whats wrong with abortion?

[peep]

don't flame me. I've never been educated on this subject before. What is wrong with abortion? So I can choose which side to pick. yeah I know hwat your thinking...how could I possibly don't know what wrong with abortion? Well, if your raised in a pro-abortion family, and never seen the other side it is entirely possible.

[Era Might]

[quote]Brother kills brother. Like the first fratricide, every murder is a violation of the "spiritual" kinship uniting mankind in one great family, in which all share the same fundamental good: equal personal dignity. Not infrequently the kinship "of flesh and blood" is also violated; for example when threats to life arise within the relationship between parents and children, such as happens in abortion or when, in the wider context of family or kinship, euthanasia is encouraged or practised.

...

To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34).

--Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter "[url="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html"][u]Evangelium Vitae[/u][/url]"[/quote]

[peep]

Intfacide? I never thought of it that. Your right, those babies never got to choose. One man can't have the right to decide weither another will live or die. Pondering that. hmm...

...being raised around a pro-abortion peepz, I always thought:

It controlled the overpopulation crisis
Fetuses are not real people


please argue against me. I want to know what u guys think about that.

[Era Might]

Think about that phrase, "not real people". Are they fake people? If they're not human, what are they? Dogs? Pigs? Spiders? And if they're not alive, are they dead?

At the moment of conception, a new, living human entity comes into existence, with its own set of DNA, and which directs its own growth inside of the womb until it comes out. "Personhood" has nothing to do with medicine. It's not a doctor's job to make determinations about "personhood". From the moment of conception, a new human life is in existence, and to deliberately take innocent human life is murder. That human life is also a person from the moment of conception, but that's a separate question entirely, and is not necessary to understand why abortion is wrong and evil.

Also, the idea of "overpopulation" is a myth. The fact of the matter is that the western world is aborting and contracepting itself into extinction.

[quote]Another present-day phenomenon, frequently used to justify threats and attacks against life, is the demographic question. This question arises in different ways in different parts of the world. In the rich and developed countries there is a disturbing decline or collapse of the birthrate. The poorer countries, on the other hand, generally have a high rate of population growth, difficult to sustain in the context of low economic and social development, and especially where there is extreme underdevelopment. In the face of over- population in the poorer countries, instead of forms of global intervention at the international level-serious family and social policies, programmes of cultural development and of fair production and distribution of resources-anti-birth policies continue to be enacted.

Contraception, sterilization and abortion are certainly part of the reason why in some cases there is a sharp decline in the birthrate. It is not difficult to be tempted to use the same methods and attacks against life also where there is a situation of "demographic explosion".

The Pharaoh of old, haunted by the presence and increase of the children of Israel, submitted them to every kind of oppression and ordered that every male child born of the Hebrew women was to be killed (cf. Ex 1:7-22). Today not a few of the powerful of the earth act in the same way. They too are haunted by the current demographic growth, and fear that the most prolific and poorest peoples represent a threat for the well-being and peace of their own countries. Consequently, rather than wishing to face and solve these serious problems with respect for the dignity of individuals and families and for every person's inviolable right to life, they prefer to promote and impose by whatever means a massive programme of birth control. Even the economic help which they would be ready to give is unjustly made conditional on the acceptance of an anti-birth policy.

--Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter "[url="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html"][u]Evangelium Vitae[/u][/url]"[/quote]

[Jaime]

[quote]whats wrong with aborotion? [/quote]

Well for starters, its spelled wrong.


And what Era said

[zunshynn]

Yeah... I think Era Might pretty much covered it.

[annehladik]

[quote name='peep' post='1055996' date='Sep 3 2006, 11:42 AM']

...being raised around a pro-abortion peepz, I always thought:

It controlled the overpopulation crisis
Fetuses are not real people
please argue against me. I want to know what u guys think about that.
[/quote]
The term "fetus" is used specifically to avoid calling an unborn child a "baby," or even worse to pro-abortion types, a "person." Life begins at the moment of conception. The pro-abortion lobby is currently trying to get the definition of pregnancy changed to the time of implantation, which is already about 5 days after fertilization and the creation of a new life, with distinct DNA from either of the two individuals that created it, and which will soon grow into a visibly distinct body.

If you are Catholic, then you know very well that we acknowledge that life does indeed begin at the moment of conception. Therefore, as abortion is the killing of a distinct human life, it is murder.

