Abortion
It is easy to make statements about sensitive topics like abortion and sexual morality when we ourselves have not experienced it. It is easy to defame someone we do not know personally and do not understand. I met a homeless beggar one day and took him to lunch back when Union Station in Downtown Indianapolis was still was a mall with restaurants. During our conversation he plainly told me he needed a drink of alcohol and wanted money for it. I told him I was not about to support his addiction. He needed help. He quickly responded, “Don’t judge me until you’ve walked a mile in my moccasins.”
I get what he was saying. “It’s easy for you to tell me to get help. You can judge that I am wrong for being a homeless drunk, but you haven’t lived my life. You do not have the perspective I do.”
It is easy to dispense judgments about abortion until you or your daughter or granddaughter is pregnant with an unplanned unwanted child. Then the matter becomes personal, not academic or ethical discussion.
How do we talk about abortion and care for the needs of the mother, the father and the unwanted unborn child? How do we care for those who decide to get an abortion?
The United Methodist Church believes…
The beginning of life and the ending of life are the God-given boundaries of human existence. While individuals have always had some degree of control over when they would die, they now have the awesome power to determine when and even whether new individuals will be born.
Our belief in the sanctity of unborn human life makes us reluctant to approve abortion. But we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother, for whom devastating damage may result from an unacceptable pregnancy. In continuity with past Christian teaching, we recognize tragic conflicts of life with life that may justify abortion, and in such cases we support the legal option of abortion under proper medical procedures. We cannot affirm abortion as an acceptable means of birth control, and we unconditionally reject it as a means of gender selection.
We oppose the use of late-term abortion known as dilation and extraction (partial-birth abortion) and call for the end of this practice except when the physical life of the mother is in danger and no other medical procedure is available, or in the case of severe fetal anomalies incompatible with life. We call all Christians to a searching and prayerful inquiry into the sorts of conditions that may warrant abortion. We commit our Church to continue to provide nurturing ministries to those who terminate a pregnancy, to those in the midst of a crisis pregnancy, and to those who give birth. We particularly encourage the Church, the government, and social service agencies to support and facilitate the option of adoption. (See ¶ 161.K.)
Governmental laws and regulations do not provide all the guidance required by the informed Christian conscience. Therefore, a decision concerning abortion should be made only after thoughtful and prayerful consideration by the parties involved, with medical, pastoral, and other appropriate counsel.
From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church - 2004. Copyright 2004 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.
From more read this resolution which was initially adopted in 1976 following Roe vs. Wade; the Supreme Court Decision which legalized abortion.
Scriptural Passages that help in this discussion are about the sacredness of life, the gift of the unborn child, and the value the life of the child in a case of an accidental abortion.
Jeremiah 1:5 speaks of God’s foreknowing of a human life as does Psalm 139.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 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,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Children were thought of as wealth to the ancient mind, not a tax deduction or a financial burden.
Proverbs 127:4-5 says…
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.
Because children were valued by ancient Israel, they were included in the earliest laws of Moses in a section of property rights and social responsibility should one destroy another’s property.
Exodus 21:22-24
22 “If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely[e] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
And our Savior scolded His disciples when they tried to keep children from coming to Him. He too taught the value of children to the early church.
Mark 10:14-15
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
One application of scripture in the battle over legal abortion uses God’s feelings about child sacrifice. (See 2Ch 28:1-8) However the gods to which the unborn are sacrificed are the mother’s health and immediate needs over the child’s, or the need of stem cells, or even gender selection. If a family are on hard economic times they may feel they cannot afford the child and chose abortion. If parents do not want a girl, they can abort an unborn girl. If parents do not want to raise a child with downs syndrome they may choose to abort the child. The god to who these lives are sacrificed is the god of parental preference.
Catholic Church Tradition has spoken against abortion from the earliest times. The Didicahe (a late first century-early second century apostolic teaching on moral boundaries for the community states abortion as a grave sin which is strictly forbidden.
“…you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.”
The early church leader Tertullian wrote…
"In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed" (Apology 9:8 [A.D. 197]).
