Summary: How should a Christian view abortion?

Abortion

Life begins at conception.

- Ps. 51:5 For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

- Ps. 139:13-16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

- Ex. 21:22-23 “Now suppose two people are fighting, and in the process, they hurt a pregnant woman so her child is born prematurely. If no further harm results, then the person responsible must pay damages in the amount the woman’s husband demands and the judges approve. But if any harm results, then the offender must be punished according to the injury. If the result is death, the offender must be executed.

Jer. 1:5 He said, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.”

God’s plan and purpose for you.

- Jer. 1:5 He said, 5“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.”

- Jer. 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

-Ps. 139:13-16

-Prov. 16:9

-Matt. 10:29-31

-Gen. 1:36

God’s view of “a woman’s right to choose.”

- 1 Co. 6:12-13, 19-20; 3:16-17

The morality of abortion.

- Gen. 9:5; Prov. 24:11-12; Ex. 21:22-23; 20:13

Can God forgive me for having an abortion?

- Is. 1:18; 1 Jn. 1:9; Eph. 3:18

According to research performed by the Guttmacher Institute, one in four teenage girls gets pregnant by age eighteen; half become pregnant by age twenty-one.

Of the more than one million American teens who become pregnant every year, roughly half choose to have abortions. Approximately a third of all recorded U.S. abortions – which number in excess of 1.5 million every year – are performed on teenagers. In fact, the abortion rate for eighteen-year-olds is two times that of the national average. Dr. M. Balfin states that “More teenagers are having abortions in the United States than in any other country in the world.”

Such statistics may only be the tip of the iceberg, however. A rate of 1.5 million abortions figures out to 4,000 abortions a day in the U.S. However, there are at least 4,000 abortion clinics or facilities currently operating in the U.S. It is unlikely that those clinics perform only one abortion per day; consequently, the number of abortions probably far exceeds the oft-quoted figure of 1.5 million. The number of teens having abortions may be more than half a million. Even Planned Parenthood estimates that nearly two-thirds of teen abortions are never reported: “Respondents aged 15-19 are estimated to have reported only 33 percent of the abortions they obtained.”

Like those in America, the number of abortions performed in other countries – from around 70,000 a year in Canada to 180,000 a year in the United Kingdom – continue to increase, adding to the number of babies aborted year after year in worldwide holocaust.

Moreover, one out of every six women who have an abortion describes herself as an evangelical Christian.

The Types of Abortion

Abortion has become one the most common surgical procedures in the Western world. It has become tragically common among teens – even among Christian teens – for several reasons.

-Induced abortion

-Menstrual extraction

-Dilation and Evacuation (D&E)

-Dilation and Curettage (D&C)

-Intra-Amniotic Infusion

-Hysterotomy and Hysterectomy

-Drugs

Points against abortion

1. In the Bible, the same Greek word is used for a fetus, newly born child, and young child.

a. Luke. 1:41, 44 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby (1025) leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit…For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby (1025) leaped in my womb for joy.

Note: The child here is yet in the womb.

b. Luke 2:12, 16 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby (1025) wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger…So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby (1025) as He lay in the manger.

Note: The child here is a newborn.

c. Acts 7:19 It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose their infants (1025) and they would not survive.

Luke 18:15 And they were bringing even their babies (1025) to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them.

Note: The children here were able to be out and about.

2. David spoke of himself as a living being separate and apart from his mother while in her womb.

Ps. 139:13-16

3. In cases where an unborn fetus was harmed by a man, the Mosaic Law treated the fetus as a living person. If a man killed an unborn fetus, his punishment was death. If we were living under the Mosaic Law today, abortionists would be punished with death.

Ex. 21:22-25 If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

4. The phrase “woman with child” affirms that a fetus is a child

(cf. 2 Ki. 19:3; Job 3:13-16; Ec. 11:5; Is. 66:9).

Ex. 21:22

5. A fetus is called a child before birth. Jesus was Jesus while in the womb

(cf. Matt. 2:1, 2).

Matt. 1:23

6. John was filled with the Holy Spirit while in the womb; therefore, John was a living person in the womb.

Lk. 1:15

7. The babe leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb; therefore, the fetus was a living person capable of hearing, experiencing joy, and displaying joy

Lk. 1:41, 44