Abortion has its roots in eugenics. Read a little bit on Margaret Sanger from a source other than Planned Parenthood. The purpose of abortion and contraception in general is not to control "overpopulation," it is to prevent the birth of children that elitist eugenicists consider undesirable. Have you not noticed that abortion clinics are always located in the inner cities, in areas mostly populated by minorities?

Many pro-abortion women want to whine that "it's my body, and I can do what I want with it." However in their self-centeredness, they fail to realize that the body growing inside theirs does not belong to them. It is the body of a distinct person.

And so what if a child below a certain gestational age cannot live outside of its mother? A newly-born child cannot exist on its own. It must be fed and clothed and protected. So what prevents us from performing "fourth trimester abortions?" If to kill a defenseless person intentionally is murder, then it is also murder to intentionally kill a defenseless person that just so happens to be growing inside its mother.

If you consider yourself Catholic, then I very much encourage you to talk to a priest. Others around you have misinformed you.

Edited September 3, 2006 by CameBackHome

[cmotherofpirl]

A baby is a baby no matter how little it starts, just as an acorn is always an oak tree.
We don't start out not-human then magically switch somewhere along the line.
The baby is a distinct human being with different DNA, already programmed to grow up to be a teenager asking for car keys, they do NOT deserve to be chopped to pieces then pulled from their mothers body.

Once you are pregnant, your responsibilty is to the life you are raising as well as your own. The sins of the parents should never equal the murder of a child.

[zunshynn]

Actually Diane Feinstein thinks it's a baby "when the mother wants it to be a baby" or "when the baby comes home from the hospital."

Plus, alot of people say that abortion should be ok because the baby depends on the mother. But so do infants, and we would be appalled if anybody suggested killing a baby that's been born. (although some pro-abortion advocates think that's just dandy too.) But there is no difference between a baby that is unborn and a baby that is born except for size and development and location.

And people will say... but if she was raped, etc.... but as horrendous as rape is, you can't condone killing an innocent human being to "make up for it." That won't make up for it anyway. If the mother conceived through rape (which is actually quite rare because trauma throws off one's cycle.) then the rapist should be punished. There are like 1.5 families that are hoping to adopt for every child that is aborted. But instead, the rapist often gets off scotch free and the child is the one punished.

"Life of the mother" excuses are also rare. It is FAR safer to have a baby then subject oneself to an abortion. Because having a baby is natural... a woman's body is designed for that. Having a baby ripped from a woman's womb midway through pregnancy is not natural, and as such it is an immediate and longterm danger.

And pro-abortion doctors know that the "life of the mother" clause in Roe v. Wade is easy to manipulate. Because EVERY pregnancy has some risk, so it's easy for her "doctor" to say, well it's good to terminate the pregancy for the health of the mother. No matter how little the mother is actually in danger.

[annehladik]

[quote name='zunshynn' post='1056010' date='Sep 3 2006, 12:54 PM']
And people will say... but if she was raped, etc.... but as horrendous as rape is, you can't condone killing an innocent human being to "make up for it." That won't make up for it anyway. If the mother conceived through rape (which is actually quite rare because trauma throws off one's cycle.) then the rapist should be punished. There are like 1.5 families that are hoping to adopt for every child that is aborted. But instead, the rapist often gets off scotch free and the child is the one punished.

"Life of the mother" excuses are also rare. It is FAR safer to have a baby then subject oneself to an abortion. Because having a baby is natural... a woman's body is designed for that. Having a baby ripped from a woman's womb midway through pregnancy is not natural, and as such it is an immediate and longterm danger.
[/quote]
The excuses used most often as justification for abortion, that of conception through rape or incest and that of the pregnancy being a health danger to the mother are actually the two of the most infrequent actual causes of abortion. However these are the excuses that generate the most empathy, which is why they are spouted off far more frequently then they actually occur. The vast majority of abortions are performed simply because a women decided to be selfish and destroy a child that she created out of her lust.

[Catherine]

One other reason why abortion is wrong (besides all the very well explained points other people made) is that it can emotionally and in some cases physically hurt the mother. Despite what some people say the guilt and trauma people can go through after having an abortion can be very great. I do not think it is our choice as humans to decide who can live and who can die. I am very glad to hear that you are asking this question Peep. It's very interesting to see somebody who never really heard both sides of the story (or two different opinions).

[homeschoolmom]

A person's a person no matter how small.

[Resurrexi]

haha, I remember that book. That's a good point, tho.