Saint Jerome wrote in the 4th century…
"I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother. . . . Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder" (Letters 22:13 [A.D. 396]).
One can see that church tradition has from the beginning had a no tolerance policy toward abortion. Even contraception was seen as interfering with God’s gift of life to the unborn.
In the early 1700s, John Wesley evangelized Native American Indians. He wrote in his journal in 1736:
I told [their head man], "If red men will learn the Good Book, they may know as much as white men. But neither we nor you can understand that Book unless we are taught by Him that is above: and He will not teach you unless you avoid what you already know is not good."
He answered, "I believe that. He will not teach us while our hearts are not white. And our men do what they know is not good: they kill their own children. And our women do what they know is not good: they kill the child before it is born...."
Apparently Chicali, the Chotaw Chief, knew abortion was wrong without Christian teaching.
Thus the biblical evidence suggests that God does know each human in the womb, even prior to the womb because God is the life giver and has planned this life. There are problems with this view when a child comes from rape and incest. Did God plan for the woman to be raped, the daughter or sister or niece or cousin to be treated incestuously by her family? Unconscionable!
The tradition calls abortion murder. And Rome still calls contraception sinful. Christians and Jews practicing contraception robs God from having His “godly offspring” a concern voiced in Malachi 2:15.
But what of experience? The unborn child cannot speak for herself, but we do have the voice of persons who were spared and have lived life. One such person is Ethel Waters. He birth was a result of her mother being raped. Ethel went on to become a great singer and in her later years she toured with the Billy Graham crusade. Who can forget her rendition of “His Eye is on the Sparrow”? Had she been aborted her life would not have contributed the beauty of her voice or the power of her story to reach others.
She writes, “Over the course of a five day period, I endured the deliverance of this toxic salt solution into the amniotic fluid around me, while numerous rounds of Pitocin were delivered to my mother with the intent to induce labor and dispel my dead body from the womb. When I was
delivered in bed by a nurse that fifth day, I was believed to be dead. However, instead of being scalded to death from the outside-in, I had survived!
Gratefully, the doctors and nurses stepped in and provided me with the medical care that I needed to survive the abortion attempt and my premature birth. Although doctors believed that I would likely not live for very long, and if I did survive, would be disabled, I am now
32 years old and am perfectly healthy, happy and successful.”
She has founded an organization to promote pro-life decisions called Olivia, named after her daughter.
“Finding out about the abortion attempt was not pleasant, and processing through my own personal feelings of grief and loss have not been easy or simple, but I wouldn't change a thing.
This is who I am. I am a survivor, a believer, a living testament to God's grace and the power of hope, love, and forgiveness.”
[Research indicates that women who have had an abortion are 162% more likely to be admitted for psychiatric treatment within 90 days of the abortion and are at continued risk for over 4 years following. Additionally, post-abortive women are more than 460% more likely to abuse illegal drugs and 122% more likely to abuse alcohol (Coleman et al 2002).
And when it comes to suicide, the research reflects that abortion has a profound impact on women’s lives and the incidence of suicide. According to the Archives of Women’s Mental Health (2001), abortion was linked to a 160% increase in rates of suicide in the U.S. According to the British Medical Journal (1997), it was found to lead to a 225% increase in Britain. And according to the Acta Ostetrica et Gynecologica Scandinavica (1997), abortion was linked to a 546% increase in rates of suicide in Finland.]
Abortion is not some simple medical procedure in clean white hospitals surrounded by friendly doctors, nurses and technicians. There is the deep ineffable connection that nature gives to the mother and her child. When this cord is broken, the mother breaks, even when it was her decision. Miscarriages cause grief. Abortions compound the grief with shame.
The church is called to help women make healthy decisions when considering childbirth. But when a mother chooses abortion, it would be nice for her to know that her church will not exclude her from fellowship or hate her. A community that loves her even when she has chosen to end the life of her unborn child will help her find forgiveness and grace to grow through the shame of the experience.
Some in the church think that a woman deserves to suffer if she has been sexually promiscuous and gotten pregnant. Some feel it is God’s justice for women to suffer shame, depression and to take their own lives as punishment for choosing to abort their unwanted child.
