Month: August 2022

Up to this point, in my discussion on abortion, I have said nothing about religion.  I do not believe you need religion to know that a pregnant woman is carrying a human life. 

But I want to shift and now talk directly to the Christian who honors the Bible as holy.  So to the Christian:

Christians do not abort their children.

All humans are created in the image of God (Gen 1:27).  This doctrine is the foundation for human rights, and human rights belong to all humans. Here are some Scriptures that speak of the unborn as humans or having human capacities.

The unborn can be filled with the Holy Spirit:  For he will be great before the Lord.  And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb (Lk 1:15).

The unborn can rejoice:  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 (Lk 1:41-4)

God knows and calls the unborn to serve Him:  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations (Jer 1:5)

The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name . . . And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant . . . (Is 49:1, 5)

But when he who had set me apart before I was born . . . (Gal 1:15)

God is the God of the unborn:  Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.  On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God (Ps 22:9-10).

God knows the unborn and is with them.  Where shall I go from your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them (Ps 139:7-16).

In this psalm, David speaks of God forming him, knowing him and making him within his mother’s womb.  The idea is that God is with David even there.  The flow of ideas runs like this.  Where can I go to escape God?  If I go to heaven, God is there.  If I go to hell, God is there.  If I go to the other side of the sea, God is there.  Darkness can’t hide me from God (Psalm 139:7-12).  Why, God was with me even in my mother’s womb (Ps 139: 13-6).

Unborn twins can struggle together:  The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?”  So she went to inquire of the Lord.  And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be divided . . .”(Gen 25:22-3).

Scripture says that children are a gift of God (Ps 127:3).  Abortion destroys that gift.  You cannot say that a child is a gift from God and then abort her.

Scripture commands the human race to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28).  Abortion negates that command. 

The Bible considers the unborn to be people.  It describes them experiencing things only people experience – the filling of the Holy Spirit, joy, struggle, being called to be a servant or a prophet.  It refers to them as babies and children, and the pronouns it uses are personal: I, me, he.

Biblically, a fetus is a human being.

The Early Church

Early church tradition also is quite uniform in opposition to abortion.  Here are a few quotes on abortion from early church fathers.

The Didache (1^st cent): “You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.” [i]

Barnabas (late 1^st/early 2^nd cent): “Never do away with an unborn child, nor destroy it after its birth.”[ii]

Athenagoras (2^nd cent): Athenagoras is writing to the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and senator Lucius Aurelius Commodus.  Here he is defending Christians against the charge that they are murderers.

“Who does not reckon among the things of greatest interest the contests of gladiators and wild beasts, especially those which are given by you? But we, deeming that to see a man put to death is much the same as killing him, have abjured such spectacles.  How, then, when we do not even look on, lest we should contract guilt and pollution, can we put people to death? And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it . . .[iii]

Tertullian (2^nd cent): “In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed.”[iv]

We could continue and quote Clement of Alexandria (2^nd century), Mark Minicius Felix (late 2^nd century), Hippolytus (early 3^rd), Cyprian (3^rd), and Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, John Chrysostom, and the Apostolic Constitution (all from the 4^th).  The early church was united in its strong opposition to abortion.  And the church didn’t stop.  Throughout history, Christian opposition continued through Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, John Piper, and a host of others. 

If you respect the Bible, the unborn is a human being.  If you respect the teaching of the early church fathers, abortion is a sin. 

As a human being I oppose abortion because it kills human beings.  As a Christian, I oppose abortion for the same reason, but as a Christian, I have extra reasons for doing so, namely Scripture and the historic church teachings. 

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[i] “The Didache.”  http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-roberts.html, chapter 2.

[ii] “The Epistle of Barnabas,” Early Christian Writings.  New York: Penguin Books, 1981, p. 217.

[iii] Athenagoras.  “A Plea For Christians.”  https://www.biblestudytools.com/history/early-church-fathers/ante-nicene/vol-2-second-century/writings-of-athenagoras/a-plea-christians.html, chapter 35.

[iv] Tertullian. Apology. Ch 9.  https://carm.org/tertullian/tertullian-the-apology-chapters-1-to-23/

In my previous blog I argued from science that a fetus is a distinct human life. I now want to appeal to something entirely different.  I propose that we humans intuitively know that a fetus is a human is a baby is a child.  Our language and our emotions give us away.  Let me tell a story.

When I taught English, I gave my students each year a persuasive essay assignment in which they could write on any topic they chose.  Abortion was by far the most popular topic, and every year I found myself reading scads of essays on abortion – pro and con.  And every year I had multiple students who took a proabortion stance and argued for “aborting the baby” or “aborting the child.”  It’s just the way they talked. 

