Arguments Against Abortion

     Okay, Diogenes, this article is written with you in mind. My faithful reader, Diogenes, and I have been debating the issue of abortion. He claims life begins at the moment of birth when an infant takes his or her first breath of air. Prior to that, he believes the child is nothing more than a fetus, certainly not a human being. I beg to differ with him and will explain why.
     Those who support abortion need to know exactly how a child is developing inside the mother’s womb during her pregnancy. Read with me from the Minnesota Family Institute about the stages of development of the “fetus”, and notice a child growing and preparing to enter this world in which we live.
http://www.mfc.org/legmanual/abortion%202.pdf

     “Prior to the earliest first trimester abortions, the unborn already has every body part she will ever have.

     At twenty-one days—the heart is pumping blood throughout the body.

     At forty-two days—the child has recordable brain waves. A skeleton has formed and the brain is controlling the movements of muscles and organs.

     At eight weeks—the feet and hands are formed and fingerprints are developing.

     At twelve weeks—the child squints, swallows, frowns, urinates, kicks, can make a fist, and opens the mouth.

     All of this happens in the first three months of life. In the remaining six months, nothing new develops or starts functioning. The child only grows and matures.”

     Sounds like a human being to me!

     From Christian Net:
http://www.christianet.com/bible/abortion.htm

     “Based on the development of the nervous system, babies as young as eight weeks gestational age feel both psychological and physical responses to stimuli.”

     Though I believe life begins at conception, and it’s not above my pay grade, we shall look at it from a medical perspective. Leadership U examines the criteria used for defining when death takes place. Based on this argument, we can also determine more accurately when life begins.
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/arg-abor.html

     Death used to be defined by the cessation of heartbeat. A stopped heart was a clear sign of death. If the cessation of heartbeat could define death, could the onset of a heartbeat define life? The heart is formed by the 18th day in the womb. If heartbeat was used to define life, then nearly all abortions would be outlawed.
     Physicians now use a more rigorous criterion for death: brain wave activity. A flat EEG (electroencephalograph) is one of the most important criteria used to determine death. If the cessation of brain wave activity can define death, could the onset of brain wave activity define life? Individual brain waves are detected in the fetus in about 40-43 days. Using brain wave activity to define life would outlaw at least a majority of abortions.”

     Now, let’s examine what God says about life in His Word. More from Leadership U:
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/arg-abor.html

     “We must begin by acknowledging that the Bible doesn't say anything about abortion directly. Why the silence of the Bible on abortion? The answer is simple. Abortion was so unthinkable to an Israelite woman that there was no need to even mention it in the criminal code. Why was abortion an unthinkable act? First, children were viewed as a gift or heritage from the Lord. Second, the Scriptures state--and the Jews concurred--that God opens and closes the womb and is sovereign over conception. Third, childlessness was seen as a curse.
     One of the key verses to understand in developing a biblical view of the sanctity of human life is Psalm 139.

     ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.’ (vv. 13-16)

     Here David speaks of God's relationship with him while he was growing and developing before birth. Notice that the Bible doesn't speak of fetal life as mere biochemistry. The description here is not of a piece of protoplasm that becomes David: this is David already being cared for by God while in the womb.

     In Psalm 51:5, David writes of his human nature from the time of conception:

     ‘Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.’”

     This verse implies that David was sinful from the moment of conception. How could he be sinful if he was not yet a human being? That makes no sense. A blob of tissue cannot be sinful; only a person can.

     “Another argument against abortion can be found in the Old Testament legal code, specifically Exodus 21:22-25.

     'If men who are fighting 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 verses appear to teach that if a woman gives birth prematurely, but the baby is not injured, then only a fine is appropriate. However, if the child dies then the law of retaliation (lex talionis) should be applied. In other words, killing an unborn baby would carry the same penalty as killing a born baby. A baby inside the womb has the same legal status as a baby outside the womb.”

     Many abortion advocates are ignorant about what is involved in the ghastly process. If they choose to defend the procedure, it is only fair that they understand exactly what it entails and the facts concerning it.
     From Christian Net:
http://www.christianet.com/bible/abortion.htm

     “Abortion procedures are fairly gruesome and complicated, involving the cutting, crushing, and sucking out of the torn fetus’ body parts. A less common, but still practiced form of second-trimester abortion is known as salt poisoning. A large needle is inserted through the abdominal wall of the mother into the baby’s amniotic sac. The baby breathes and swallows a solution, suffocates, and convulses. It takes over an hour for the baby to die, and the mother goes into labor and delivers a dead baby. Third trimester abortions are probably the most gruesome. A baby’s body is pulled out except for the head. A hole is made in the baby’s skull, the brain is sucked out, and then the dead baby’s body is pulled out.
     The earliest first term abortions occur at eight weeks, while the majority occur between eight to twelve weeks.
     Approximately only 1% percent of all abortions are attributed to rape and incest.
     Women who undergo abortion face a number of possible physical complications including hemorrhaging that requires a transfusion, perforation of the uterus, cardiac arrest, endotoxic shock, major unintended surgery, infection resulting in hospitalization, convulsions, undiagnosed ectopic (tubal) pregnancy, cervical laceration, uterine rupture and death.
     Women who have had an abortion during the first or second trimester have a much higher risk of breast cancer than other women. The risk of breast cancer for women who have experienced an induced abortion is 50 percent higher than among other women. A woman’s body naturally produces a rapid cell growth in the breast tissues during pregnancy. This growth shuts down after giving birth. Abortion, however, does not shut down this rapid cell growth, resulting in a significantly higher risk for breast cancer.”

