I want to touch on a sensitive topic that most people avoid. Abortion. What does the Bible say about abortion? Obviously there is nowhere in the Bible where it mentions abortion specifically, but it is very clear on the subject of life within the womb.

It is my understanding that there are pretty much three different stances in regards to abortion.

1. All abortion is okay, it is just a clump of cells and does not hold significance until its first breath.
2. Abortion is a bad thing, but there are certain circumstances in which it is okay. Such as rape, potential disability, or potential harm to either mother or baby.
3. Abortion is bad, there is no circumstance to justify it being okay.

2 Timothy 4:3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.  

Riddle me this: 

There’s a woman who becomes pregnant unintentionally. She does not want that baby but decides to keep it regardless because she believes abortion to not be the right choice for her. Yet when it comes time to give birth, complications arrive and the baby dies.

Keeping in mind that she initially did not want that pregnancy, is this a sad occurrence or a convenient happenstance? 

What makes the difference? What constitutes the death of an infant to be good versus bad? Some may say it is good because she did not want the baby so therefore that justifies the death. Whereas others say it is sad because a baby died whether it was wanted or not.

To those who say it is a convenient happenstance here is my question, should we then halt the foster and adoption system in the world today and rather kill those children off because they are not wanted?

So what constitutes the difference between killing an infant to be okay, and killing a five year old when both are unwanted?

Some may say it is because the five year old has a whole life to experience and it would be wrong to short them of that potential. But doesn’t the infant have even more reason to live? They’ve never experienced anything this life has to offer, so they should be granted even more life than the five year, because the five year old has experienced some life, right?

Is it not okay to kill the five year old in the foster system because maybe one day someone will adopt her? Wouldn’t the same case be true for the infant? If we place that infant in foster care maybe one day someone will love them? 

Someone make it make sense to me! I understand how the world can justify it because they see life as pointless and meaningless and make the best of an accident. But Christians justifying abortion does not comprehend in my brain unless they are truly not Christians and just rather looking for the status. Because someone who claims to be a Christian should have the knowledge that everyone is a sinner and Christ came to pay for the consequences of our sin, and by confessing our sins, turning from our ways, and seeking God, we are saved. Saved. Meaning protected from the consequences of our sin. We are no longer at the expense of this world. Rather a Christians life has a purpose, to seek God. In seeking God you must recognize His authority and grace. You must recognize that God created this world and everyone in it. You must recognize that life has a meaning and purpose. So as a Christian how can you sit there and tell me a baby that is not wanted has no purpose or meaning and therefore is an inconvenience and should be destroyed? You cannot be a Christian and sit in forgiveness by the blood of Christ, and condemn someone to die for their sin of inconvenience. I guarantee you did way worse sins than inconveniencing your parents. 

Does that mean the one time you made your family late for an event and your parents whispered “it was way easier before we had kids” that now your parents have the right to kill you on the spot because you created an inconvenience? No, because they still wanted you? Oh but I assure you in that moment they did not so there in that moment you are unwanted and an inconvenience so you should just die. That’s utterly ridiculous, right? So how can you justify that just because a baby has yet to be born. I guess we can’t even use that anymore because you can now legally kill a baby up to so many days AFTER they have been born in my state. 

So a mother is sleeping, or rather trying to, because her new born baby just days after being born, refuses to sleep. The baby is crying all night and all day, the mother gets fed up and so angry she just slits it’s throat and throws it into the trash. That’s okay right? Well she didn’t want the baby and it was an inconvenience and it was disrupting her sleep which was disrupting her work life and affecting her career, so therefore she is justified in killing that baby. Oh, it’s murder you say? She should be sent to jail for life? How come? It’s no different than when the baby was not yet born and was disrupting her sleep and career so she decides to go to a clinic to get it slit open and thrown in the trash. 

Where is the proverbial line in the sand? It’s either right or it’s wrong. There is no; murder is only okay, when… situation. Murder is murder is murder, you can either believe murder is okay all the time or it is wrong all the time. Otherwise there is no purpose to wrong or right. If there is no purpose to wrong or right then there is no purpose to laws or a legal system. There is no purpose to school, there is no purpose to religion. There is only chaos. I can walk into Elon Musk’s mansion and say it’s mine and no one can stop me because there is no wrong. Or is there only wrong or right when it conveniences you? What if your wrong is right to me through convenience? You see there has to be a moral compass of right and wrong and it has to be pure and unwavering, otherwise there is no point. If a compass only points north when it wants to it is useless. 

