Arguments on Abortion

Abortion

Arguments on Abortion

Abortion is big business. According to an article in Forbes Magazine, February 13, 2006, p.76, 24% of U.S. pregnancies end in abortion, and 70% of Russian pregnancies do. (Michael Freedman “Family Planning : Fertile Ground”)

First recognize that many people do not care what the Bible says about abortion. They do not care what is right or wrong. They only want what they want. But this is written for those who want to know God's will.

There are two abortion perspectives: private and public. What do you think about a politician's statement, “I would never have an abortion... but I wouldn't stop anyone else.”? What if it was murder?

What about freedom? My freedom to swing my arm ends where your nose begins. If 1) a fetus is a human life, and 2) mothers must care for unborn babies, then a child's right to live supersedes a mother's freedom to choose to kill. If 1) or 2) is false, then maybe it is OK to kill a fetus like some people kill dolphins.

You often can read into the Bible what you like (isogesis) or take seriously what God says and likes (exegesis). Study Exodus 21:22-25 carefully.

Pro-Life Positions

1. Regular people (not some criminals) have the right to live.

2. The fetus is a distinct human from the moment of conception.

3a/3b. Unless the woman’s life is endanger, a woman (in all cases / except for rape and incest) have the duty not to kill their unborn babies.

4. Murder (by abortion or any other name) should be illegal in a moral society.

Pro-Choice Positions

1. Regular people (not some criminals) have rights to their bodies, as long as they do not hurt others.

2a/2b. The fetus is not a “human” until it (is / is almost) born.

3. Women do not have the duty be pregnant against their will, and they can change their minds.

4. Therefore women have the right to choose to end their pregnancy.

Pro-Life ViewsAnd Pro-Choice Rebuttals

What value do you place on human life after a child is born?

There are three categories of pro-life arguments.

The italicized words are pro-choice rebuttals.

Anti-Birth Control Arguments

Two anti-abortion arguments can also be used to “prove” we must have as many children as possible. If that is wrong then these are too.

Psalm 127:3-5 shows the value God places, and we should also place, on kids. How can someone believe this verse and allow abortions?

Abortion snuffs out the potential in a child. One never knows what a child could do for society.

Anti-Mid and Late Term Arguments

I have never met a 100% pro-choice person. Few would justify taking an infant out minutes before birth and killing it. Today doctors sometimes induce labor early, so you cannot draw the line at birth.

In Luke 1:41-44 John the Baptist leapt for joy in Elizabeth's womb. Thus he was a person who had emotions and a spirit. The Spirit's filling before birth of this unique person is not the norm.

Like John the Baptist, unborn babies have emotions too. The film Silent Scream shows that mid-term aborted babies fight to the death the suction tube for the convenience of the mother.

See also Psalm 139:13-16 Isaiah 49:1, Jeremiah 1:5, and Judges 13:3-7. Job 3:3 and Gen 4:1 emphasize birth.

Abortion stops a beating heart; abortion makes brain waves go dead. Abortion kills.

Value Pro-Life Arguments

There are more fundamental reasons to be pro-life. The worth of a person is not determined by his value to society or parents' views. All humans have this dignity given by God, though men try to deny it.

Making a baby is a continuous process; we cannot draw a line. As we declare some of the human species “non-people”, we do inhuman things. Today doctors even experiment with aborted babies. When aborted babies come out alive, doctors have killed them.

If abortion is permitted to continue, the evil is done not only to the babies but to ourselves. As we turn ourselves into monsters, the Canaanites of old live again.

Pro-choice Viewsand Pro-Life Rebuttals

There are two categories of pro-choice arguments. The italicized words are pro-life rebuttals.

Pro-Infanticide Arguments

Most (but not all) arguments for abortion can be used equally well to justify killing babies one day before birth. We can call these “Canaanite arguments.”

Fetal experiments and tissue may help treat people. If infants also helped, would killing babies be OK?

