Is abortion moral? It’s rather telling when one side of the moral debate wants to ignore the most important question – what is being killed? – and focus on the will of the mother instead. It’s equally telling when that same side invents a host of euphemisms to obfuscate the issue including “women’s health, reproductive rights, choice, and termination of pregnancy.” When people avoid the main issue and use euphemisms to hide the truth of their actions from the public, you can pretty much bet that those people are on the wrong side of that issue.
May 11, 2021
The tells of the abortion debate
Posted by Jason Dulle under Abortion, Apologetics, Bioethics[3] Comments
Thinking to Believe 
May 19, 2021 at 7:56 am
“When people avoid the main issue and use euphemisms to hide the truth of their actions from the public, you can pretty much bet that those people are on the wrong side of that issue.”
This the exact same thing that occurs to people, post-birth. Essentially humanity has not risen enough on the civilization plane to condemn killing and eliminate homicide.
So if society continues to kill the born who are living and walking and working and loving among us what chance do yo9u think you will have in preventing death to the unborn? NONE.
When mankind stops justifying death of the living as in the case of the current deaths at the local level; i.e., Andrew Brown, Jr. District Attorney Andrew Womble said Brown’s shooting death, “while tragic,” was “justified due to his actions.”
That as an example at the local level, we are repulsed by. Now take a wider level look at humanity in action with the continued bombing and killing innocent living people by the Israeli bombardment in Gaza and Hamas in Israel with each side justifying their death machine by blaming the other side.
If you think that you will raise the cause for the sanctity of life to a level that actually protects the unborn from abortion, first raise the cause of the sanctity of life for the born humans already thriving and living among us. Because if you don’t start there and remain at the lowest level humanity can on the civilized scale, that is, killing fellow human beings post-birth among us, at the current level, you’ll have as much chance of success preventing abortion as a snowball’s chance of un-melt at ground zero on the equator.
You need to become water against the fire of death to make it happen for the born and unborn alike.
It’s always the glass is half empty or half full question so for starters what is the best mantra to walk, march, wheelchair on behalf of; or, is the choice choices a distinction without a difference?
You can have a protest march AGAINST death(and wouldn’t that be all death?); or, you can have an enlightenment parade FOR the Sanctity of Life.(and wouldn’t that be for all life?)
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May 21, 2021 at 5:28 pm
to the delusional fools like derekmathias that argue God allows abortion so abortions are okay in every instance —— it’s context, context, context.
the death of the unborn child/abortion occurs because —– the woman is stoned and burned with fire. so if a woman’s birth control fails and she wants an abortion —– if she’s okay with being stoned and burnt with fire, im okay with her getting an abortion.
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May 24, 2021 at 2:04 pm
“It’s rather telling when one side of the moral debate wants to ignore the most important question – what is being killed? – and focus on the will of the mother instead.”
It’s actually about the woman’s RIGHTS, not her will. And those rights are an issue of dependence on someone, not about someone being killed. You can’t force someone to give blood, even to save a life. But there’s a lot more nuance to the issue, so here’s my assessment of the topic:
The abortion issue can be a struggle for believers and nonbelievers alike, and it all hinges on the definition of “human life” and when it begins. Unfortunately, the term isn’t well defined, since clearly human sperm and ova are both human and alive, but nobody seriously considers them “human life.” Good thing, too, because otherwise women NOT becoming pregnant every time they ovulate would be tantamount to murder. And men having wet dreams or masturbating would be even worse, since there are often hundreds of MILLIONS of sperm cells in each ejaculation. Even sex with the intention of pregnancy results in the deaths of all but one sperm, in most cases. So clearly sex cells don’t hold much value.
So when does human life begin? Many people—not just many Christians—claim it begins at conception. Well, although that is indeed when one’s genetic structure is determined, the difference between two individual sex cells with HALF the genes each, and a fertilized egg with ALL the genes, is almost insignificant—like the difference between a zipper that is open vs. one that is closed. Both sex cells and fertilized eggs are single cells with the POTENTIAL to become human beings, but possessing NONE of the features and capacity we use to identify humans. So claiming that two sex cells coming together suddenly makes them human makes about as much sense as claiming that someone who eats a banana is eating a banana tree.
