This is an argument I wrote some time on this issue.

Ok I have decided to write in response to a sermon

about abortion given at my church last Sunday. The

preacher was one who occasionally speaks on

some issues. He is a young doctor who tried to

tackle the issue with an emotional/rational mixture

which worked for some of the audience but it did

not work for me.

His main argument was that we shouldn’t have the

right to decide whether or not a child dies even in

probability cases or in the utilitarian case. His main

verses that he used to describe his point is with

these verses

Jeremiah 1:5

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..."

Psalm 139:13

"For Thou didst form my inward parts, Thou didst

knit me together in my mother's womb."

Exodus 21:22

"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and

she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious

injury, the offender must be fined whatever the

woman's husband demands and the court allows.”

He points out that God knew us all before birth and

knows all of our days. He states that even in

horrible circumstances a child should not be

aborted, however he does give one exception and

that is of ectopic pregnancies where it is likely that

both the mother and child will both die. He states

that we as Christians should do our very best to

help the woman in question and help her in a

supportive and non judgemental way.

Now my issue is that I believe in a much more

moderate and rational case and I do not believe in a

one sided case against abortion. I believe in the

probability/Utilitarian method and believe that the

bible corroborates this point.

To start off with I’d like to mention that I dislike the

use of the Psalms as evidence as they are usually

poetry and are highly emotional and should not be

used as a method for basing our life. For example

these counter quotes are also found in the Psalms

"The wicked go astray from the womb, they err from

their birth, speaking lies. They have venom like the

venom of a serpent. ... Let them vanish like water

that runs away, like grass let them be trodden down

and wither. Let them be like the snail which

dissolves into slime, like the untimely birth that

never sees the sun." (Psalms 58:3-8)

"O daughter of Babylon, you devastator! Happy

shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes

them against the rock!" (Psalms 137:8)

So I would prefer to not use the Psalms, albeit a lot

of the bible is emotional in nature. Now the next

issue is by the fact that he stated that life began at

conception, however this is not biblically sound.

The bible states in many places that breathing is a

factor of life, which foetuses do no do. Here are

some quotes

"...breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and

man became a living being."(Genesis 2:7)

"Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you

shall live." (Ezekiel 37:5)

There is even further mention of when life is

considered valuable

(Moses talking about conducting a census) "...all

the first-born males of the people of Israel, from a

month old and upward..." (Numbers 3:40)

(Moses talking about the value of a human) "If the

person is from a month old up to five years old,

your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of

silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three

shekels of silver." (Leviticus 27:6)

Now my position which is a probability based view,

taking into account the possible life the child will

have is also taken into account where to die an

untimely death is better than life in some

circumstances

"Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day

when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!

Cursed be the man who brought the news to my

father, 'A son is born to you', making him very glad.

Let that man be like the cities which the Lord

overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the

morning and an alarm at noon, because he did not

kill me in the womb; so my mother would have

been my grave, and her womb for ever great. Why

did I come forth from the womb to see toil and

sorrow, and spend my days in shame?" (Jeremiah

20:14-18)

"If a man begets a hundred children, and lives many

years, so that the days of his years are many, but

he does not enjoy life's good things, and also has

no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better off

than he. For it comes into vanity and goes into

darkness, and in darkness its name is covered;

moreover it has not seen the sun or known

anything; yet it finds rest rather than he."

(Ecclesiastes 6:3-5)

"Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth, as

infants that never see the light? There the wicked

cease from troubling, and there the weary are at

rest. There the prisoners are at ease together; they

hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and

the great are there, and the slave is free from his

master." (Job 3:16-19)

Now the next point is that unborn children go the

heaven, as they were innocent

"Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor

shall sons be put to death for their fathers;

everyone shall be put to death for his own sins

(Deuteronomy 24:16)

"The person who sins will die. The son will not bear

the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the

father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity;

the righteousness of the righteous will be upon

himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be

upon

Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this

that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for

the child, while it was alive; but when the child was

dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said,

While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I

said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to

me, that the child may live? But now he is dead,

wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back

again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to

me. (2 Samuel 12:21-23)

"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and

become like children, you shall not enter the

kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3)

So there are no iniquities for an unborn child and

the innocent children go to heaven. Now for his

point about being knitted together in the womb and

being “known”. To me I see this as being in favour

of my position as God would know whether or not

the child would be aborted. If he really wanted the

child to live he would have manipulated things to

send the right people into her life to assist her. It

also doesn’t account for miscarriages; as if he

wanted them to live he would have carried them

through to the full term. Thus I must assume that

all of these occurrences have a specific purpose

and could help to move the person onto a new path

as God wills. Also to note is the fact that he makes

the distinction of ectopic pregnancies. The issue I

have with this is the lack of consistency, there in

nothing in the bible that makes this distinction and

if one cannot abort in the high probability of a bad

existence because it limits God’s will then why

should this be any different? This is merely the

same issue where probability comes into effect and

one can choose to either abide by the possibility of

God’s divine intervention or suffer the alternative,

so why is his example any more acceptable? One

cannot break with consistency if you are

maintaining the hardline view.

So in summary what I have found is that abortions

are ok biblically speaking, and that in probability

based cases where there is a likely chance of it

being a birth in a broken or unloving family, or

being born into a hopeless situation where they are

likely to never truly know God and go to hell it is

better to let them go to heaven right then.

I would make the distinction though that I believe

abortion clinics should not have “revolving doors”

and that if it is a situation where neither the child

nor mother is in danger and the expected life for the

child has significant hope in it, then an abortion is

not needed and would be nothing more than selfish

negligence.

What do you guys think?