In recent times, women have been faced with lots of wars on the topic of abortion. People have different views on abortion. According to some presuppositions made through Christian teachings, abortion had been tagged a sin. It is said to involve ending a life which means killing. So many problems women have been faced with in the society today because of these assumptions that have been made true even sometimes without valid Biblical pieces of evidence, one of these problems is abortion. Now many have been rejected by the community and churches because of this, the true meaning of Christianity and what it stands for which is love have been shifted from the focus to the judging of people through presuppositions.
Some Bible scholars have also stated facts from the Bible that contradicts the claim that abortion is a sin. According to these Bible scholars, it is not stated particularly anywhere in the Bible that abortion is a sin. Out of all the laws that were given or made by Moses, none of it pointed at abortion but does that mean abortion is justifiable? The early churches made available punishments for women caught in the act. Abortion was placed in the category of sexual immorality even though no specific name was given but it was said to be as enormous as sexual immorality. Despite the fact that the Bible didn’t mention the word “abortion”, there are things the Bible said about life which includes what life means and when life starts.
According to the scripture, Psalm 127:3-4 “Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands”. The fifth verse of Psalm 127 says “Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them”. Even though the Bible says children are gifts from God, what about people that get pregnant as a result of sexual immoralities, rape or out of wedlock? Can we say the children they gave birth to are blessings from God or not blessing from God? Looking at these cases very well, the children are not wanted or welcomed, they came a result of one’s carelessness. People believe that this kind of children does not seem to be a blessing from the lord therefore, they make it an excuse for abortion.
Does abortion really mean ending of a life, then what is life and when does life start?
From the Biblical perspective, life means breathe and it also means the state of being alive.
Genesis 2:7 “Then the LORD God took some soil from the ground and formed a man out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live.” Even in biology, life has to do with respiration. Different speculations of when life starts have been made by different people but God starts to notice human and care for them right from the womb. This means that even the fetus is recognized by God as “life” which is contrary to the claims of some people that the fetus does not have life yet, and that God is not concerned about it. What most people believe is that the fetus has no soul and therefore, life starts when it takes its first breath. Jeremiah 1:5a “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” God is the one who starts the existence of human being, he is the one to decide things. People said the fetus is not a life yet but God recognizes it as a life that he is forming and he has given it life right from the womb because he is the source of life. Psalm 36:9a “For with You is the fountain of life.”
It cannot be denied that life begins from the time of conception, the baby inside the womb is alive and growing. Things that are attributed to life is performed by the baby too in the womb. There is some kind of response we get from babies such as kicking, it’s a sign of life. Luke 1:41 “And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb…” One cannot justify abortion irrespective of what may be the reason or the cause of the pregnancy. Miscarriage is a different case which is not the will of the woman.
The Bible tells of how much God value life and how he has barred people from taking the lives of the innocent ones. Jeremiah 7:6 “Do not shed the innocent blood.” God is not happy with the death of the fetus or unborn babies in the womb, he would never be part of that according to the Bible. Jeremiah 20:17 “because he didn’t kill me before I was born. Then my mother’s womb would have been my grave.” In conclusion, irrespective of the views of people about abortion, it is not tagged as a sin in the Bible but the Bible doesn’t support terminating a pregnancy either.
