The Biblical Response to Abortion (LIFE in the Bible)
By Bunni Pounds - This quick reference guide goes along with Bunni’s teaching released on the podcast on June 5 – LIFE IN THE BIBLE.
June Hunt’s book – Abortion Prevention: Not a Choice, but a Child is used as a reference for most of this content. Connect with June at Hope for the Heart and grab all her incredible resources on all the important topics.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said at the 1994 Presidential Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC this quote –
“I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?... By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems…. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”
Question for us today - do we define love in the same way that the Bible does? Is love in our culture – selfishness or is it sacrificial? If we as a culture or a nation sanction abortion – are we destroying love?
Let’s define the terms and then the debate from a biblical perspective.
What is abortion?
The Oxford English Dictionary states that abortion is “the procuring of premature delivery so as to destroy offspring.” Abortion is an umbrella word for the different methods used to destroy a developing human fetus – partial birth abortion, saline method, dilation and evacuation method, vacuum-suction method, RU-486 Method (The French Abortion Pill) which makes the mother ill and usually results in delivery of a dead baby and even the Morning After pill – designed to stop a possible pregnancy by expelling the fertilized egg.
What is viability? How is it defined?
I think we must define it by the Bible, but even in the baby’s development – we see that from conception – the DNA and breath of God creating this special person for His glory.
Development –
Immediately upon fertilization, cellular development begins. Before implantation, the sex of the new life can be determined.
At 19 days, eyes begin to develop.
At 30 days, regular blood flow is evident within the vascular system
At 42 days, the skeleton is complete, and reflexes are present
At 56 days, all organs are functioning – stomach, liver, kidneys, brain, etc.
At 9 weeks – fingerprints appear
At 11 weeks – fingernails and toenails appear
At 13 weeks – the baby starts growing hair
At 26 weeks, the sensory organs are all working – the baby is able to hear, see, taste, and touch.
Let’s read the Scriptures:
Isaiah 44:24
“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
And He who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who makes all things,
Who stretches out the heavens all alone,
Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself.”
Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Luke 1:39-45
“Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
In verse 41 – the Greek word here for babe is brephos – which also shows up again in Luke 18:15 -
“Then they also brought infants (babes) to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.” - It is the same word.
Psalm 139:1-18
“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, 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 fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.”
God is sovereign over – the length of our life, inmost beings, our frame, and the embryo. We see this spelled out clearly in verses 13-16 of this passage.
Galatians 1:15-16
“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood.”
Job 31:15
“Did not He who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?”
Psalm 51:6
“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” (NIV says “You desired faithfulness even in the womb”)
Psalm 22:10
“I was cast upon You from birth.
From My mother’s womb
You have been My God.”
What are the two main positions in the Abortion Argument?
The Pro-Life Position –
Some believe that a human fetus is a person from the moment of conception and that the unborn baby should receive constitutional protection of life. This position is in agreement with the biblical position, which values the life of the unborn baby the same as the life of the mother.
Exodus 21:22-25
“If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”
The Pro-choice (or Pro-death) position –
Some believe that a fetus is only a “potential person” (Roe vs. Wade 1973) and therefore should not be entitled to constitutional protection. They believe the decision about the life or death of the unborn baby should be solely the choice of the pregnant mother. This position invites God’s great disfavor because it provides no protection for the innocent, human life.
Proverbs 6:16-17
“These six things the Lord hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
A proud look,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood…”
The wrong belief says “Abortion is a simple procedure designed to remove a mass of tissue from a woman’s body, and a woman should have the right to determine what happens to her own body.”
The right belief says “The unborn life within a pregnant woman is a separate, unique human being, created by God at conception. A woman does have rights over her own life, but she does not have the right to destroy an innocent life.”
The cultural argument says, “Every woman should have the right of control over her own body.”
Answer:
A woman should have the right to control her body, but in pregnancy there are…
Two different bodies
Two different heartbeats
Two different brain wave patterns
Two different genetic codes (DNA)
Often two different blood types
Often two different sexes.
This is not her own body – this is taking control over the death of another.
If considering Abortion:
Seek wise counsel and be open to the truth
Sacrifice your desires for what is best for the baby
Strive to prioritize the life above your fears and perceived losses
Submit to God and His will for your life.
If you have had an Abortion:
Recognize need for wise counsel
Release your hurt and pain
Respond with humility to God – His word and His people
Rebuild by forgiving, accepting God’s grace, and His identity
What can wash away our sins – nothing but the blood of Jesus. Your greatest failures can be your greatest story of His grace. Tell your story and let God use you to bring healing and restoration for others.
What do we do –
We pray for those affected by abortion – women and men and pray for the ending of abortion everywhere in our nation.
We vote – electing pro-life leaders at all levels of government and even on a local level – work to elect people who seek to protect the most vulnerable among us.
We engage – working to enact pro-life legislation at the state and national level, we help our crisis pregnancy centers and try to reach women online who need hope, we minister to those in the industry who are deceived and need their eyes open and those who need help who are contemplating abortion, we try to provide the resources needed and disciple people, we look for needs in our own churches and work to restore people to health and healing.
PRAY for the American Church to wake up, for healing and restoration for all effected by this issue, and for the ending of abortion at every level of our society.
Again thank you to June Hunt and Hope for the Heart for help on this content – grab all of her books at the ministry and her free download on abortion here.
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