Real answers for Christians on tough questions about abortion. What are we being told by pro-abortion forces? What is the truth? What does the Bible say? What does (real) science say?
By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA
From a Christian perspective, a preborn child is a complete human person (Psalm 139:13-18). The most questioned Biblical passage on abortion (Exodus 21:22-23), when correctly interpreted, supports the personhood of the pre-born. Therefore, abortion is murder. Though Christian women have abortions, and people who claim to be Christians work at abortion clinics, there is no question that abortion is antithetical to Christianity and cannot be countenanced. To participate in abortion in any way is a grave sin.
Isn’t abortion a modern issue?
Abortion has been around for thousands of years.
“…we are not permitted, since murder has been prohibited to us once and for all, even to destroy the fetus in the womb… It makes no difference whether one destroys a life that has already been born or one that is in the process of birth.” Tertullian, Apology 9.8.
Didn’t abortion used to be legal and culturally “no big deal?”
No. Abortion has always carried a large and well deserved stigma. It was illegal but difficult to prosecute.[1]
Why do women get abortions?
According to data from the weak but highly regarded (by abortion advocates) Turnaway Study,
- Having a baby would interfere with my life (career, education, money, free time, current family, pleasures).
- I don’t think that I can afford a baby.
- I don’t want to be a single mother (having relationship problems).
- I’ve finished childbearing.
- I don’t want people to know that I had sex/became pregnant.
None of these common reasons have to do with rape, incest, fetal defects, or anything to do with the common scare tactics people use to justify abortion. They all have to do with the woman’s preferences.
Why shouldn’t we abort babies with major defects who would require expensive and emotionally traumatic care for a long time after birth?
The Lord commands compassion for the sick. He will use caring for such a child to make the caregivers more like Him. In so doing, He will bless them far beyond what they can imagine. God made these people, and we don’t have the right to kill them.
Why shouldn’t we abort babies with fatal defects?
As above, we care for them for their lives.
What about cases of rape or incest?
The sin of the father does not justify the death penalty for the child. The soul that sins must pay the price, not someone else. Christians help support the mother but do not condone killing the baby.
Why should society put women through nine months of danger and stress being pregnant when she doesn’t want the baby?
Society did not get pregnant, the woman did. In almost all cases, she has the option of whether or not to have sex and whether or not to use birth control. Society is not forcing her to do anything, but she is responsible for the natural consequences of her deeds. Society’s interest in protecting life overrides her interest in not having a baby.
Why should anyone except the woman be able to tell her what to do with her own body?
The baby’s body is inside her body, but it is not her body. The baby has a totally different genetic structure. He or she is a different person. No one has the right to kill an innocent person. Children in utero are as innocent as anyone can be.
What should a mother do if she does not want the baby?
Put the child up for adoption. Thousands of couples cannot have children and pray daily for a little one through adoption. To kill a child when they could have a “forever home” is a crime.
When does life (and personhood) begin?
At conception. There is no scientific evidence that life (or personhood) begins any later. The old standard was “quickening,” when the mother can first feel the baby move. But just because Person A cannot feel Person B move does not mean that Person B is not alive and still a person. Many people in Intensive Care Units cannot move, and this fact does not mean that they are no longer alive, or persons.
In-vitro fertilization (IVF) creates many embryos, all but one of which die in the process. Is that abortion, and should it be banned, denying parenthood to people who want a baby?
Eventually, technology will advance to the point where all the embryos can be saved. Until then, in our sinful and imperfect world, we must continue to do the most good for the most people, which means continuing IVF and saving the children that we can.
When the disciples asked about divorce, Jesus said that the Father allowed His people to divorce “because of the hardness of your hearts.” This world is fallen and people are wicked. Abortion is the unjustified death of an innocent person. But in extremely rare cases, it is the best of terrible options. IVF and saving the life of the mother are two of them.
What about when the mother’s health is in danger?
Protecting the health of one person does not require destroying the life of another.
What about when the mother’s life is in danger?
In those incredibly rare cases, which occur in our sinful and imperfect world, the question literally becomes life for life. In this case, abortion is justified.