I heard the argument the other day that a child isn’t human until they are an adult and can reason and that makes abortion okay. Excuse me?! A kid isn’t a different species just because their prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed. That’s not how that works. 

With that all being said let’s take a deeper look at the different ideologies of abortion and how the Bible addresses them. 

The first stance on abortion says there is no life or significance before birth. But the bible says in “Psa 139:13-17 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!”

“[Job 31:15 ] 15 Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” 

God takes his time and affection to form every one of us, wanted or unwanted, Christian or not Christian, Rapist or upstanding citizen, every single person was hand knitted by God. He even chose to show just how special and unique we are by giving us our own fingerprint to show that no one is identical. He specifically chose that baby to be conceived. It may have been through unfortunate circumstances, and that is very sad, but God knew what He wanted for that baby’s life, although the child may choose to not follow that path as they grow up. 

If you haven’t studied what happens at conception, I seriously recommend looking it up. The very conception is a miracle. Thousands of sperm try to get through the iron gates of an egg wall and only one sperm will be accepted. After that, there is a literal “spark of life” as the sperm and egg join together. It is called the spark of life because the abundance of zinc sends a flash of light as they join. The next step is the egg finding a spot to land in the hard uterine wall. 

Once it has implanted, growth can begin. As the baby is growing there are multiple milestones it hits in its formation. The first and most important is the heartbeat, which starts beating within the first couple weeks. By the fifth week of pregnancy the baby’s nervous system has started to develop, which means the baby can feel pain. By three months, the baby is fully developed and the only thing left to do is get bigger and stronger. (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/7247-fetal-development-stages-of-growth) 

An abortion at any stage of development would be a very painful and traumatic experience for a baby. I recently got into a debate with a fellow Christian on abortion and they were using scripture to support that life does not begin until the first breath is taken. The scripture they used was; “[Genesis 2:7 ] “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” I can only tell you that based on the scripture I have read, and the scientific studies I have read, a baby is very much alive before they take their first breath. Mainly due to the scientifically proven fact that the heart starts beating at around 3-5 weeks into development.

If the heart beat does not mean the baby is alive and only breathing outside the womb does, then all aquatic animals are not alive because they breath air differently than humans. You see where the logic gets skewed?

The argument “my body, my choice” doesn’t hold any water in this situation because it isn’t even your body. It is someone else’s. The DNA of an unborn baby is completely different from the DNA of the mother. That baby is a separate entity being housed within the body of the mother. The mother is simply the vessel. There is a living human inside of her and you cannot take that life without suffering consequences later.

The second stance for abortion is that abortion should be avoided if it can be but there are some instances where it would be too traumatic to carry the baby to term. I believe that God has a plan for our lives, no matter the circumstances of conception, pregnancy, or early life of that baby. 

God tells the people of Israel in Jeremiah “[Jeremiah 29:11 ] For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” If God can create an entire universe, don’t you think he would have some kind of power over that universe?

He strategically plans each conception. Meaning God chose for that baby to be conceived. If a woman is raped and conceives a child from that incident, God still has a plan for that baby’s life. It isn’t that baby’s fault that a man decided to do something horrible. The baby should not be punished for it.

If a baby is predicted to die at some point during pregnancy or early life due to a deformity or a condition, Don’t you think God can still use that baby? Maybe that baby was the key to curing that condition? Maybe God was going to perform a miracle in order to bring someone to salvation?

This is also the absolute most discriminatory argument I’ve ever heard. What happened to being inclusive and standing up for the rights of disabled people? Or does that only apply when it’s convenient or makes you look like a good person? Saying someone should be allowed to kill their child because they have the potential to be “not perfect” is weak and offensive. What about me? Should I have been killed because I’m hard of hearing and have to work twice as hard as everyone else to fit in and live a normal life? Does my life not have value because I’m less than perfect? 

I have the privilege to know several people with disabilities or with Autism and my heart breaks to think that those beautiful souls would have been advocated to be killed before they had the chance to live life. They are some of the smartest kids I know and their passion and attentiveness far outweighs many of the “normal” kids I know. It’s crazy to me to think that someone would say they deserve to die because they are different. It hurts me to think of the selfishness of some people.

I praise the Lord that my mother had a strong stance against abortion and a grounded faith to believe in the power of God because had she listened to the advice of her doctors, I would not be alive. Due to many complications with my mothers pregnancy with me, the doctors advised her to abort me because I would likely not make it to full term. But here I am living my life, totally healthy and alive despite the doctor’s predictions. This is why abortion is so near a subject to my heart.