On the other end of the spectrum, nobody in our culture would consider a born baby to be anything other than a fully human life, so killing a baby would definitely be murder. That means “human life” is something that happens between conception and birth. Is it when the egg travels down the fallopian tube and implants in the uterus? Is it when the circulatory system forms? Or perhaps when the organs start to develop? How about the appearance of external human features? Or when the senses begin developing? Or when the fetus can feel pain? The thing is, a human life isn’t a singular moment…it’s a gradual process. At each stage of development the fetus becomes increasingly human, and that’s why there are many differing opinions on when “human life” actually begins. Because of this ambiguity, disagreements are inevitable. Those who believe that life begins at conception tend to consider that deliberately ending a pregnancy at any stage of the process is murder, while those who believe it is unreasonable to impose one’s own beliefs on when human life begins tend to believe the decision should be left up to the mother or both parents.
But for those who insist that life begins at conception, there are a few ethical factors to consider—like the fact that half of all fertilized eggs never become implanted anyway, often due to controllable factors such as a woman being underweight. So if human life begins at conception, should fertile women be forced to maintain ideal implantation weight? Or take drugs to ensure implantation? Interestingly, some popular forms of birth control also prevent conception from even occurring, which results in fewer failed implantations of fertilized eggs than using no birth control.
Some people support abortion only in the case of rape or incest, but if discarding an embryo that is the result of rape isn’t murder, then doing the same thing for an embryo that is the result of a consensual relationship isn’t murder either. Similarly, few people have problems with discarding embryos that were fertilized in-vitro, and if that isn’t murder then discarding embryos that were fertilized through sex isn’t murder either. In all these cases, there are no differences between the embryos.
Another thing to think about is that even most people who believe life begins at conception would object to forcing a person to give blood against his or her will, even if it would mean saving someone else’s life. In fact we have legal “bodily integrity” protections preventing forced blood donation—it’s even illegal to use the organs of dead people to save lives unless they are registered organ donors. So what is the justification for forcing a woman to essentially give blood to a fetus against her will?
For guidance on this issue, Christians will of course turn to the Bible. The problem is that even though abortion has existed since at least as far back as 1550 BC, the Bible says NOTHING against it.
Curiously, hundreds of millions of today’s Christians have divorced and remarried, even though Jesus CONDEMNED such behavior:
• Matthew 19:9 “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery,”
• Mark 10:11-12 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery,”
• Luke 16:18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Yet many of those same Christians consider abortion to be an atrocity, even though Jesus said nothing against it. However, apologists will often claim that certain passages in the Bible IMPLY that abortion is wrong, such as:
• Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
The problem with this claim is that an all-knowing God would by definition know EVERYONE before he even created the universe, so the passage doesn’t really imply personhood while in the womb.
• Exodus 21:22-25 If people are fighting and 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. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
The thing is, fetuses don’t have teeth, and it would be virtually impossible to burn a fetus without killing the mother. Thus the passage only makes sense if it refers to the WOMAN’S injury, not the fetus’s.
Apologists often use this passage to imply that a fetus is considered a baby:
• Luke 1:44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
But ancient Hebrew had no separate word for “fetus,” so they used the same term they had for “baby.” Also, it’s not unusual for the Bible to use terms prematurely. For instance:
• Genesis 25:23 The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be separated.”
Here God used the term “nations” to refer to fetuses that clearly hadn’t yet become a nation’s population.
So is there anything in the Bible that can be used to infer whether abortion is considered morally acceptable? Well, for starters there is some evidence that life DOESN’T begin at conception. For instance, Adam wasn’t considered a “living soul” until God put the breath of life into him, implying that a person isn’t fully human until taking his first breath:
• Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
And when a widowed woman was discovered to be three months pregnant, she was accused of being a prostitute and ordered put to death WITHOUT waiting for the baby to be born:
• Genesis 38:24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.” Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”
Indeed, it’s not only fetuses that are not treated as human lives in the Bible, but born babies less than one month old are also assigned NO value and they are NOT counted as a person on a census at all:
• Leviticus 27:3-7 “Set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel; for a female, set her value at thirty shekels; for a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels; FOR A PERSON BETWEEN ONE MONTH AND FIVE YEARS, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a female at three shekels of silver; for a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels.”
