July 13, 2022

Is God Pro-Choice? | A Biblical View of Abortion

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Abortion.

One of the biggest issues and controversies of our time right now, especially with the overturning of Roe v Wade just a few weeks ago. A lot of people have a lot of different opinions and views on this issue, but many Christians are wondering what their stance should be according to the Bible.

[Clip from Pastor Mike Thomas]: But if I can rock your theological noodle, I submit to you that my Bible teaches me that God is pro-choice also.

In this video, we are going to unpack what the Bible actually says about abortion, verses and facts that you can use to support your view, and what your stance as a Christ-follower should be.

Let’s get into it.

Abortion and the Bible

Now, the Bible doesn’t specifically say anything about the procedure of abortion because abortion didn’t exist when the Bible was written. However, we can draw principles from Bible verses about things like conception, fetal development, and God’s knowledge in order to properly understand what God’s stance is on this issue of abortion.

Now the thing is about this topic is that really at its core, the issue is about where a human life starts. It’s worth noting that there is a very wide range of opinions on this topic. Not all people who are pro-choice believe that you should be able to abort all the way up to the point of birth. Most people believe that you should be able to abort up to a certain week or to a certain point in the process because it is at that point that they believe the fetus becomes a life or an actual human being.

So really what this conversation is about is at what point, from the beginning point of conception to birth does a fetus actually become a human or a life?

People who identify as pro-life would say that life begins at conception. This is when the fetus is first conceived at the point of the sperm cell and egg cell actually meeting and forming a zygote. However, pro-choice people believe that life does not begin at conception, but rather at some point along the way, all the way up to the point of birth.

This is really important to get because the conversation is actually about when does a human life begin? You get a lot of people who are just running around saying, “Oh, you can’t kill babies,” but in fact, the people who they are trying to reach don’t actually believe that they are babies at that point in time.

So, the question is, at what point do the clump of cells become a human life? Because at that point, we can’t terminate the life, otherwise it’s murder. After all, the definition of murder is the termination of life. So, at what point does the clump of cells become a life? That’s the question we need to answer.

What Does the Bible Say About Abortion?

So, what does the Bible say about this?

Psalm 139:13 and 16 says this:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
Psalm 139:13, 16

Here we see in Psalms that God knows us even before we are a formed substance. It says, when I was an unformed substance, you knew me; God knew me. And so even when we are just, as pro-choicers claim, a clump of cells, God knows us – God knows who we are.

This seems to me that even before we take on the form of a human baby, God knows us and He values us as a human life. Keep in mind that already at week 6 in the pregnancy process, the heart and the organs are already starting to form. If, on average, according to Google, women find out that they are pregnant between the 5 and 7 week mark of their pregnancy – even if a woman finds out then, the heart and the organs are already beginning to form. And the Bible says that even before we start forming, God knows us and God values us as a human life.

In Jeremiah 1:5, it says:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Psalm 139:13, 16

So it seems to me that according to the Bible, even before we are formed, even before any parts of us actually form into something that can look like a baby or an organ or anything like that, God knows us, He has a plan for us, and He already values us as a human life. Therefore, terminating that life, terminating that fetus according to the Scriptures, would be considered murder.

Now, on a larger scale with this topic of abortion, we also have to see that God says very clearly in His Word that babies and children are a thing to be desired. They’re a blessing, they’re a thing that brings joy and blessing to our lives. We also have to note that God even says that He works everything for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. So even in terrible cases where people get pregnant by sexual assault or by incest or whatever the case may be, God still has a plan for them, God still loves them, and God has a plan for that kid, whether they planned to have them or not.

When we take all of this into consideration, even though the Bible doesn’t explicitly mention the procedure of abortion, we can pretty much come to the conclusion that God is against this procedure.

God values human life and He loves us even before we are formed in the womb.

Other Facts About Abortion to Consider

Now, let’s take a step away from the Bible and also consider some of the facts that come into this situation.

See, most people on the pro-choice side aren’t necessarily Christian or religious, and so you can’t just use the Bible when you’re trying to debate this issue with them. So let’s look at some facts that also play into this topic.

See, oftentimes when people argue for the case of abortion in support of the procedure being legal and widely available, they use cases like rape, incest, or cases where the mother’s life is put in danger because of the baby to support their stance.

They say things like, “How could you ever let a woman carry a baby that they never even wanted or that was forced upon them?” Now, this is a fair thing to ask, but let’s look at the statistics to see how valid of a point this is.

In 2004, the Guttmacher Institute surveyed over 1,200 women who had abortions as to the reason why they had the procedure done. 957 different women provided a reason for the procedure.

Of those women, less than 0.5% were a victim of rape.
Only 3% reported fetal health problems.
Only 4% had any issues with their physical and psychological health being affected by the child.
The other 92.5% of the women that had abortions reported that they did it for other reasons like social and economic reasons, such as:
– I’m not ready to have a baby
– I’m not mature enough to have a baby
– I can’t afford a baby
– Etc.

To get even newer statistics, in the year 2020, Florida recorded a reason for every single abortion that was had in the state. In Florida, in the year 2020, there were almost 75,000 abortions performed in the state.

Of these 75,000 abortions, less than 0.01% were due to incest.
Less than 0.15% were due to rape.
In 20% of these cases, the mother cited either social or economic reasons for having the abortion.
In 75% of the cases, they didn’t even give a reason at all as to why they were having an abortion.

Statistics also show that 45% of women who get an abortion have actually had one previously.

So, if you bring all of this together, statistically speaking, if I look at these stats and really get a reason as to why these abortions are happening, people are having sex, they’re creating a child, and they’re not wanting to deal with the consequences afterwards.

Most of these reasons that women are citing as to why they’re having abortions is because the child would be an inconvenience on their life. Now, in a world that is full of information about safe sex, contraceptives, and all of that stuff, I don’t even feel like there is a valid excuse as to why someone can go and have sex and then claim that they didn’t know that they would have a baby afterwards or that they didn’t understand the consequences of their actions.

Instead, it seems to me that people are going and doing what they want, they’re going and having sex with people that they’re not married to and that they don’t intend to be in a relationship with. Even though they don’t want to have a child, they do the thing that creates a child, then they don’t want to deal with the consequences afterwards and the abortion is an easy way out.

Let’s be honest, this is pretty standard for humanity, right? Humanity enjoys doing things that they know they probably shouldn’t do, and then they don’t like to deal with the consequences afterwards.

Now, I’m not saying that all abortions are this cut and dry. But I am saying that statistically speaking, most women get an abortion because they’ve done the deed and they don’t want to deal with the child that has resulted from it.

What Should Your Stance on Abortion Be as a Christ-Follower?

So, what should your stance be as a Christ-follower?

Well, first of all, you should stand up for life. God values life and He values life in the womb, even before the child is even formed and their organs are starting to form. God sees that as a life and He values that. Therefore, we should value that as well.

Children are not something to be thrown away as an inconvenience. Instead, we need to stand up for the lives of the unborn and stand up for life as Christ-followers.

However, we should also make an effort to stand up with and support those who are in these situations, meaning that they have children that they weren’t expecting, they’re unable to provide with these kids – we should stand with these people, love them, and support them so that they don’t have to consider the option of abortion.

Even while standing up for life, we have to recognize that someone in this situation is not having a fun time. It is not an easy situation or an easy process to go through. There’s emotional damage, there’s physical damage, and we should be the ones as followers of Christ to love them and to support them and show them that there’s a better way. There’s another option.

We should also be doing all that we can to support and stand up for adoption causes and other things that provide other alternatives instead of women having more abortions.

As followers of Christ, we cannot only point out the problem, we also must be part of the solution.