We weep and mourn when our young ones or older offspring die. It is a truly devastating happening to occur. However, do we have this same deep, deep emotional reaction when we hear of all the abortions happening in this world today (roughly 40-50 million per year according to WHO)?
As believers in Jesus Christ, we must search the Scriptures and seek our Heavenly Father's counsel. What is His attitude about life or not, in the womb of a woman? Only after we see His view, can we make a more righteous stance for ourselves.
That is, if we plan on being salt and light for Jesus in this sorry state world we live in. I don't mean the verbal beating of people over the head who may already have had an abortion or who may even be presently contemplating having one. How can we lovingly show our care and concern for such a girl or woman especially if the circumstances that culminated in a pregnancy had been a violation of her personage?! How do we extend our support of the person and the person in the womb without alienating the one "with child" and be an actual help to her?
Let's step back a bit. Ask yourself, what is the morality - the right or wrong - of abortion? What is abortion? What's that about pro-choice or pro-life?
According to Google, abortion is a "termination of pregnancy"' that is a procedure to end a pregnancy by either taking medicines or having a surgical procedure".
Pro-choice, simply put, meaning the mother gets to choose to keep or to terminate the pregnancy. Pro-life, on the other hand, says, NO! That's wrong - one must keep the pregnancy no matter what! That's the raw footage.
Up front reasons for the pro-choice attitude are, since the woman had been raped or was a victim of incest - how is the woman going to overcome the trauma in mind and emotion to care for the baby? Good question but let's move on. Other reasons such as, the contraception was faulty and so the parents of the new life don't need/want to take the responsibility or oh, it was unplanned (lame excuses, my opinion); I'm too immature or financially strapped; or I already have other children and I'm too old to have another (WHAT!?, my question)! All these among a list of other arguments to support a pro-choice choice for abortion.
Another big argument that supports abortion is that what is in the womb is, "only a fetus" - it is not a child/baby, it's not real life, yet. This really gets my goat especially when we turn to God's word and see what He has to say on the subject! We will touch on this in a bit.
Somewhat inconsistant with the thought that this is "only a fetus" and therefore easily terminated without guilt of conscience is that many who are pro-choice, condemn captial punishment, especially of a murderer or rapist - that man or woman should not be given the death sentence they squeal. Also, many pets are valued above human life and so treated like kings and queens. A fetus, though, is not acknowledged as even being 'a viable living human being'.
God's Word sheds good light on the subject and from which I assume many pro-lifers take their cue. Various Bible passages tell us, "the babies jostled in Rebekah's womb (Genesis 25:21-26); Job had wished he had died during the birthing process - which means he is saying he was already 'a life and alive in the womb' (Job 3:11); God called Jeremiah a prophet even before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5); Amos writes about God saying Ammon ripped open pregnant women, ostensibly so those babies would not be born and grow up to take possession of land he wanted.
Over in the New Testament we have such indication that Mary became "with child" at the point of conception by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18-25). Elizabeth's baby (John the Baptizer), leapt for joy in her womb when he heard the sound of Mary's voice, when she'd come to visit Elizabeth (Luke 1:41, 44).
Those of us who have had the blessed experience to have had a babe or two in the womb, know that there are kicks of life happening, which show there's a wee one alive in there.
All this does not sound like indiscriminate blobs in a womb to me! Does it to you?
God does not appear to make the distinction between the unborn and the born child. All that activity is well noted and tell-tail signs of life, and of a person - living- alive and well, cocooned in the wombs of those women. Life does begin in the womb! That's a good conclusion.
A person may ask, what's the difference between a human life and an animal's? Genesis 1:26-27 and 9:1 show a huge difference. Human beings were created in the image of God and God breathed into them His breath of life. Furthermore, God gave the individuals a spirit. Eccleciastes 12:7 says upon death, the spirit returns to God and in 2 Corinthians 4:16, our spirits can be inwardly renewed even when our outward flesh goes in the opposite direction towards decay due to The Fall's repercussions.
Our lives are precious to God. We must preserve them as well as we can. So saying, what can be done to minimize or even stop abortion from happening without going on a rampage?
One suggestion that many are already employing is educating as to what actually occurs during an abortion. What is actually happening to that life in the womb? What are the after effects, and I don't just mean in regards to the physical body and health of the mother. I'm talking about the mental and emotional effects.
Another suggestion is to show God's view of life in the womb - what He has revealed to us in the Scriptures. How much He loves us and the life He gives. What is indicated as to when God sees life has actually begun in the womb? Pre-emptive education may well save lives of both mother and child. Educate.
Additionally, knowing God's perspective regarding sexual immorality. Abstainance, that is, no pre-marital sex. Talking about responsibility and finances - a marriage would be the instances where the child would have the best chance of support and refute the pro-choice arguments in several instances. God's word says the marriage bed is undefiled or pure (Hebrews 13:4). This is honorable.
Yet we know that rape and incest have coerced the girl or woman and strictly NOT her fault. Yet, she must bear the consequences many fold. How can we help such mothers-to-be?
All of our situations as believers and followers of Jesus, are varied but we can reach out as we are able with moral support and concrete actions to dissuade from abortion and provide what is needed during pregnancy, delivery and beyond. Definitely they do not need a guilt trip and condemnation!
To tie all this together - I realize I may not have a full scope of information here but what we all need to realize - if we belong to Christ, we need to do and think the Christ-like way. I certainly believe the pro-life way but someone would really have to be strong and have good moral supportive people, alongside those contemplating abortion, especially those who have been raped or been a victim of incest. Let's help them find a much better way with those who compassionately care and counsel against abortion and provide pregnancy care and/or shelter homes for the duration of the pregnancy if the mother-to-be's family is not helpful.
Knowing God's way, principles and attitudes towards the life of a human being, we will need to be very careful with our own lives, as well as those of others, including the wee lives in a woman's womb. We are all precious in His sight.
~ERC April 2022~
Based on the Bible Study, Moral Issues Facing the Church by Rob Habison.
See also, Book Review -Whatever Happened to the Human Race by Francis A. Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop MD and a film series on YouTube, Vision Video. The videos are a three part series and deal with abortion and euthanasia. Part 2 pertaining more to the subject of abortion and infanticide.
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