[Sinner]

When Does Life Begin : The Bible

*The unborn are always called babies in Scripture : "And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the [b]babe[/b] leaped in her womb..." Luke 1:41, also "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.." Jer. 1:5. Contrast that with the abortionist view that an unborn child is just a tissue mass.

*The unborn are created of God, they are not a 'cosmic accident' : "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.." Psalm 139:13-14.

*The unborn life is protected by the same punishment for harm as the living, there is no debate about whether a fetus is a human being in the Bible : "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." Exodus 21:22-24.

*The unborn are called by God : "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace..." Galatians 1:15

[b]Why Is Abortion Wrong ?[/b]

It is the taking of innocent life

It breaks the Golden Rule

It is contrary to human life

It is rooted in selfishness.

[goldenchild17]

[quote name='peep' post='1055996' date='Sep 3 2006, 10:42 AM']
Intfacide? I never thought of it that. Your right, those babies never got to choose. One man can't have the right to decide weither another will live or die. Pondering that. hmm...

...being raised around a pro-abortion peepz, I always thought:

It controlled the overpopulation crisis
Fetuses are not real people
please argue against me. I want to know what u guys think about that.
[/quote]


If your Christian, this from a purely Scripture POV (am working on a secular defense right now as well but won't be done any time soon):

Psalms 127:3-5 [color="blue"] “Children too are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children born in one's youth. Blessed are they whose quivers are full. They will never be shamed contending with foes at the gate.” [/color]


The issue of abortion is one that has plagued our world for many years now. The Roman Catholic Church has always stood completely against this heinous practice. Many people, even those who condemn abortion, believe that the Bible is silent on this issue. I would like to approach this and examine whether or not abortion is addressed in Scripture.

Some promoters of abortion believe that conception is not the beginning of the life of a human being. What is conception? The Bible views it as the start of something. Conception and birth are paired together multiple times.

Examples: Genesis 4:1 [color="blue"] “The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she [b]conceived and bore[/b] Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.’" [/color]

Genesis 29:32 [color="blue"] “Leah [b]conceived and bore[/b] a son, and she named him Reuben; for she said, "It means, 'The LORD saw my misery; now my husband will love me.'" [/color]

Genesis 38:3-4 [color="blue"] “She [b]conceived and bore[/b] a son, whom she named Er. Again she conceived and bore a son, whom she named Onan.” [/color]

Those are just three passages that speak about this action of conceiving and bearing. There are many more passages just like it, but what do they signify? The first thing we see is that conceiving is considered the first action, the beginning of the process of making a human being. This is reinforced by Hosea 9:11 which says [color="blue"] “The glory of Ephraim flies away like a bird: [b]no birth, no carrying in the womb, no conception[/b]. Were they to bear children, I would slay the darlings of their womb.” [/color]

No birth, no carrying in the womb, no conception. This is kind of a backwards way of looking at it, but we see that conception is the first thing that occurs in the biological creation of people.

The second thing we notice in the passages that speak about conceiving and bearing is that it is spoken about as one action. Both conceiving and bearing a child seem to be as one. So, it seems to me that the people who make a distinction between killing a baby inside the womb and killing the baby outside of the womb are mistaken. They believe that conception is not really of the same process as birth. To them, it is okay to kill a human being inside the mother because the baby is not yet a human being. Yet in the Scriptures we see that Eve “conceived” Cain, Leah and the other woman “conceived” sons. They didn’t conceive the potential of a son. No they conceived the real thing, the real flesh, blood and soul of their sons. It is interesting that in Scripture, the same Hebrew words are used to describe both the children still in the womb and humans that are born into the world. One example is the word “geber”. This word means “man, strong man, “warrior”, yet in Job 3:3 this same word is used to describe a “man-child” who was just conceived. Another word is “yeled” which means “child, son, boy, offspring, youth”. However, in Genesis 21:22-25(we’ll discuss this passage in a bit) this word is used to describe a child inside the womb. Finally, “brephos” is a Greek word that refers to a “an unborn child, embryo, a foetus, a new-born child, an infant, a babe”. This word is very explicit. It shows us that in the Greek an unborn child, an embryo, a fetus are the exact same as a new-born child, an infant, a baby! This shows us that the people believed the unborn child and the born child are the same. They used the same exact words to describe both types of children. There was no distinction among them. Why do we now try to separate the two?