Why do you people only care about the fetus, not the mother?
Christians have provided homes for unwed mothers, crisis pregnancy centers, food, clothing, money, health care, and a host other support to women for thousands of years. Christ followers push for legislation to help them. More than any other group, just like they did with American slavery, Christians act.
Across the country and the world, Christians do far more to help mothers and babies than any other group.
What about the father’s responsibility?
The father is responsible to support any child that he has sired. Forcing the father to marry the mother or paying child support until the child is an adult was the standard in Colonial America. It is a reasonable solution now.
What should a single pregnant woman do when her boyfriend, parents, friends, and seemingly everyone in her life pressure her to get an abortion?
The people of God, through local churches, crisis pregnancy centers, and other ways must help her, and help those around her. If she aborts, they are complicit in the sin and will be punished.
Doesn’t banning abortion kill more babies?
Absolutely not, despite what the media claim. The math goes like this:
| Pregnant Women | Pre-born babies with known fatal birth defects | Pre-born babies with unknown fatal birth defects | Abortions | Neonatal Deaths | Neonatal Death Percentage |
| 1000 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 2/992 = 0.2% |
| 1000 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 10/1000 = 1% |
The numbers work out the same way if one considers two states, one with permissive abortion laws and another with an abortion ban, or if one considers one state which implements an abortion ban after having permissive abortion laws. The bottom line is that abortion kills more babies because it kills those with fatal defects, like in the example above, non-fatal defects, and no defects.
If we ban all abortions, won’t women die from “back alley” abortions with “clothes hangers?”
This is a common scare tactic.
- No one is talking about banning all abortions. The debate is about when (number of weeks gestation) and under what circumstances (rape, incest, health and life of mother, etc.). Even under a six-week ban, women would still have time to realize they are pregnant and get an abortion. Even under a ban for all conditions except for a threat to the life of the mother, all a woman has to do is claim to be suicidal due to her pregnancy. She will then be able to get an abortion.
- Medical abortions (without surgery) can be done up to twelve weeks after a woman’s last menstrual period. Medications are available through pharmacies and mail order without a prescription. And women can order from a different state or overseas even if such pills are illegal in their home state.
Prolife advocates know that women who really want an abortion will always find a way to get one. We are about saving as many lives, mothers and babies, as possible. Prolife advocates do not traffic in fetal tissue, unlike the pro-choice industry.
Aren’t abortions responsible for decreasing the population of the US?
Yes. Killing one female baby makes her unable to contribute to the future population. At a fertility rate of 2 births per woman over her reproductive lifetime), a girl aborted in 1973 did not contribute zero, one, or two girls in 1998 (assuming birth around age 25 and that 0, 1, or 2 girls did not themselves contribute girls in 2023. Since 1973, over 67 million unborn Americans have perished at the hands of their mothers and often an abortionist.[2] Abortion may not be the biggest factor decreasing the US population, as marriage and birth rates have also declined, although abortion also decreases birth rates, but it is a major factor.
Obviously, killing male babies has an equally bad effect.
Doesn’t pregnancy kill a lot of women?
No, consider the information at the US CDC, in deaths per 100,000 live births.[3] The increasing maternal mortality rate that we see in the US from 2018 to 2021 is caused by the higher proportion of births to older women.
Claim – The State has no right to restrict my liberties. In fact, it must protect them.
False. The primary function of any society is to preserve itself, both in the short and long term. In the immediate term, states devise an economic system to provide the necessities of life, and a military to defend it from enemies. In the long term, states encourage citizens to produce more citizens for the future. A society that does not reproduce itself is destined to die. The rights of the individual must be balanced against the rights of the group. Societal suicide via refusal to procreate or via abortion is fundamentally against the interest of any society.
Rights recognized by Americans – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (originally property) – are given by God, not the government. Government doesn’t give them, can’t unjustly take them away on this earth, can’t eternally take them away, and is not ultimately responsible for protecting them. God is.
Claim – Abortions have no long-term negative consequences.