Sydna Masse wites about her experience as a woman who chose abortion.
I'm not a medical doctor or a counselor -- just a woman who chose abortion and lives today without that child in my life. Truly if there was one thing I could go back and undo in my life, it would be that abortion. I was 19 years of age and in college. I had all the wrong reasons but especially because my boyfriend wasn't supportive of a life decision -- he insisted on the abortion. While my head said abortion was the eraser to my mistake, my heart knew the truth because I had already connected to my unborn child. Had my boyfriend been supportive, I would probably have not aborted but I will never know. You have a true choice, more than I did and that provides a great deal of freedom. And I'm glad you are seeking answers to your questions before you abort.
First of all, abortion has an extreme amount of emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual consequences. The fact that 43% of all women have experienced abortion is a good reference (www.agi-usa.org - The Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Facts in Brief: Induced Abortion," 2000). If nearly half of all women have had abortions, why is it that you never hear any of them sharing about their experiences?
I know from ministering to thousands of post-abortive women that the shame and grief keeps them from sharing. We expect judgment from most. Many of us never allowed ourselves to actually grieve our lost children until years afterwards when we couldn't erase the memory of the child from our hearts. While we may have initially felt relief, the forever pain of being the mothers of dead children has long outlasted any initial relief.
The blogger, Joyce Arthur, states, “Abortion is a highly personal decision that many women are sure they'll never have to think about until they're suddenly faced with an unexpected pregnancy. But this can happen to anyone, including women who are strongly anti-choice. So what does an anti-choice woman do when she experiences an unwanted pregnancy herself? Often, she will grin and bear it, so to speak, but frequently, she opts for the solution she would deny to other women -- abortion.”
"In 1990, in the Boston area, Operation Rescue and other groups were regularly blockading the clinics, and many of us went every Saturday morning for months to help women and staff get in. As a result, we knew many of the 'antis' by face. One morning, a woman who had been a regular 'sidewalk counselor' went into the clinic with a young woman who looked like she was 16-17, and obviously her daughter. When the mother came out about an hour later, I had to go up and ask her if her daughter's situation had caused her to change her mind. 'I don't expect you to understand my daughter's situation!' she angrily replied. The following Saturday, she was back, pleading with women entering the clinic not to 'murder their babies.'" (Clinic escort, Massachusetts)
46 million abortions are performed each year of which 20 million are illegal and unsafe. Women who pursue unsafe abortion procedures endanger their lives and the future possibility of childbirth. 78,000 women die each year from unsafe illegal abortion surgeries.
Now we must reason in our own minds what are the moral boundaries that will define our behaviors as Christians.
First, unless you are involved in another divine conception like Mary of Nazareth, sexual intercourse precedes pregnancy. A Christian is not to practice fornication, sex outside of the marriage covenant. United Methodists do not think sex is only for procreation Sex is meant to be enjoyed as a part of a loving, intimate marriage between husband and wife. Contraceptives should be used if children are not desired but the married couple. Sex education in churches is very important to help young persons understand the gift of sexuality and its God-given place in life.
Second, people are weak and make poor choices. Unwanted pregnancies do happen and will happen. Even with the statistics of what abortion will do to a woman, she may still choose to terminate the pregnancy. Good Christians have abortions too, regrettably. Do we kick them to the curb? Or do we lift them from the ground saying, “where are your accusers? Then I do not condemn you either. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)
The shame and stigma around abortion calls us to take a third measure…ministries of recovery. The church reaches out to help those who are suffering as a result of abortion choices no matter where you are on its morality. The church needs to help people through grief and shame and restore them to a reconciled relationship with God, self and family. In some cases Churches may offer women a means to seek forgiveness from the child they aborted through prayer and ritual. These can be wonderfully healing experiences that help wounded people find help.
In the end abortion is a sad reality on our fallen world. The church is called to witness to good news in the midst of this present reality. We are not to board up the windows and doors as if we are floating above the great flood as in Noah’s day. Through Christ we are called to touch the present day social and religious “lepers” and offer them hope and healing.
