Some Thoughts on Abortion

I’m ashamed to say that at one time in my life I was pro-abortion.

I refuse to call that “pro-choice” and here’s why: I think the primary way we support things like this is that we use names for them that help us not think about what they really are. I held this position long before I was a Christian, and I can remember thinking the common “who are these people to tell this woman what she can or can’t do?”. I didn’t bother think that particular piece of logic through, or I’d have realized that I supported all kinds of laws that told all of us what we could and couldn’t do.

Most people, if they took the time to find out a little about what an abortion (particularly a partial birth abortion) actually is, would be appalled. But they don’t. I certainly didn’t. If you think you support abortion, and aren’t familiar with the details, I suggest you become familiar and see if your opinion changes.

This really hasn’t been much of an issue in my life personally, and my consideration of it was limited to a reaction to the occasional article or commentary or verbal comment I’d run across. So I could be “for” it without much thought or controversy. When I became a Christian I thought about it for the first time in a long time. And since, I’ve come to wonder how people can consider themselves Christians but still support it.

If you are an atheist, who doesn’t believe in any higher power, and therefore don’t believe you are bound to any such rules, then while I think you are wrong, I don’t think it is illogical to support abortion.

But if you are a Christian, I’d think Luke 1:39-45 would give you pause:

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

It is hard to see how a lump of cells without any consciousness would leap for joy at an external stimulus like this, and almost as hard to see how another lump of cells would be able to cause said stimulus.

One might argue that John and Jesus were different or special, and in many ways they’d be right. But it seems a real stretch to me to say that the way they were special was that they were “alive” in the womb, while everyone else is not.

This isn’t the only Bible verse relevant to this issue. If you consider yourself a Christian, and don’t oppose abortion, I urge you to reconsider your thinking and ask yourself if that’s a reasonable position. Ask God to help you decide what you should believe on this. Study the Bible and see if its message is consistent with abortion. Let me know what you find.