So we see that conception is viewed in Scripture as the beginning of life. Conception and birth are considered as one action. Cain was born. Cain was also conceived. You and I were born, you and I were also conceived, not a bundle of cells that would one day turn into a human. This is what we will explore now.

Genesis 1:27 says that God created man in His image, [color="blue"] “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.” [/color]

Genesis 3 relates the story of how Adam and Eve sinned. This sin has been passed down from person to person throughout all of time, Romans 5:12 [color="blue"] “Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned.” [/color]

We are all made in the image and likeness of God, and we have all inherited Adam’s sin. But when does this occur? At birth? Sometime later? Or could it be that it happens at conception? I propose the latter option. We know that Seth, Adam’s son, was begotten in the image and likeness of God, Genesis 5:1-3 [color="blue"] “This is the record of the descendants of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God; he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and named them ‘man.’ Adam was one hundred and thirty years old when he [b]begot[/b] a son in his likeness, after his image; and he named him Seth.” [/color]

God only directly created one person out of nothing. That was Adam. He took a rib from Adam and made Eve. Yet He forms each and every one of us at conception. It is at conception that we have received our DNA, or the genetic make-up which determines who we are(not who we will become). Nothing new is created in us from nothing after conception. Conception is the beginning of our growth. It is logical to assume that this is when we received the image and likeness of God as well. Otherwise, when would we receive it?

Regarding our sinful nature Scripture tells us that we receive it at conception, and that we are sinners while still inside the womb.

Psalms 51:7 [color="blue"] “True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me.” [/color]

Psalms 58:4 [color="blue"] “The wicked have been corrupt since birth; liars from the womb, they have gone astray.” [/color]

If we are just a bundle of cells, then how are we “sinful” or “corrupt”? How can a non-person have a moral nature? This is very strong evidence that the fetus is indeed a human person, just like the rest of us and deserves the same protection from the law which prohibits murder.

If we have received the image and likeness of God from our parents, when did this occur? Logically it began when we began, that is to say, when we were conceived. After all, Scripture tells us that the soul of a man is what keeps him alive. Without the soul, the flesh cannot live.

At the creation of man, God breathed life into the physical body, Genesis 2:7 [color="blue"] “the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.” [/color]

This breath of life is the soul. Without it the physical body cannot live and grow, James 2:26 [color="blue"] “For just as a body without a spirit is dead . . . ” [/color] and Job 34:14-15 [color="blue"] “If he were to take back his spirit to himself, withdraw to himself his breath, All flesh would perish together, and man would return to the dust.” [/color]

We know that the fetus is alive and growing and that it has a separate DNA chain than it’s mother. This much is obvious regardless of whether or not you believe that it is a human being. But, yet, James and Job here tells us that the body cannot live if it does not have a soul. What does this tell us? It means that if the fetus is alive, then he/she must also have a soul! God makes man in His image and likeness. He gives us our spiritual nature right from the very beginning. How much more human can we get? Both our moral nature and our sinful nature are there present along with our physical nature. This constitutes our whole being. The fetus growing inside the womb of the mother is a growing human person!

Although God created only one man(Adam) out of absolutely nothing, He is nevertheless deeply involved in the making of each and every one of us. When a woman conceives a child it is God’s will.

Genesis 21:1-2 [color="blue"] “The LORD took note of Sarah as he had said he would; he did for her as he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time that God had stated.” [/color]

Genesis 29:31 [color="blue"] “When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, he made her fruitful, while Rachel remained barren. [/color]

Genesis 30:22-24 [color="blue"] “Then God remembered Rachel; he heard her prayer and made her fruitful. She conceived and bore a son, and she said, ‘God has removed my disgrace.’ So she named him Joseph, meaning, [b]‘May the LORD add another son to this one for me!’[/b]” [/color]

Job 31:15 [color="blue"] “Did not he who made me in the womb make him? Did not the same One fashion us before our birth?” [/color]

Psalms 139:13-16 [color="blue"] “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew; my bones were not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth. Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.” [/color]
Jeremiah 1:4-5 [color="blue"] “The word of the LORD came to me thus: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” [/color]

These are a few of several passages which speak of how God is personally involved in the conception of children. The part in the Genesis 30 passage which is bolded is important. Rachel acknowledges that it is the Lord that has given her a child. We must also realize that when a pregnancy occurs, it is because God wills it. Why would we go against God’s will and destroy the child He has given?