Abortions are associated with mental health problems and substance abuse for years afterward.[4] Anecdotal evidence suggest that women suffer their entire lives from their decision. Other complications include heavy bleeding, damage to the womb, infection, damage to the fallopian tubes, ectopic pregnancy, and sepsis. Abortion may carry an increased risk of subsequent infertility, reproductive tract cancer, breast cancer, and heart disease. These findings are hugely controversial and so many medical and political authorities deny that there are any long-term complications to abortion. Studies have been done to prove the safety of abortions, but many are flawed.[5]
- Excluding findings which don’t suit them.
- Follow-up times are too short – One study found no evidence of an increased risk of breast cancer but follow up was only 7.6 years.[6] Reproductive age women get abortions and breast cancer usually impacts older women, so even if the risk was higher, a scientist could not expect to see the effect until decades after the abortion.
- Poor response rates – In the Turnaway Study, only 37.5% agreed to participate in the study, meaning 62.5% refused. Those who refused may have been uniformly different than those who agreed, invalidating their study. Maybe the women who had regrets or problems didn’t want to participate.
Because of the political conflict, scientists may refuse to do studies. If they are told that university tenure and even their hospital jobs depend on spouting a certain creed, they will spout the creed.[7]
Isn’t the world overpopulated, so abortion is a good thing?
The world population is set to begin declining by 2050. It has already started declining in large parts of Asia and Europe. Were it not for immigration, the US population would have been declining for years. Declining populations mean declining economies and declining social security.
We are already seeing the bitter fruits of our selfishness. We can’t fill schools, don’t have enough workers for jobs, spend beyond our means, and live and die alone.
What can families and communities do to help women with unplanned pregnancies? What about governments?
- Support girls to keep their babies, not abort them. This involves a long-term commitment for food, clothing, counseling, child assistance, health care, and spiritual guidance.
- Hold men responsible for the child produced by their action.
- Restrict abortion, only making it legal in rare circumstances.
- Pass policies to ensure a suitable safety net for all Americans.
- Pass policies to support the nuclear family.
- Follow 2 Chronicles 7:14.
Conclusion
Like ghosts, the images of their aborted children will haunt these women for the rest of their lives. No success, pleasure, fame, money, or power will ever compensate for the loss that these women have brought upon themselves. Their accomplices (boyfriends, parents, health care providers, employers, politicians, lawyers, justices) will likewise pay in direct proportion to their evil. Even as the blood of Abel called out to God from the ground, so the blood of these millions of little ones calls out to God against their slayers. God is just and He will avenge. But even more, He wants to forgive.
Women who have had abortions must find God, repent, and turn away from their sin. The blood of Christ covers the sin of abortion, just as it does all other sins. But the wicked must feel remorse, ask Him for forgiveness, and turn from their evil ways. Without true remorse, true repentance, and a changed life, God will not forgive. With them, He will. The wound will heal, but the scar will remain until the waters of the river of death close upon her, and if she knows Christ, she emerges with Him on the other side.
The Church is a place for redeemed sinners. We must welcome repentant and changed women who have had abortions back into full fellowship. We must likewise welcome her family, friends, and others back if they repent, even if they played a major role in her abortion. The Church must forgive even as He forgives and covers our sin, knowing that He has forgiven us, and will do so again, if we repent. The Church must work as the hands of Christ to make disciples of all people, including women who are considering and who have had abortions.
References
[1] Marvin Olasky, Leah Savas. The Story of Abortion in America: A Street-Level History, 1652–2022.
[2] https://nrlc.org/uploads/factsheets/FS01AbortionintheUS.pdf.
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2021/maternal-mortality-rates-2021.htm#anchor_1559670130302.
[4] https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/E8D556AAE1C1D2F0F8B060B28BEE6C3D/S0007125000256353a.pdf/abortion-and-mental-health-quantitative-synthesis-and-analysis-of-research-published-1995-2009.pdf.
[5] Long-term physical health consequences of abortion in Taiwan, 2000 to 2013.
[6] https://journals.lww.com/md-journal/fulltext/2018/08030/long_term_physical_health_consequences_of_abortion.118.aspx.
[7] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01443-2.