     Also, from Minnesota Family Institute:
http://www.mfc.org/legmanual/abortion%202.pdf

     “The true risks of abortion are rarely explained to women by those who perform abortions. Abortion is the only surgery in which the doctor is not required to inform the patient of the exact nature of the procedure or of the risks involved.”

     To test how knowledgeable you are about abortion, take the abortion quiz:
http://www.christianet.com/bible/abortion.htm
     The good news in all this discussion is that we have a merciful God who can and will forgive the sin of abortion. All one must do is confess this sin.

     ‘For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.’ (Psalm 103:11-12)

     Now, that I’ve made my case, can anyone actually state with a clear conscience that abortion is not murdering a human being? I’m speaking to you, Diogenes; the ball is now in your court. Forget the Democratic talking points; you can still be a Democrat and oppose abortion. There actually are a few pro-life Democrats out there.

America's Holocaust About to Get Much Worse

     America’s Holocaust has taken a turn in the wrong direction. You may say, “Holocaust? What are you talking about? America has never participated in anything like the horrific Holocaust carried out against the Jewish people by Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s.”
     But sadly, you would be dead wrong. Since Roe v Wade made abortion legal in 1973, approximately 50 million innocent unborn babies have had their lives snuffed out by their own mothers. It’s absolutely horrifying to think about; the wasted lives and all the wasted potential because of ignorance and selfishness.
     The pro-life movement has made significant progress under the Bush Administration; in fact, so much that the pro-choice advocates have been terrified that Roe would be overturned. God forbid that these liberal females would not be able to legally end the lives of their own offspring!
     Now, with our recent election, the pro-life movement has been pulverized. I am personally devastated by the fact that 52% of Americans, including 24% of evangelicals, voted for a man who is the most radical abortion advocate in the history of our country; the man even supported infanticide when he voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, not once, but four times. America is celebrating our new president-elect like he is some kind of rock star and acting as if he is the great hope for our nation.
     How can this be? What has happened to the moral fiber of our society? Granted, many Obama supporters do not realize how radical he is on this issue. But, that’s not a good enough excuse; it is our responsibility as voters to be informed about each candidate’s position on important issues. The other Obama voters are individuals who just plain do not care about the sanctity of life. How tragic!
     In July 2007, Obama promised Planned Parenthood that the first piece of legislation that he would pass as president would be the Freedom of Choice Act, and you can bet he will keep his word. This law will eliminate all restrictions on abortion, including partial-birth abortion, and make us as tax-payers responsible for funding the inhumane procedure. The National Right to Life estimates that tens of thousands, possibly as many as hundreds of thousands, more babies will die each year at the hands of their executioners because of this legislation.
http://blog.beliefnet.com/godometer/2008/09/doug-kmiec-responds-to-nationa.html

     The sin of abortion has affected me personally, and I have the blood of an innocent child on my conscience. You see, over thirty years ago, I was a radical leftist who saw nothing wrong with aborting one’s own child.
     In the late 1970s, I had a close friend who found herself unmarried and pregnant. The father of her child abandoned her; his only contribution to the unplanned pregnancy was to fund the abortion that her parents determined that she should have. Since they lived a considerable distance away, they asked me to accompany her on the mission that they had assigned her. Being the bleeding-heart liberal that I was, I agreed to do so, clueless to the fact that I was an accomplice to murder.
     My friend did as she was told and aborted her child. As I look back on that fateful day, I don’t think she really wanted to have the abortion. It was the pressure from her parents that led her to agree to the gruesome procedure. In all honesty, I have never seen her display any signs of regret since that day over 30 years ago. But, we have never discussed it either, and I do not know what is going on inside her head.
     As for myself, I went about my life oblivious to what I had done with no regrets whatsoever--until I met the Lord Jesus Christ and made him the Lord of my life, the greatest decision I’ve ever made, by the way.
     Over time, He showed me the wrong viewpoint that I held concerning abortion. Upon that realization, I had to deal with my part in the dreadful act that I participated in. God has since forgiven me; but, the blood of that innocent child is still a weight I carry. Though I never had an abortion myself, I grieve as though I did because I was an accomplice to the crime of abortion. I praise God for His mercy in forgiving me of this atrocity.
     For any women who may have had an abortion or who participated in one as I did, I encourage you to call out to the Lord. He is waiting with open arms to forgive the sin of abortion, and He is the only One who can heal these traumatic scars.
     My past involvement in the act of abortion is the reason I am so passionate about this issue. While America celebrates its most radical pro-abortion president, I grieve over the lives that have been lost and the many more that will be lost in the future. If I, just a sinful woman saved by the grace of God, am heartbroken over these precious babies, just imagine what the Lord Jesus, the Savior of the world, must be feeling.