The Bible never specifically prohibits abortion. The Bible never explicitly prohibits chainsaw massacres of babies either. If unborn babies are people, then the sixth commandment covers abortion too.

We should not make secular laws about things in a religious book.

Theft, rape, and murder are in the Bible too, but that does not mean we cannot make laws about those. Even many atheists can agree the theft, rape, and murder are wrong.

N.A.R.A.L. (National Abortion Rights Action League) estimated that prior to Roe vs. Wade there were 5,000 to 10,000 deaths per year. Legalization moved abortions from “back-street butchers” to licenses physicians.

According to former abortion doctor Bernard Nathanson, he knew that these figures were a lie. In 1971 the U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics reported only 39 women died from abortions, not thousands.

Second, 84-87% of illegal abortions were performed by licensed physicans according to Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey in the Americal Journal of Public Health.

Third, the argument assumes that unborn babies are not people. Everyone should agree that economics and convenience would not justify killing babies.

If abortion were illegal, many women would do it anyway.

Some people still kill infants though it is illegal. For this reason should we make infant killing legal too?

If abortion were illegal, rich women would still have it done in other countries, and it would be unfair to poor women.

First many women would not have it if it were deemed illegal. More importantly, if killing a baby were legal by traveling to another country, or for a price, would this justify giving everyone the right to kill their babies in our country?

Having the baby can be an economic hardship.

Raising a baby can be also, but that does not justify killing it. Furthermore, there is a shortage of healthy babies to adopt in the United States.

Abortion should be justified if the baby would be known to be physically or mentally handicapped (or some would say the wrong sex).

Would killing a child be justified if the child became physically or mentally handicapped? Suicide rates of handicapped people are lower than healthy people, and most of them are glad that they are alive.

Many fetuses naturally die before birth.

Many babies naturally die after birth too, but does that justify actively killing a baby?

Why should men decide what women can do with their bodies?

Killing a baby both after and before a natural delivery is wrong (or right) regardless of the sex of a person talking about it. But if is not just an excuse but a real objection, it was nine men who legalized abortion. There are plenty of women who are pro-life. Finally, many abortionists argue assuming what they are trying to prove, that unborn babies are not humans. But if you assume the opposite, then over 1 million people in America today die from abortions every year, and almost 50% of them are males.

Isa 43:1-7, Rev 3:5 and Lk 10:20 say that God calls believers by name. Before we have a name then (at birth) perhaps then we are not people. Some cultures do not name infants until well after they are born. Is it ok for them to kill unnamed infants?

Pro-life people think pregnant women should have less freedom than other people. Due to their chosen responsibilities, mothers and fathers have less freedom too.

In Gen 2:7 God breathed into Adam the breath of life. So we are people when we first breathe. This was only for the first man.

Many verses (Isa 49:5, Ps 22:9-10 58:3 71:6) teach that God cares for us since birth. Ps 22:9-10 says from the womb (before birth).

Pro-Early Term Arguments

The strongest arguments only justify early term abortions.

Since many are not sure when human personhood begins, it is questionable that killing an early term fetus is murder.

If one were paid to demolish a building, it is be morally justified to do so if there were a 50% chance a child might still be inside it? A 10% chance? A 5% chance?

The 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision said a state could not prohibit abortion in the first six months, or even after that if it would impair the mother’s physical or mental health.

However, physical and mental health were so broadly defined in the subsequent Doe vs. Bolton (1973) decision, that former Chief Justice Warren Burger (who voted for the majority in Roe vs. Wade) admitted that we have abortion available on demand (Thornburg vs. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (1986).

At one time the early Egyptians' penalty for adultery was death. If the woman got pregnant they first waited for the child to be born. In the Old Testament adulterous women were executed with their unborn babies, so this was all OK. Even this argument does nothing to justify late-term abortions. While this may appear to justify early term abortion or "morning-after" pills, executions in general are not murder in the Old Testament.

