This November citizens of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota will be voting to change their abortion laws. Each state could potentially make abortion legal in most, if not all, cases in which a woman would seek it. In Florida, it is proposed constitutional Amendment 4 that many churches and Christian organizations are actively opposing. The issue of abortion is not only divisive but also urgently important to both those who approve of it and those who condemn it.
The Christian position on abortion is straightforward. Abortion is actively ending the life of a child who would otherwise be born. Though God makes provisions for intentionally taking human lives in Scripture, those instances are restricted to three situations. The first is that the state can execute a person guilty of a capital crime, an offense punishable by death (Genesis 9:6; Romans 13:4). The second situation is when protecting your person and property against someone who is putting you in criminal danger (Exodus 22:2-3). The third situation is in times of war. Abortion is different from all three of these cases. A child being aborted is not being killed because he is guilty of a crime, nor because he is an enemy combatant. God says throughout Scripture that He hates the shedding of an innocent person’s blood. One example is in Proverbs 6:17, where one of the seven things God hates is “hands that shed innocent blood.” God’s hatred is directed against any person responsible for the death of the innocent. Therefore, God’s anger is directed not only against the wickedness of abortion, but also against those who practice it.
There are, however, objections raised by those who want to defend abortion. They might say, first of all, that a baby in the womb is not yet a human life, not viable, and therefore not worthy of legal protection. This is a dishonest argument, only used by those who want their baby dead. Women who lose a child through violence or medical accident are not comforted that, because the baby was still inside the womb, they did not lose a human. The term “viable” is similarly deceitful when describing a child that is too young to live outside the womb. After all, a three-month-old is critically dependent on her mother for food and protection; she is also incapable of surviving without the “life support” of her mother.
A second extremely common objection is that abortion should be permissible when the child is born of sexual sin committed against the mother. Take a close look at biblical justice, though. In Exodus 23:7 God warns a society to “keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.” Abortion is not a therapeutic procedure. To punish an innocent baby because he is an emotional strain on his mother or others is wicked. It is the man who committed the sin against the woman who is guilty, and who should be punished to the fullest proper extent of the law.
A third common objection is that abortion should be allowed if the pregnancy is harming the health of the mother. Here it is critical to define terms. Note that concern for the mother’s health is a consideration in only 6% of reported cases. This argument is almost exclusively advanced to protect abortion for other reasons. Also, “health” is an ambiguous word. It should not be used to refer to psychological state, emotional state, or to the physical inconvenience of pregnancy and motherhood; none of these cases are biblically justifiable grounds for shedding innocent blood. Legitimate emergency situations in which 1) a decision must be made between the life of a mother and the life of her baby or 2) the life of the baby cannot be salvaged, as in an ectopic pregnancy, are categorically different from the abortion debate. Anyone with serious concerns over these two situations would be interested in distinguishing these cases from abortion. Proponents of abortion who do not differentiate emergencies from personal preferences betray that their priority is the latter and not the former.
The fourth objection presents a dichotomy for advocates of life to answer: “Is it better to abort a child or to subject that child to poverty, abuse, and a broken foster care system?” This, of course, is a false alternative when considering abortion as a whole; there are many situations that do not fit that restrictive choice. Remember also that life and death are God’s prerogative. According to 1 Samuel 2:6, “The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.” Governments have delegated authority to take life, but with established limits. Humans do not have the authority from God to evaluate the future and choose whether people live or die accordingly. Remember also that God often places people into difficult situations for His own purposes. Daniel, for example, was seized from his family, permanently removed from his homeland, and castrated. Would it have been better for his parents to kill him in utero so he didn’t have to undergo those trials? Humans are not wise enough to make such determinations; the Lord does not give us the authority to make them.
The final objection is deeply rooted in unbelief of Scripture and the gospel. It assumes that choices like abortion are personal, and so government and personal religious faith cannot restrict them. However, God has not made the world this way. After all, the basic function of government is to restrict choices. The civil authority’s responsibility is to use the tool of the sword to discriminate between what is good and evil so the first can be rewarded and the second can be punished (Romans 13:4). Governments are accountable to God to execute justice in this manner (Romans 13:1). Christians likewise cannot leave the matter of abortion alone for two reasons. One is that Christian influence reminds civil rulers of their responsibility to God in Christ, like Paul did in Acts 24:24-25. The other reason is that Jesus Christ commands us to not only love God, but to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). The baby at risk, and the mother making the final decision, are both our neighbors. It is our responsibility to love them by turning them away from abortion, which is a wicked act before God, but which can also be forgiven in Christ.
The above article was written by Jonathan Kyser. He is a pastoral assistant at NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.
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