ABORTION
24 Apr 2020
Rev J Djan
ABORTION by definition is the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.
Conception happens when the male sperm comes in contact with the female egg in the fallopian tube and fertilizes it. The resulting substance is the zygote and later called embryo .
In the zygote is the complete genetic information of the person and his or her sex: XY chromosomes for male and XX chromosomes for female.
The next stage is implantation which is when the embryo then travels from the fallopian tube into the uterus to find a comfortable spot to stay and this is then called pregnancy. In the uterus the baby stays for gestation
Gestation is process of the embryo also known as the fetus, staying in the uterus for development until delivery.
The embryo will depend on the mother during the gestation period but will not need nor use any additional gene from the mother.
The Conflict.
The Pro-Choice also known as Pro-abortion movement makes the following claims :
The right to terminate the pregnancy at any time belongs to the mother;
Based on the inconveniences that a mother may go through to have an unwanted baby it is evil for anyone to deny the mother that right or the choice to abort the baby in the womb. But don’t use the word kill they say.
The baby in the womb has no right.
In American politics this is a major issue in every election period since Roe v Wade ( Jan/23/1973) the pro-choice group and the Democrat party believe a woman has the right to her body may abort her baby anytime until birth whiles the pro-life and Republican Party are on the opposite side believing that life begins at conception and must be protected.
The Pro-life also known as the Anti-Abortion movement claims: The termination of the pregnancy also termed abortion is in fact murdering of a person. That the child has a right to life and must be protected
That it is morally wrong.
The Argument of Pro-Choice:
1. Personhood: The embryo is not a person. It is a tissue. It is subhuman, It lacks communication capabilities . It is dependent on the mother,
2. Autonomy of the mother: That the option of having or aborting a baby is the mother’s prerogative for the embryo is part of the mother’s body and it is her privacy.
3. Dependency: The embryo depends on the mother
4. Psychological issues. The emotion of pregnancy from rape. Scandalous event-The pregnancy with another man’s wife, a vip, from incest, etc. undesired pregnancy from a consensual sex.
5. Inconvenience . Undesirable pregnancy from consensual sex - A youth just got a scholarship to go to Harvard and can’t afford to have a baby; financial issues, Father does not want a baby.
6. Abortion is the Law of the land and it includes Health Issues. Unwanted weight gain, birth marks, moods, or mother’s life at risk.
7. Quality of life: Handicapped child imposes burden on not only parents but society as well (Margaret Sanger wants mentally and physically challenged babies aborted)
8. Not sure when life begins in the womb.
Pro- Life Argument.
The pro-life defines personhood by essentialistic view.
Pregnancy begins at conception and to abort it is an act of murdering an innocent child.
Personhood is not determined by function. If the embryo is not communicating nor moving it does not mean it is not a person. One could be in comma for years and still rise up.
The fetus or embryo has the complete essence of personhood . This means it is essentially a person and it exists as a person whiles developing in the womb until birth. Before something can develop it must first exist. Existence precedes development. A 3 year old baby is no less a person than a 54 year old.
Life is not determined by size. The life of a small baby is equal to the life of a big adult.
Personal sovereignty: The Privacy and autonomy of the mother is canceled out by the autonomy and the individual sovereignty of the child.
Ones life is not another’s privacy. The DNA of of a child is different from the mother’s .
The child is wired differently and thinks differently . The child has its own personal or individual sovereignty. Dependency does not negate sovereignty
EVALUATION: PERSONHOOD
What is in the womb at conception, a human being - a person or sub-human, a tissue.
Pro-Choice says the substance is a tissue and not a person because it does not communicate nor display other characteristics of personhood such as rationality and self consciousness,
This argument is flawed for the reason that communication does not determine personhood.
A person in a deep sleep, coma or on anesthesia in that sense could be buried as dead.
A person may not have a high level of rationality. We have among us many mentally handicapped people who are loved and productive in society today.
Science according to Web MD shows that at the very moment when the sperm and the egg come together the resulting fetus or zygote contains the complete genetic information of a person. This means the essence of personhood is in the fetus . The essence of personhood is the complete qualification as a person and does not need any additional gene from the mother. From that moment to birth ( gestation period) is the development of the baby.
Existence precedes development. Development is contingent upon existence; in other words a material substance must necessarily exist before it can develop.
Size, race or color are accidents and thus do not determine personhood. A three year old baby is not considered less of a person than a thirty, and in the same way all races are equal in personhood.