Since a creature's life is in the blood (Gen 9:4 Lev 17:11,14 Deut 12:23), and blood cells form 20 days after conception, before then abortion may be OK.

1 Cor 15:46 says, “However, the spiritual is not first but the natural; then the spiritual.” This refers to salvation, not gestation. Non-Christians are not non-humans!

In 1980 only 113,500 out of 1.5 million abortions (9%) were in the 4th through 9th months. Since neurological structures are not developed until 13 ½ weeks (over 3 months) more than 91% were before the fetus could feel pain.First the nerves are partially developed starting at 2 months, brain waves at 2 ½ months, and 480,000 abortions (33%) of all abortions in 1980 were between the 8th and 13th week. Second, even if personhood were defined by some as feeling pain, 9% to 42% is too many painful deaths. They have seen the baby’s grimace as it is getting dismembered, and how the baby moves to try to avoid the deadly tube suctioning up it body parts piece by piece.

Withdrawing the support a fetus requires is not murder. Abortion is often painful killing by salt poisoning, vacuum, or by knife. At only 13 ½ weeks unborn babies show aversive response to needles, and grimace when deadly salt solution is injected.

Before abortion was legalized, desperate woman died after giving themselves abortions with coat-hangers. There are more deaths today from the many women seeking abortions than there were before abortion was legalized.

Value Pro-Choice Arguments

Consider the situation in old times where the doctor had to choose between saving the mother and saving the infant. For anyone who believes either that the mother should be saved first or that the mother should choose, they have to admit they place a relative value on human life at least some of the time. Otherwise they would just flip a coin. If a slightly lesser value can be placed on an infant, then certainly a much less value can be placed on cells with no blood, heart, or brain.

God left it up to us whether we want to hear what suits our desires (2 Tim 4:3) or to seek out what pleases the Lord (Eph 5:10).

Ecclesiastes 11:5 shows that we do not know how the body is formed in the mother's womb. So it is presumptuous to think life begins at conception. It is presumptuous to think life does not begin at conception. Some pro-abortionists even will not call a fetus a human. If it is not a human, what is it, a cat?

Ps 139:16 all the days written ...

Ps 139:13,16 if being weaved then not human yet

Ps 51:5 "Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me."

Pro-choice: before David was brought forth he was not.

Pro-life: in sin my mother conceived me.

Abortion Statistics

Year / U.S. Abortions (per AGI) / U.S. Abortions (per CDC) / % White/
Black/Other / % Suction / Sharp
1972 / - / 587K / 77 / 23 / 0 / 65 / 23
1976 / 1,179 K / 988K / 67 / 33 / 0 / 83 / 10
1980 / 1,553 K / 1,297K / 70 / 30 / 0 / 90 / 6
1985 / 1,589 K / 1,329K / 67 / 30 / 4 / 95 / 3
1990 / 1,608 K / 1,430K / 65 / 32 / 3 / 96 / 3
1991 / 1,557 K / 1,389K / 64 / 33 / 4 / 97 / 2
1992 / 1,529 K / 1,359K / 62 / 34 / 5 / 97 / 2
1993 / 1,495 K / 1,330K / 61 / 35 / 4 / 96 / 3
1994 / 1,423 K / 1,267K / 61 / 35 / 5 / 97 / 3
1995 / 1,359 K / 1,211K / 60 / 35 / 6 / 97 / 2
1996 / 1,360 K / 1,226 K
1997 / 1,335 K / 1,186 K
1998 / 1,319 K / 884 K*
1999 / 1,314 K / 862 K*
2000 / 1,312 K / 857 K*
2001 / 1,291 K / 853 K*
2002 / 1,269 K / 854 K*
2003 / 1,250 K / 848 K*
2004 / 1,222 K / 839 K*
2005 / 1,206 K
2006 / 1,206 K
2007 / 1,206 K

Source for the first column and last part of the second: Alan Guttmacher Institute (a pro-choice organization)

Source: for the last three columns: (last updated 2 Nov 2006)

Abortions per gestation week

Week / % in 1994 / % in 1995
<= 6 weeks / 16 % / 16 %
7 weeks / 17 % / 17 %
8 weeks / 21 % / 21 %
> 8 weeks / 46 % / 47 %

Source:

World wide in 1987 an estimated 22 million reported abortions, and 14 to 31 million estimated unreported ones for a total of 36-53 million total. About 78% in developing countries.

