When we debate the abortion issue, we most often talk past each other. Each side has their talking points and they stick to them. Rarely do we engage with the point the other side is making.
Rarely do we also define the terms we use in our shouting matches. We’re more comfortable playing “gotcha” than having a productive discussion.
Let me give you my point-of-view at the outset. I’m pro-life. I believe abortion is wrong, and that well-meaning people have been deceived. It’s my desire to convince you of this and help you see the deception our culture has believed.
But I can’t do that by yelling. Nor would I want to.
The Basic Question
The first question we must ask–which I believe is the key to the whole debate–is, “What is the unborn life inside of the mother?”
Is it a human being?
I believe unquestionably, and scientifically, that it is.
And we know that killing an innocent human being is wrong.
Therefore, abortion is the practice of killing an innocent human being, and that is wrong.
Now at this point, I can anticipate what those who support the legality of the practice would say.
- Women have the right to reproductive freedom.
- The government does not have the right to tell a woman what to do with her body.
- Women should have access to healthcare.
These are the things I hear most often from abortion supporters. And they are fair points.
Let’s address them in order.
Reproductive Freedom
Women do have the right to decide if they want to have children. I don’t think anyone questions this.
But the decision on whether to have children goes to a place we don’t want to talk about.
For Christians, we understand that the Bible permits sex only within the bounds of marriage.
And it does this for our protection, and the protection of our offspring.
The apostle Paul said that the union of a husband and wife, and the intimate bond they share, is a picture of Christ and His church.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. –Ephesians 5:31-32
That is why God cares so deeply about what we do sexually. It is a living picture of His love for His church. It is how He designed us. And it should not be perverted.
But we don’t want to be told what to do in this area. Our culture has believed that we should be able to do whatever we want sexually, with no consequences.
One of those natural consequences, inevitably, is pregnancy. And because we think we should not have to deal with the natural result of our activity, we demand a way out.
But if we truly want reproductive freedom, we already have it, and it does not need to involve the taking of innocent life.
Hands Off My Body
Second, we like to say the government doesn’t have a right to tell someone what to do with their body. But is this really true?
Are we allowed to use our bodies to steal from someone else? To assault them? Of course not.
In fact, is not the whole purpose of our laws to tell us what we can and cannot do–with our bodies?
Further, I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of who’s body is at the center of this debate. While we focus on the mother, the question of abortion is very much a question about her baby’s body.
Because whether you believe abortion should be legal or not, it always involves the killing of the baby’s body. In every case.
Access to Healthcare
Third, women should, without question, have access to healthcare.
But what do we mean by healthcare?
According to the dictionary, healthcare means,
“efforts made to maintain, restore, or promote someone’s physical, mental, or emotional well-being.”
Healthcare, by definition, is restorative. It is meant to heal, or to keep well.
But abortion is the violent ending of a human life. It is not restorative or healing to the baby in the womb. It is the opposite. It is destructive.
This is not to mention the physical and psychological effects abortion has on the mother.
So abortion, according to science and reason, is not healthcare, because it does not heal and preserve life. We may want to call it that to possibly ease our consciences, but it does not accord with the definition of the word.
Finally, regardless of whether we agree on the three objections I’ve addressed here, that does not change what an abortion is. In any case, for whatever the reason, it is the taking of innocent human life. And that is wrong.
Bonus Objection
There’s one additional objection I want to address, because it’s one that gets quite a bit of attention as well. “But what about in the case of rape, or incest, or to save the life of the mother?”
Please understand, these are important questions. But they are also a minuscule amount of the abortions performed.
I once heard someone ask a pro-abortion advocate who raised this point, “If I agree with you on each of these, will you agree with me on the rest, and help to outlaw them?”
Not surprisingly they declined.
I would add that if your response to the logic of the pro-life argument is to immediately go to the marginal cases, that may tell you something about the strength of your overall case. You may want to simply re-evaluate your position on the issue at large.
In the rare cases where the mother’s life is at risk, no one is arguing she should not be saved. On this, all sides agree. And if you hear someone say pro-lifers disagree, ask them to name names. I’ll wager they can’t.
The other two situations are truly heartbreaking, and call for the utmost compassion. This is probably where the most disagreement within the pro-life movement happens.
But if we could at least agree on outlawing the 95% of abortion that is elective (or simply chosen), we’d have a much easier time debating these.
Because if we could understand and agree on the basic premise that we began with, that the killing of innocent human life is wrong, it may just put cases like these into better perspective, too.