On communications, pro-choice advocates seem to dismiss personhood because the baby is in womb and does not communicate to the outside world. Here again life or personhood is not determined by location. A person living on the 16th floor is not considered more in personhood than the one in the basement neither is a person in America considered more of a person than the one in a Third World country.
Response to Argument from- AUTONOMY OF THE MOTHER.
Problems with the Pro-choice claim of mother’s autonomy over the baby.
(1) the rejection of the biblical truth and the existence of God or His moral code.
(2) the claim of privacy with appeal to 5th and 14th Amendment in reference to the Substanstive due process - a clause which bars government intrusion beyond certain limits into a person’s privacy. Because it is the Law of man does not make it right. Moral law is divinely sourced and is universal and has consequences
The Privacy and autonomy of the mother is canceled out by the autonomy and the individual sovereignty of the child.
Ones life is not another’s privacy. The DNA of of a child is different from the mother’s .
The child is wired differently and thinks differently . The child has its own personal or individual sovereignty. Dependency does not negate sovereignty
Anytime man claims autonomy on moral issues he is denying the sovereignty of God.
The abortionist knows that the word of God opposes her actions. To combat the guilty conscience of sin she may chose to deny the existence of God or the biblical prohibition of abortion.
Abortionists will deliberately then challenge the presuppositions of the existence of God or the hermeneutic justification of the scriptures cited by anti-abortionists in order to deny their conscience
Some Abortionists who believe in God and the Bible also cite biblical verses including the following.
(1) Genesis 2:7 (KJV) "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
They argue that the baby in the womb is not breathing and is therefore not a living soul until after birth.
These claims are false.
Modern ultrasound medical devices prove that the baby breathes in the womb. Depending on some means to breathe does not necessarily mean that one is not alive. Respirators are used daily by men in and outside hospitals by grown ups and children alike.
(2)
Ecclesiastes 6:3 (ESV) If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
Ecclesiastes 6:5 (KJV) Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
Some pro abortionists erroneously infer from these scriptures that the baby in the womb is not alive because they are still born and have not seen the sun nor known anything.
This defies common sense and scripture. Still born baby is not a normal situation because no one is expecting that. In fact people are alarmed by it. It actually proves that the babies in the womb breathe and that is why people are naturally expecting babies to be alive at birth.
The scripture here does not even say all babies are still born.
".. not seen the sun or know anything" does not prove death. A person in coma for about a year indoors is not a dead body. Living organisms have knowledge in their own way. Babies in the womb respond to stimuli and environment.
Matthew 26:24 (KJV) The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.
Pro-choice proponents claim this verse to mean that one becomes human only after birth because Jesus would have used the word ‘conceived’ instead of ‘born’
This kind of interpretation reads into the Bible what is not written nor implied.
It does not say here that the unborn is not human. Neither does it imply it.
Jesus used this to mean that men are held in accountability of knowing right and wrong after birth.
Paul talks about the innocence of Jacob and Esau in the womb.
Romans 9:11 (KJV) (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
In all cultures there are somewhat ontological categories of age of accountability, age of consent and age of juvenile delinquency. Jesus in his discourse was implying that age accountability follows at sometime after birth.
The doctrine of depravity of man and the Original Sin is understood in the federalistic (Rom 5:12-14) and traducianistic ( Gen 1:26 with Gen 5:3) sense and does not contradict Rom 9:11
To know further one can look at other scriptures that contradict their claims.
Jeremiah 1:5 (KJV)
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
The Bible calls the unborn with human designation ‘babe’ or ‘child’. Babies move, the baby John leapt in his mother’s womb. A breathless person does not leap.
Luke 1:41 (KJV)
And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
The Bible refers to the unborn as a child
Matthew 1:18 (KJV) Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Matthew 1:23 (KJV) Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Response to Argument from -DEPENDENCY:
Pro- choice claims the the baby depends on the mother and therefore is the mother’s body.
This claim is also false.
Science proves that the genetic code of the baby is different from the mother and that the baby is wired to think or reason differently. This concept is used by sociologists to treat children differently. Teachers have observed that all the children in the class do not learn in the same way.
Dependency on another does not negate personhood. All humans depend on one another.
Charles Malik says:
"The truth, if you want to hear it bluntly and from the start, is that independence is both a reality and a myth, and that part of its reality is precisely its myth."
Humans depend on other organisms through antibiotics and vaccinations to survive diseases.
Children depend on their parents for life support
Sick people depend on others for some support
The handicapped depends on others for support
In all the above non is considered non-person because of their dependency on others for life support.
