What Is God's View of Abortion?
Regardless of where you find yourself landing on the issue of abortion, it's one of the most pivotal and most volatile issues in America today. And no longer is it just an issue "out there." We now know that 65 percent of women who have abortions self-identify as Christians.
Chances are that in the next few years you'll be in a situation where a friend or a colleague will be facing a very real decision about whether or not to have an abortion, and she'll ask you for advice.
Do you know what would you say? And do you know why would you say it?
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Today, the core issue of abortion isn't whether or not life begins at conception. Hardly anyone now is arguing that the fetus is not a pre-born baby. Instead, the issue is: Does the pre-born baby have an inalienable right to live under any circumstance, or does the woman have a right to terminate her pregnancy if the baby negatively impacts the welfare of her family or future?
These are polar-opposite views that people are deeply passionate about – often so passionate that they've been violent with one another.
Perhaps the greater question that we as Christians should first be asking is: What does God think about abortion?
There are two premises in Scripture that give us God's view of abortion:
1. All of life is sacred and human life is the most valuable and precious commodity in the world.
From God's perspective, each one of us is more valuable than all the money in all of the banks in the world!
How do we know when something has value? We look at its creator and designer, the protection afforded it, and the cost.
God says that each person has infinite value and worth because He made us. He made us in His image with the ability to create, think, respond and have fellowship with Him. And because we are so valuable, Jesus gave His own life to pay for our sins in order to allow for us to have a relationship with Him.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:20: You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Jesus said: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
We matter so much to God that He sent His only Son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. That's a huge price to pay! But God says we are worth it!
2. Scripture ascribes the same value of the pre-born child on all of human life.
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. (Psalm 139:13-16).
In the passage, we can almost hear God saying, "I've been creating and designing not just full-fledged human beings, but human beings even before their conception."
That means long before our fingerprints were formed or even before we could suck our thumb in the womb, God was creating us. He had our lives already planned and knew us before we were even born!
God wove us together with great care. Long before we existed, He had already determined our DNA, the color of our eyes and hair, and which specific spiritual and natural gifts He would give us.
For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
If we matter to God before we are conceived, then we are equally valuable to Him when we begin our lives in the womb and after we are born.