Galatians 1:15 [color="blue"] “But when (God), who from my mother's womb had set me apart and called me through his grace . . .” [/color]
This passage in Galatians, as well as the passages cited above from Psalms and Jeremiah, shows us how important God views the unborn child to be. Our time in the womb is a crucial step in our development. God has set us apart, from the womb, and it is then that God has given us our mission in life. While in the womb, we are not simply a collection of cells. No! We are God’s children set apart for the mission to which He has called us.

Look at the passages in Psalms and Jeremiah again. See how the authors spoke of themselves in the womb with personal pronouns: “Did not he who made [b]me[/b] in the womb . . .” “You formed [b]my[/b] inmost being; you knit [b]me[/b] in [b]my[/b] mother's womb . . .”. They saw themselves in the womb as themselves! They did not see themselves as inanimate cells. They realized that it was really them inside the womb, the same person that they are as adults.

In Scripture, conception and child-birth are considered a great blessing and honor. It is not a curse, or a problem that needs to be fixed. Children are a blessing from God.

Genesis 1:22 [color="blue"] “and God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth.’" [/color]

Genesis 49:25-26 [color="blue"] “The God of your father, who helps you, God Almighty, who blesses you, With the blessings of the heavens above, the blessings of the abyss that crouches below, [b]The blessings of breasts and womb[/b], the blessings of fresh grain and blossoms, The blessings of the everlasting mountains, the delights of the eternal hills.” [/color]

Deuteronomy 7:14 “[b]You will be blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be childless nor shall your livestock be barren.[/b]”

Psalms 127:3-5 [color="blue"] “Children too are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children born in one's youth. Blessed are they whose quivers are full. They will never be shamed contending with foes at the gate.” [/color]

God [b]blesses[/b] man with children. Yet, we destroy these blessings, millions of them. What does God think about the way we treat His gifts to us? How can we be such ungrateful people? Conversely, see how Scripture views the death of the unborn as a horrible curse.

Hosea 9:9, 11-12, 14 [color="blue"] “They have sunk to the depths of corruption, as in the days of Gibeah; He shall remember their iniquity and punish their sins . . . The glory of Ephraim flies away like a bird: no birth, no carrying in the womb, no conception. Were they to bear children, I would slay the darlings of their womb. Even though they bring up their children, I will make them childless, till not one is left. Woe to them when I turn away from them! . . . Give them, O LORD! give them what? Give them an unfruitful womb, and dry breasts!” [/color]

Infertility was considered a curse. How much more cursed are the people who purposely kill the children that God has given to them?

In closing I would like to take a look at Exodus 21:22-25 and then at some tough situations that many people believe would justify an abortion.

Exodus 21:22-25 [color="blue"] “When men have a fight and hurt a pregnant woman, [b]so that she suffers a miscarriage[/b], but [b]no further[/b] injury, the guilty one shall be fined as much as the woman's husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges. But if injury ensues, 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.” [/color]

This translation does indeed seem to show a problem for the pro-life stance. The bolded parts are what I’d like to focus on. The passage seems to say that if the woman suffers a miscarriage (baby dies) but nothing more happens then the penalty would not be as serious. But if the mother dies then “life for life, eye for eye . . .”. However, this seems to be a bad translation of the passage. In the bolded part above it says that the woman suffers a miscarriage. The Hebrew word for “miscarriage” was “shakol”. This word, “shakol” is used only two chapters later in Exodus 23:26 [color="blue"] “no woman in your land will be barren or miscarry; and I will give you a full span of life.” [/color] (sidenote: see the context of this verse. It is part of a blessing for worshipping God alone. Child conception is not a curse). The word “shakol”, Hebrew for “miscarriage” is used only two chapters later. Yet it is not used in Exodus 21:22. Instead, the word used here is “Yatsa’”. “Yatsa’ ” means “to go out, come out, exit, go forth”. With the word “shakol” used in the Hebrew language at the time to mean “miscarriage” it is highly unlikely that this passage is referring to the baby’s death. If it were, then the much more explicit “shakol” would’ve been used. Since the word “Yatsa’ ” is used in this passage, and since “Yatsa’ ” simply means “to go out . . .” it is quite possible that the passage is really speaking about a premature birth. If this is so, then the passage would make much more sense. If the baby does not die, then there is no need to enforce the law that requires “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life” because there is no death.

