Abortion!
Abortion: The Biblical and Historical Dimensions
Reasons Given for Abortion
|
Having a baby will change my life |
76% |
|
Cannot afford a baby now |
68% |
|
Want to avoid single parenthood |
51% |
|
Unready for responsibility |
31% |
|
Don’t want others to know of pregnancy |
31% |
|
Not mature enough to have a child |
30% |
|
Foetus has a health problem |
7% |
|
Woman was victim of rape or incest |
1% |
Killing for Convenience
The historical dimension of the abortion controversy is sobering. So Moral, social and spiritually speaking, is abortion right or wrong? What does the Bible say? The Apostle Paul wrote: “But if anyone does not provide for his own [family]… he has denied the faith” (1 Timothy 5:8). Would anyone argue that a Christian can provide for a family member by killing him? Remember: one of the Ten Commandments specifically condemns murder (Exodus 20:13). In other words, even those birth control methods that induce abortion are as wrong as the act of killing an embryo already in development in the womb. To commit abortion because of the inconvenient of giving birth to an unexpected child is just as sinful as killing your elderly parents… … because they make your life difficult. 
Moses warned the Israelites not to practice the wicked customs of their Canaanite neighbours—which included infanticide—the killing of children. He instructed: “You shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire… for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods” (Deuteronomy 18:9–14; 12:31). 
In direct defiance of God’s instructions, ancient Israel had adopted barbaric pagan practices of child killing! In response, the prophet Jeremiah warned: “Also on your skirts is found the blood of the lives of the poor innocents… Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle, because they have forsaken Me… therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom [where children were sacrificed], but the Valley of Slaughter [when God uses foreign nations to punish His people for killing their own children]” (see Jeremiah 2:34; 19:3–7). These passages reveal how God views the slaughter of children, whether they are infants or unborn babies! 
Modern “ethicists” have offered arguments that an unborn foetus is less than human. This idea is not new; this though was common to many ancient pagan philosophers as well. However, this approach is clearly refuted in the Bible. God told Jeremiah: “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” (Jeremiah 1:5). An angel told Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, that John would “also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). The Bible reveals that God regards unborn babies as human beings, and that killing human infants, born or unborn, will incur the wrath of Almighty God! Our modern secular society has forgotten these powerful warnings! 
British social critic Peter Hitchens makes a similar observation, that abortion “corrupts any society which freely permits it. The idea that innocent life may be lawfully ended for the convenience of others or for the alleged good of society, once generally accepted, devastates the rule of law itself” (The Spectator, August 7, 2004). British columnist Bruce Anderson comments: “Over the last 40 years, the abortion clinic has become an indispensable part of the life-support system of the permissive society. The unrestricted enjoyment of sexual license requires not only contraception but retroactive contraception [abortion]” (The Spectator, July 17, 2004).
Finally, abortion is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murdered 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? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why one of the greatest destroyers of peace and love is abortion.