You Can Answer Pro-Abortion Arguments

While our other videos answer pro-abortion arguments, this video covers a different though related topic: how YOU can answer pro-abortion arguments. Maybe you have not done scholarly research on all the ins and outs of all the arguments, but using what is in this video, you can easily answer most of them anyway. Before we jump to how you can easily answer most arguments, let’s first take a sidetrack and understand the types of pro-choice people.

Morally, people can be classified into three broad categories.

“By the end of the second trimester the ‘brain’s neural circuits are as advance as a newborn’s.’ Begley, Do You Hear? p.14 (Why Pro-Life? P.50)

“Of course, an infant is not fully human…. I have little sympathy with the idea that infanticide is just another form of murder. Persons who are already functionally persons in the full sense have more important rights even than infants.” Dr. Charles Hartshorne Univ. of Texas “Concerning Abortion: An Attempt at a Rational View” The Christian Century 21 January 1981, 42-45.

Susan B. Anthony, champion of women’s suffrage (voting rights) wrote, “I deplore the horrible crime of child murder…. Nomatter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed.” The Revolution, July 8, 1869 p.4

It was not until the 1970’s that feminists embraced abortion.

Outside of America, the vast majority of abortions are of girls. Who Pro-Life? p.59

Amoral: Their personal happiness/goals are the primary good. They really do not care if something is moral or not. A few might even argue that it is “species-ism” to think that a roach should have fewer right than a person, (especially of certain ethnic groups). If they can make lots of money aborting babies, then fine. If they could make lots of money killing infants and adults that would be equally fine. Their conscience is dead, as though seared with a hot iron.

You might be thinking it fortunate that there are few people like this, but you would be wrong. Hitler did not personally kill 6 million Jews, 10’s of thousands of Nazis did. Mao and his wife did not personally kill 10 million Chinese, a vast number of people were involved. The Khmer Rouge, Idi Amin’s soldiers, etc. did not have sophisticated moral arguments trying to justify what they did; they probably viewed not just moral arguments, but morals in general as just a waste of time.

Many, though not all, atheists can fit comfortably in this group. If morality is just an evolutionary mechanism, why would you do what is right, if it did not benefit you and nobody was looking. When people are looking, they might still support a moral cause, for the good of society, sort of like giving a couple of dollars to your high school team’s booster club.

By the book:On the other end are people who ground their morality in one or more books. This includes Bible-believing Christians, such as ourselves, as well as conservative Jewish people, Confucianists, Theravada Buddhists, and conservative Muslims. All books are not the same though. A Jew or Christian could logically look at the Bible and conclude that rape is always wrong, but a Muslim looking at the Qur’an and hadiths could conclude that forced sex with captives and slave girls they were not married to was OK. See for ample documentation of that.

If it feels right: But don’t be mistakenin thinking that these are the only two categories. There is a third category of people who have an operating conscience, genuinely want to do what is right (at least some of the time), but believe a relative “rightness” can be arrived at without moral absolutes. Some of these know they do not have a consistent moral basis, or perhaps have even given up hope of having a consistent moral basis. Others try to develop a consistent morality, but they have no ground on which to base their morality. A poll a few years ago found that 26% of Americans were strongly pro-choice, 29% were strongly pro-life, and the other 45% were not strongly either one. (Why Pro-Choice? p.16) This middle ground includes many people from all three groups.