one: “Thou shall not.”
Copyright 2006 ©Brannon Howse. This content is for Situation Room members and is not to be duplicated in any form or uploaded to other websites without the express written permission of Brannon Howse or his legally authorized representative.