Response to Arguments from-PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES.
Pro-choice need to be taken seriously when it appeals to emotional realities. It can happen to anyone for a minor mistake or an accident to lead to pregnancy. Emotions are natural to all humans and must not be dismissed by naivety. Who feels it knows it. Many lives have been wrecked by emotions with some leading to depression and suicide.
From the disappointment of a good teen who just got a scholarship to a prestigious college, to the scandalous outcome of pregnancy with a high status person, role model or the fearful consequence of pregnancy with a married man, a minor, a close relative or the honest stress of financial stringency; one cannot ignore the justification of empathy to such victims.
However the empathy must also be weighed in contrast to the taking of the life of a helpless child trying to hang on for dear life as it wiggles away from the cannula, curette and forceps about to crush its skull and tear it limbs into pieces unto death. Emotions can be healed overtime but the dead cannot come back. If the unborn were not a person there would be know moral check nor conscientious guilt on the perpetrators.
So the question is why is there a guilt? When morality is violated, conscientious guilt is contingent.
The reason for this is that morality is not a social construct nor instinct it is transcendent. Man would naturally not want to obey morals because it did not come from him. It is from above. It is from the very one from whom he hid himself in the Garden.
To escape such guilt one might try to override the conscience with false reasoning that the fetus is only a tissue. But if it were a tissue then why would people for generations be obsessed about its riddance. Why would it be considered a moral issue and not rather treated among the daily trivialities like riddance of other tissues such as skin, finger nails or hairs?
God will accept the admitting repentant offender over the one who tries to hide his sins by trying to deny the truth of God.
Proverbs 28:13 (KJV) He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Response to Arguments from-INCONVENIENCE.
Is another person’s life at the mercy of the convenience of another.?
Can I take my neighbor’s life because it is not to my convenience?
Response from the Argument from-APPEAL TO THE LAW AND HEALTH ISSUES.
This claim is erroneously based on the presupposition that law is always right.
On this day Jan/23/ 2019 America commemorates 46th year of Roe v Wade (Jan/23/1973):
NY Legalizes Abortion up to Moment of Birth, Defines Person as Someone ‘Who Has Been Born’
Supporters of Reproductive Health Act (RHA S240 in the Senate and A21 in the Assembly ) claim it merely seeks to update New York’s laws to make them consistent with Roe v. Wade. This claim is false," the New York group said. "The changes this bill would make instead would authorize abortion through all nine months, for any reason, with no restrictions, up until birth, and even after birth if a child is born during the course of an abortion (i.e. infanticide)."
https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/ny-legalizes-abortion-up-to-moment-of-birth-defines-person-as-someone-who-has-been-born.html
When mother’s life is in danger no one restrains abortion.
However the current abortion law in America regarding health issues to include anything minor health issue , non life threatening as little as cold, birth marks, emotional stress is ridiculous.
The current bill passed by Democrat controlled NY State Assembly and Senate now defines a person as "Someone who has been born"
This proposition is not supported by science nor sound philosophy. It is a tyrannical politics of ambition buttressed by a billion dollar abortion industry.
Not because something is lawful does it make it right. Human laws are not always right. Slavery was once the Law of this land. Totalitarians have made cruel laws to kill hundreds of millions of innocent people. The 1857 Dred Scott Decision reduced the black man to a property and History is repeating itself today as the unborn is relegated to a thing at the capricious disposal of the ‘owner’.
Response to Arguments from-QUALITY OF LIFE.
Pro-choice excuses to abort the unborn on grounds of quality of life.
In what sense is the semantic of the word ‘life’?
Life as animate existence is either is or not. One is alive or dead.
Life as a condition of existence can be qualified in a continuum from worst to best and life to death yet at no point is suicide nor murder encouraged. A healthy rich man may have a more miserable life than a physically or mentally handicapped person. Should that rich man be killed because his quality of life has deteriorated? Do we sit down and watch him commit suicide?
Response to Arguments from--ENSOULMENT-ORIGIN AND ENTRY OF THE SOUL
Pro-choice advocates argue that we don’t know when the soul joins the body therefore we do not know when life begins in the womb.
Response: 1. If you cannot distinguish your family from among the group with your enemies, will you shoot through the crowd? Will you throw the baby out with the bath wa
Kwame A
As christians how do we convince the atheist of the epistemological authority of the ontology of the soul?
Martin H.
This material has given me better understanding of the abortion debate