I would point out to these students that their language hurt their argument, for if the fetus is (as they admit) a baby, then abortion kills a baby, but if the fetus is not human, you can do with it as you please.  This “baby” language was so common that it often made it into my generic comments to the class on common errors or weaknesses I found across many essays. 

One year I was pointing out this pattern to the class and told them that if you want to take a proabortion stance, you weaken your argument by referring to the baby.  Babies are human.  Babies are children.

When I had finished, a young man in the front row (who did not write on abortion) replied, “Of course it’s a baby!  What else could it be?”  He then went on to say that he believed a woman should be able to abort that baby.  I was stunned not at the gross contradiction in his moral reasoning but at how confidently he stated it and how strongly he believed it.  He was utterly convinced that pregnant women carry babies.  He had no doubt that a fetus is a baby.

You can write off that young man as being a high school kid who simply hadn’t thought through the issue, and you certainly would be correct.  But that’s precisely my point.  When we are at the dinner table describing what a pregnant woman is carrying, “baby” is the normal word we use.  And we don’t think twice about it.  It’s just natural.  I’ve never heard anyone address a pregnant woman and say, “How’s the fetus today?”  No.  You greet your pregnant friend and say, “How are you and the baby doing?”  The mother tells her husband, “I felt the baby kick today.”  Or she says, “The baby is hungry today.”  Or “we heard the baby’s heartbeat today.”  Or they see the ultrasound and say, “It’s a girl!”

We talk this way all the time, and our language says something about what we think.  We intuitively know that a pregnant woman is carrying a baby.  Or a boy.  Or a girl.  Or a child.  Those are the words we use.  And when we use those words, we don’t mean baby dog or baby fish or baby bird.  We mean baby human. 

That young man in my class is not alone.  What he intuitively understood is what most people intuitively understand.  The overwhelming majority of pregnant women intuitively know they are carrying a baby.  They don’t need scientific arguments.  Just ask them what they are carrying.  Or try this.  Try telling a pregnant woman that she is not carrying a baby and see how that goes. 

And here’s the thing.  Most proabortion people talk this way.  They may avoid “baby” language in formal arguments, but in personal settings they still revert to it.  I’ve heard this with my ears.  Our language communicates something about what we believe deep down.

But so do our emotions. Recently, a woman I work with announced that she was pregnant.  We all rejoiced.  We congratulated her.  We high fived.  And this reaction is the normal human reaction to a pregnancy.  Why?  We are not rejoicing over a clump of cells.  We are rejoicing over a human life.  And proabortion people do the same rejoicing in most situations. 

But our emotions don’t have to be joyful to betray us. Even when we face a crisis pregnancy – an unwed mother, a rape – and our emotions may be sad at the situation or we may feel a sense of loss, these emotions also suggest that the mother is carrying something more than a clump of cells.  If the fetus is just a clump of cells, why do we feel a sense of loss?  Our emotions need not get entangled with a clump of cells.  We have no reason to be sad over a clump of cells.  The mother has an easy way out.  What is in her body is no more special than a wart.  Just remove it and move on. 

But that’s not how we feel.  There’s no tragedy in having a clump of cells that you can easily remove with no harm done.  The fact that we consider crisis pregnancies tragic betrays the fact that deep down, we know we are dealing with more than just a clump of cells.  Deep down, whether we are happy or sad, we know what a pregnant woman is carrying. 

A fetus is a human is a baby is a child.  This is the intuition most of us have.  Now I understand that intuitions are not formal arguments.  Intuitions can be wrong.  But neither are they nothing.  Intuitions do push us in a certain direction, and that direction is toward the humanity of the fetus.  If you want to say that the fetus is not human, you must argue against the way most people naturally think and feel.  In other words, the burden of proof is on you. 

When I was in the army, a young sergeant in my unit worked as secretary for the central office of my company.  She was pregnant and grew large so that her time to deliver was upon her.  One day she did not show up for work and remained absent for maybe a week.  When she finally did show up again, she was not pregnant, and when I saw her, I was so happy for her that I said, “Sergeant so-and-so!  Congratulations!  You had your baby!” 

“Actually,” she said.  “I had an abortion.”

I did not know what to say.  I had been so deeply and genuinely happy for her, and one second later I was numb.  The swing of my emotions was extreme and instant.  I don’t remember what I said to her, but I do remember going into my office, closing the door, and weeping.

If you’ve seen the news lately, you’ve seen that the United States Supreme Court recently overturned Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson.  For those of you who are not Americans, this decision is an earthquake to American culture.  I never thought I would live to see this day because I never thought the Supreme Court would have the guts to make this decision.  The major networks, news outlets, magazines, and newspapers are up in arms and overwhelmingly in opposition to Dobbs.  They make no secret about it.  They don’t pretend to be neutral and are working overtime and doing everything in their power to discredit this decision and the court that made it. 