• Numbers 3:15 “Number the sons of Levi by their fathers’ households, by their families; every male FROM A MONTH OLD AND UPWARD you shall number.” So Moses numbered them according to the word of the LORD, just as he had been commanded.
In both cases, the only children who evidently matter are those one month of age and older.
But probably the most convincing evidence that the Bible considers abortion morally acceptable is that God TEACHES priests to use abortion as a form of punishment for infidelity:
• Numbers 5:24-27 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her … he is to have the woman drink the water. If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: WHEN SHE IS MADE TO DRINK THE WATER THAT BRINGS A CURSE AND CAUSES BITTER SUFFERING, IT WILL ENTER HER, HER ABDOMEN WILL SWELL AND HER WOMB WILL MISCARRY, and she will become a curse.
Furthermore, because Christianity shares basically the same Old Testament books as Judaism, Hebrew texts can shed light on early Christian beliefs. According to the Babylonian Talmud, which is a rabbinical discussion of the meaning of the first five books of the Old Testament, the early embryo is not considered human life:
• Yevamot 69b If she is pregnant, until forty days from conception the fetus is merely water. It is not yet considered a living being.
More directly, abortions are acceptable if the mother’s life is in danger. And the fetus isn’t even considered a person until it is half-way emerged from its mother:
• Ohalot 7:6 (ah-he-lot) If a woman is having trouble giving birth, they cut up the child in her womb and brings it forth limb by limb, because her life comes before the life of the child. But if the greater part has come out, one may not touch it, for one may not set aside one person’s life for that of another.
Since Christians follow the same God and the same Old Testament books as the scholars, those passages shouldn’t be ignored. Either way, though, the claim that abortion is anti-Christian really isn’t warranted.
As an interesting side note, when Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, many Christian denominations SUPPORTED abortion rights…until Republicans made it a political issue. Even now, most people, INCLUDING most Christians, are pro-choice. In fact, Christians obtain 70% of abortions. The sad truth is, most Christian conservatives who consider themselves “pro-life” are really just pro-BIRTH, since they generally don’t support programs to make birth control easily available, to reduce child poverty, or to provide child care, nor do they typically support the elimination of the death penalty (THAT would be pro-life). Instead they support “abstinence only” education, which has proven to be a resounding failure.
Some of my references:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_biblh.htm
https://www.livescience.com/54774-fetal-pain-anesthesia.html
https://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/conception_how_it_works/
https://www.babycenter.com/fetal-development-week-by-week
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2017/04/when_does_life_begin_outside_the_christian_right_the_answer_is_over_time.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/when-did-abortion-begin-721090
http://learn.conservativeyeshiva.org/ohalot-7-6-htm/
http://billmoyers.com/2014/07/17/when-southern-baptists-were-pro-choice/
http://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/
https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/views-about-abortion/
http://www.christianpost.com/news/70-of-women-who-get-abortions-identify-as-christians-survey-finds-150937/
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/08/23/545289168/abstinence-education-is-ineffective-and-unethical-report-argues
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2019/05/that-georgia-heartbeat-bill-is-worse-than-you-think.html
http://time.com/5589993/alabama-abortion-law-history/
https://time.com/5603194/denied-abortions-physical-health/
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2019/09/28/episode-17-what-does-the-bible-say-about-abortion/
https://time.com/5783257/donald-trump-pro-life-evangelical-voters/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-happens-to-women-who-cant-get-abortions_n_5e30bedec5b693878a8822e6
https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/06/06/pro-life-activist-i-care-more-about-fetuses-than-the-death-of-george-floyd/
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-study-that-debunks-most-anti-abortion-arguments
Economic consequences of being denied an abortion: https://www.nber.org/papers/w26662
Further considerations:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2019/05/that-georgia-heartbeat-bill-is-worse-than-you-think.html
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2019/05/the-anti-abortion-movements-split-personality.html
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexamined/2020/10/6-flaws-in-the-pro-life-position-that-pro-lifers-must-stop-ignoring-abortion-pro-choice/
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexamined/2020/10/most-u-s-abortions-are-due-to-pro-life-movement-pro-choice-trump/
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexamined/2020/11/abortion-does-the-bible-say-when-life-begins/
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