But what if the mother experiences life threatening complications? God can perform a miracle! I can guarantee you that the baby can still be loved and cared for, God still has a plan. “[Rom 8:28] 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” If you abort a baby, you are only cheating God out of his potential for that baby and even it’s mother’s life. 

My grandmother had polio as a child and ended up paralyzed for a number of years and never fully regained full control and use of her muscles. Consequently the doctors told her that having children would be life threatening. Praise the Lord she had the faith to believe in an all powerful God and have two children despite the warnings. Each time she became pregnant the doctors tried to get her to terminate. But she had the faith that God would take care of her and her babies. Because of that decision, she saved the lives of 11 people directly.

What about ectopic pregnancies? Let’s start by defining an ectopic pregnancy; “A pregnancy in which the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus.

The fertilized egg can’t survive outside the uterus. If left to grow, it may damage nearby organs and cause life-threatening loss of blood” (Mayo Clinic). So let’s talk, first of all yes it is a fertilized egg implanting outside the uterus, meaning yes it is a baby. Second, ectopic pregnancies are almost never viable. Meaning they will not survive, due to lack of support. Third, they are very life threatening to the mother. 

Do I believe treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is abortion, no I do not. Due to the lack of resources and nutrients, ectopic pregnancies rarely ever survive, so by the time a mother gets treatment the baby has already passed. Now in the rare event that it does survive long enough to cause issues, I think in this case the best thing to do is to not do anything until life threatening symptoms occur, in which case it means the pregnancy is no longer viable and the baby is miscarrying and already dead. So treatment is necessary.

I know several women who have gone through the loss of a baby, whether through miscarriage or stillbirth, most of the time, they will tell you that their life is better off having known and loved that baby for as long or as little as they did. I know I love my baby brother even though I never got to hold him, I never got to see him smile, I never got to tease him. I only got to hold his tiny little hand before saying goodbye to him until we meet again. I love my twin baby siblings even though I never even got to see them in an ultrasound. Even though I never have the chance to see my other sibling to whom my mother lost right after me, would I say all of their lives are worthless and they were not really humans just because they were not born? Absolutely not! My baby brother had eyes and hands and feet and perfectly developed features. Just because he wasn’t full term doesn’t make him any less of a baby. My life is better knowing one day I will have 10 siblings to love on for eternity. 

Even if you do decide that abortion is a necessary situation, they can still be traumatizing and or life threatening for the mother too. Abortions can be very dangerous and cause lifelong complications. Most women who have had an abortion, regret it later or experience complications when/if they have children later on. The good news is that God is a very forgiving God, “[1Jo 1:9 ] 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Even though a woman may sin and become pregnant out of wedlock, it doesn’t justify sinning again and murdering the result of that sin out of convenience.

Maybe you personally have never had an abortion, but did you know that the morning pill and many other contraceptives cause a miscarriage should you become pregnant while taking it? It doesn’t prevent conception, it only prevents implantation. It doesn’t stop a sperm from finding an egg and fertilizing that egg, it simply hardens the uterine lining and or causes a period to occur. Consequently it causes an abortion to occur. 

As Christians we have to live a life according to Christ, that includes condemnation. We should never condemn a person for their sin, that is God’s job. We are, however, called to love them and call them out, tell them that what they are doing is harmful and that they need to change, but only in a loving way. We can encourage them to pray for forgiveness. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16” I feel so strongly about posting on this subject because I feel like we are called to encourage one another and keep each other accountable.

As Christians I feel like abortion needs to be a bigger issue for us. No one should ever overlook the death of millions because it is an uncomfortable subject, or someone might disagree. Abortion was the number one leading cause of death last year. Abortion killed more people than COVID-19 by several million lives, yet we were more concerned about that than the real threat to society. It is one of the biggest issues going on in the world right now and if Christians don’t talk about it, it will be left up to those who are not grounded in scripture to decide the fate of millions. 

With the overturning of Roe v Wade, we have made a great stride in outlawing abortion, but many people misunderstand what actually happened. Overturning Roe V Wade does not mean all abortion is illegal. It simply means that it is no longer a federal ruling but rather left up to the states to decide. It is also not all abortions, but mainly elective abortions, aka not ectopic pregnancies or rape victims.

So that brings me to the last point. I believe that abortion for any reason is never okay. Based on all of the verses I have already included as well as Deuteronomy 5:17 which says, “You must not murder.” I would say the Bible makes it quite clear that God created each life for a purpose, He set them apart and made them Holy, He chose for them to come into existence. He loves each person. Therefore to kill one of God’s beautiful creations would be a sin. It would be robbing a child out of the potential for a great and rewarding life. It is robbing God of the potential to work great things through that child and its family.