As we noted in our previous blog, abortion encompasses a broad field of subjects. It’s a very complex topic with a lot of factors to be considered. It’s also a very divisive topic because of people’s attitudes and beliefs on those factors. We look at the question: Is abortion right or wrong? Or is there a right or wrong?
We only consider here what we termed elective abortions in our prior blog, not the therapeutic. We consider the therapeutic abortion should be a given, since they are intended to preserve the existing life or health of the female.
People’s positions on abortion range from extreme pro-choice to extreme pro-life.
The pro-choice position means, in the extreme, that a woman should be allowed have an abortion at any time during her pregnancy, from conception to full term.
On the other hand, the extreme pro-life position means that any termination of a pregnancy by human or human-derived means should not be allowed nor occur. (Unfortunately, the distinction between therapeutic and elective may not be clear in this position.)
So where do the disagreements originate as to whether any abortion should be allowed or legal, not allowed or illegal, or something in between?
Let’s look at history.
Records indicate that people have had various means of carrying out abortions for many thousands of years. These may have been potions given to the female to drink or materials placed into the vagina. One report indicated that in some cases a midwife would reach into the woman’s vagina and dismember the fetus. (This could probably only occur immediately prior to a natural birth due to size limitations.) We don’t know what possible impacts on the female body or future reproductive capabilities these had, but we doubt they would have been very healthy.
Thus women practiced abortion prior to and during Jesus’ time and there is no record he ever said anything against it. If it were a major contentious issue then as it is today, it’s likely something would have been recorded.
The primary argument for the pro-choice position is that a woman should be able to control what goes on with her own body — that it’s a basic human right.
The arguments used for the pro-life position are based primarily on a religious, biblical, or Christian perspective. However, we see some problems with this.
We have read several “position papers,” “essays,” and other works claiming that abortion or terminating a fetus is against God’s law. Where is God’s law against abortion recorded? Many of these point to texts irrelevant to the issue.
Those supporting this position often quote citations from the Bible, claiming that these indicate God does not condone such behavior. We have not found any mention of human-performed abortion in the Bible. The subject of abortion is not mentioned, so where do these people get their claimed source?
Some biblical statements refer to a pregnant woman as “with child.” In their logic, those rejecting abortion use this term to indicate that the unborn is already a child. That is not true, from two significant points of view.
One is from modern scientific and medical knowledge. The fetus is different from a child. The use of the biological or medical term fetus is appropriate to make this distinction. We need to make this clear: The fetus is not — neither anatomically nor physiologically, and probably not mentally — and does not become a child until born where it can live independently outside the mother and can be supported through typical feeding and other methods.
Another is the Bible itself. In Exodus 21, a distinctly different punishment is indicated for a man causing a woman to miscarry when the woman is not killed vs when the woman is killed. There is clearly a biblical distinction between the unborn/fetus and a human life. Our understanding of Jewish law is that it also holds this view.
The Pro-life supporters may call abortion murder. But what is murder? It is the unlawful killing of a human being. But a fetus is not yet a human being — not until it is born and surviving independently as noted above. Though we have no firsthand knowledge, we’ve heard of reported “abortion” cases where a healthy baby was born alive and then killed. That would be murder. They call it infanticide.
These pro-life positions use “interpretations” of the biblical text. These people’s positions are merely a religious opinion. And religion itself is merely an opinion of events or of what is said. So you have an opinion based on another opinion which can lose any factual or realistic validity. Imposing religious opinions on society leads to a theocracy, which can have multiple other problems. How would you prevent a society which imposed one false religious opinion from imposing another?
Our greater criticism of the pro-life point of view doesn’t mean that we are totally pro-choice. We are only saying that the arguments used by pro-life people can’t be substantiated based on their religious beliefs or opinions and their incorrect biblical interpretations.
There are other things to consider.
If you were an entity having an intent to incarnate your consciousness with a material body, having spent several weeks or months in a chamber designed to get you there only to be terminated, how would you feel?
Whoever is deciding whether or not to abort does not know who that potential future person would be. It might be someone who would greatly benefit the world by making a significant contribution to people or society. Or it might not.
One question which probably should be honestly considered by any woman contemplating an abortion might be: “What if your mother chose not to have you?”
We tend to lean either way, depending on the situation.
The decision to abort or not to abort should be an individual thing, and not taken lightly. The people who want a blanket refusal of the option have likely not walked in the shoes of the person who has to make what could be a very difficult or critical decision.
Each person is responsible for their own life and behavior — what they do, and what they don’t do. Whether or not we have free will is a major topic of discussion. If we have free will, and it appears to us that we do, a woman seeking an abortion should have the option available.
Whatever decision a person makes, she will have to take responsibility for that later. Some women who made the decision to abort have suffered serious regret after having an abortion. Those who don’t have an abortion may regret having a child.
The question of human rights in dealing with one’s own body is being attacked today from both what are called the right and the left. The right wants to banish abortion for women. The left wants to force everyone to take hazardous and ineffective vaccines. Both are wrong in this regard.
There are other options to abortion if a woman is pregnant and does not want to raise a child: adoption or guardianship.
But there is no global right or wrong to abortion.