The second part to address is the word “further”. The passage says “but no [b]further[/b] injury”. On the other hand, when you look up this passage in the original Hebrew language, it contains no word for further. See, there are three words in the Hebrew used for “further”. These words are “yowther”, “yacaph”, and “puwq”. Not one of them is used in Exodus 21:22-25. Making these observations it seems as if the passage would read more accurately as [color="blue"] “When men have a fight and hurt a pregnant woman, [b]so that she gives birth prematurely[/b], but [b]no[/b] injury, the guilty one shall be fined as much as the woman's husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges. But if injury ensues, 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.” [/color]


This makes much more sense. If someone hurts a woman and she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury(to the mother or the child), then there is only a fine. But if injury occurs(to the mother or the child) then the law is carried out that the oppressor must give “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life”. In this understanding we see that the passage is in no way speaking of the infant’s life as less important than that of the mother’s, and how fitting this is in context with the rest of Scripture.

What about cases in which the child has a physical or mental handicap of some sort? Wouldn’t it be a merciful act to abort them, so they do not have to suffer the pain and humiliation of going through life? And besides it would be too hard on the economy to support them, so aborting them is the right decision… or is it?

Exodus 4:11 [color="blue"] “The LORD said to him, "Who gives one man speech and makes another deaf and dumb? Or who gives sight to one and makes another blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” [/color]

As we saw earlier in this study, God is actively involved in our biological development. God makes those who are deaf and blind and dumb. Are they any less human because of this? Do they not still made in the image and likeness of God at conception? Are they not conceived with a sinful nature? Of course they are, and since this is so, they have a moral nature which gives them their personhood just like you and me.

The Mosaic covenant directed that the handicapped be protected, and not slandered.

Leviticus 19:14 [color="blue"] “You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.” [/color]

Deuteronomy 27:18 [color="blue"] “‘Cursed be he who misleads a blind man on his way!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'” [/color]

And those who do not do so are cursed, Ezekiel 34:2,4 [color="blue"] “Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel . . . You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.” [/color]

Take our Lord Jesus Christ as a great example of how we should treat the handicapped. He took great pains to heal these people. In fact a great part of the gospels contains such stories of his miraculous healings.

Matthew 11:4-5 [color="blue"] “Jesus said to them in reply, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them’.” [/color]

Various examples of Jesus healing the handicapped are found in John 5:1-9, Mark 2:1-12, John 9:1-7. These are just three of the many accounts of Jesus healing a handicapped person. Why does He do this? Matthew 14:14 [color="blue"] “When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.” [/color] It is because He is moved to do so. His heart was moved with pity for them. How exactly opposite this is to today’s culture in which such children are brutally destroyed because people do not want to take care of them. Christ came with these people in mind. He was anointed to help these children of His.

Luke 4:16-21 [color="blue"] “He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.’ Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, ‘Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.’” [/color]

Does a handicapped body part make us less of a person? Of course not.

1 Corinthians 12:21-25 [color="blue"] “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.” [/color]

Those parts of the body which may be less presentable because of a handicap are given all the more honor. These parts that seem useless are all the more necessary to us. Why then do we destroy whole persons because of these defective body parts?

I could continue in giving example after example, but the point is made that Christ came to take care of the handicapped. He did not see these children as a burden, but as a blessing. We must see this too. Instead of destroying them in the most horrific ways when we think they are too much trouble, we must care for them, just as Christ did, and still does.

How about the poor? Don’t families who are too poor to raise children have a right to abort a child who would just be another hungry mouth to feed? No. Even this is no exception.

Again, there are ample amounts of Scripture to answer this. Matthew 25:31-46 gives us the strongest language in describing our relationship with the poor. This passage speaks of how we are to be judged based on how we treat the poor: do we feed them or give them drink? If we treat them well we will be saved, if not we are damned. For [color="blue"] “what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.” [/color] (Matt. 25:45). What will happen to people who advocate killing babies of poor families? Could we not instead encourage the poor family to have their child, and then provide them with enough food and water to survive? Could we not do this and have God look favorable upon us at the judgment? This seems to be a far better option.

There are many other aspects that we could look at that would further strengthen the Biblical support that abortion is wrong. Maybe one day I will go into this further. I hope that one will read this with an open mind towards life and know that the commandment, [color="blue"] "You shall not kill.” [/color] (Exodus 20:13) refers to all living human beings, whether outside the womb, or inside. The infants inside their mother’s are people with a soul and with a moral and sinful nature just like you and me. Amen.