But as a Christian, I stand with the justices who voted to overturn Roe.  The Dobbs decision is a step in the right direction and a reason to rejoice.  Abortion is America’s greatest social justice issue today.  In this blog, I want to explain why.

But before I do so, I am aware that abortion stokes people’s emotions.  On both sides.  Given this fact, it is difficult to have an intelligent discussion about the topic.  But I actually want to have an intelligent discussion.  I believe that an intelligent, reasoned discussion will be more fruitful than name-calling and social media sound bites.  This does not mean that I wish to abandon my convictions in the name of reason.  Instead, I wish to explain my convictions in a reasonable way. 

Let’s begin with some facts.  According to the research wing of Planned Parenthood, in 2020, there were over 930,000 abortions in America.  That number is an increase of about 8% from 2017, when there were about 862,000.[i]  Since Roe v. Wade, there have been more than 63 million abortions in America.[ii]  Sixty-three million.

This means that if a fetus is a living human being, we have chosen to kill 63 million human beings since Roe v. Wade.  Those are not numbers to shrug off.  Those numbers are a Holocaust. If a fetus is a living human being, then the results of abortion on demand have been horrifying, and abortion is the greatest social justice issue of our day.    

But that’s only if a fetus is a living human being.  If a fetus is not a living human being, then we’ve killed 63 million nonhumans, and the Holocaust comparison is unfair. 

Thus, you have to decide whether a pregnant woman is carrying a human being.  In simplest terms, that is what the abortion question comes down to.  It’s not about difficult cases like rape, incest or poverty.  I can acknowledge the difficulty of every special case but still end up opposing abortion – if the fetus is human.  If the fetus is a human being, then abortion kills a human being.  If a pregnant woman is carrying a human life, then the sanctity of that human life trumps those special cases, for we all know that we can’t go around killing human beings just to get ourselves out of a tough spot. 

Please hear me.  I am not saying this to minimize the tragedy of crisis pregnancies.  I am well aware of the tragedies.  And the mothers in those tragedies need our help and compassion.  But if a pregnant woman is carrying a human life, then abortion is also a tragedy, and we must weigh tragedy against tragedy. 

If you see this, then you see why the central issue in abortion is the question of whether the fetus is a human being.  Therefore, I want to focus on this central issue.  Is a pregnant woman carrying a human life?  In answering this question, I will say nothing new or original, but I hope I will be kind, simple, and clear. 

Yes.  A pregnant woman is carrying a distinct human life. 

Life

The fetus is alive.  From the moment of conception, from zygote to embryo to fetus, we see life.  We see constant growth.  We see cell multiplication.  We see movement of arms and legs.  We see a heartbeat, blood flowing, brain waves.  This is not merely potential life.  This is life.  Abortion, thus, kills life.  This is a fact, and it is not debatable. 

Human Life

But does it kill human life?  Yes.  It does.  The DNA is human.  The mother is human.  The father is human.  What else could their offspring be?  The body parts are the body parts of a human.  The eyes are human eyes.  The fingers human fingers.  The toes human toes.  The heart a human heart.  The blood human blood.  The fingerprints human fingerprints.  The fetus learns, dreams, has emotions, feels pain, and has a unique personality.[iii] 

If the fetus is not human, what is she?  She is not some kind of plant.  She is not some kind of dog, cow, bird or monkey.  She is not just cellular bacteria multiplying.  Scientifically, everything points to the fetus being human.  If the fetus is not human, I don’t know what she is. 

Distinct Human Life

The fetus is distinct from his mother.  He is not a mere extension of the mother’s body but is unique and distinct.  A fetus is a separate person from his mother.  Science tells us that the fetus has a different DNA from his mother.  He often has a different blood type from his mother, and about 50% of the time, the fetus is a different gender from his mother.  The fetus has two distinct eyes and ears, and they are not the eyes and ears of the mother.  Two distinct arms and legs, not those of the mother.  A separate heartbeat and a separate breathing rate from those of the mother.  When a woman is pregnant, we do not have merely one body but two distinct bodies.  We do not have one person but two people. The mother is responsible not merely for her own body but for another unique body inside her. 

Thus, a pregnant woman is carrying a unique, living human being distinct from herself. 

Please note that so far, I have made no religious argument to conclude this.  I’m appealing to science, and I believe science is real.  This, thus, means that abortion kills a unique, living human being.  This is why I am prolife. 

And sixty three million human lives later is why abortion is the greatest social justice issue of our day.

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[i] https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2022/06/long-term-decline-us-abortions-reverses-showing-rising-need-abortion-supreme-court

[ii] http://www.numberofabortions.com/; https://christianliferesources.com/2021/01/19/u-s-abortion-statistics-by-year-1973-current/

[iii] https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/probing-question-can-babies-learn-utero/;  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199809/fetal-psychology