Abortion is wrong because it is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. From the earliest stages, the unborn are distinct, living, and whole human beings. So, it is wrong to intentionally kill them. People who are in favor of abortion try to pretend that the unborn are not human beings. This goes against the witness of Scripture, science, and common sense. Let’s take a look at each of these witnesses now.
The Bible teaches that God made people in His image (Genesis 1:27), so we have unique value. This unique value is why it is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being. Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image.” The Bible also teaches that the unborn are living human beings, made in God’s image, who share this unique value. God says in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you.” Psalm 139 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” So, the Bible is clear that God is intimately and intricately at work in the life of each baby still in their mother’s womb.
This truth that the unborn are real, living human beings is displayed in the story leading up to the birth of Jesus. In Luke 1, we read how Mary received word from an angel that she would soon become miraculously pregnant with Jesus. Shortly after she gets this news, she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is about 3 months pregnant with her son John. When Mary arrives, the Bible says, “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:41-45). Notice how it says that Elizabeth’s baby “leaped for joy.” Joy is an emotional response of a human person, not a clump of cells. Also, notice how Elizabeth calls Mary’s baby “my Lord” even though Mary is not yet past week 4 or 5 of her pregnancy. Sadly, most pregnancies today happen in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. Had Elizabeth and Mary lived today, they could have gone to an clinic to abort these babies and Mary could have even ended her pregnancy with pills shipped directly to her home.
Science confirms human life begins at conception. In the textbook, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology: 7th Edition we read: “Zygote: This cell…is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo).”1 The mother’s egg and the father’s sperm each carry half of the genetic material, or DNA, needed to make a new, living, distinct, and whole human person. At the moment of conception, the egg and sperm unite to make a new, unique person with his or her own genetic code or DNA. This means that the embryo is not part of the mother’s body like her liver or tonsils, because the embryo has its own new, complete, and distinct DNA, that is in fact different from the mother. It has this from the moment of conception.
Science also confirms the unborn are human life as we see the way the embryo develops from the earliest days. We all remember major milestones in our lives after we were born, but often forget milestones in our lives before we were born. Look at just some of the incredible milestones you achieved while you were still in your first three months in your mother’s womb.
Day 0: You were conceived and your life began.
Day 18: Your heart already started to form
Day 22: Your heart began beating, which it would continue to do more than 50 million times before you were born.
Day 35: Your brain and spinal cord were mostly developed, and your lungs began to form.
Day 42: Your mouth and ears had formed, and your face responded to light touch.
Day 44: Your brainwaves were already measurable!
Day 49: You could move your head, hands and legs. You also began to hiccup. Your heart was beating at 165-170 beats a minute.
Day 56: You went from being a single-celled human being on Day 1 to having over 1 billion cells.
Day 84: You had developed every organ system that you have in your body today. Your heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, skin, hands, eyes, ears, feet, nervous system – all of it – were all present in your body by this point.2
People who are in favor of abortion like to say the unborn are nothing more than a clump of cells. But this is not how we think and talk at all. No one says, “Congrats on your clump of cells!” or “Have you picked out a name for your clump of cells?” or “Let’s have a gender reveal party for our clump of cells?” Many laws on the books in our land today give extra punishment to anyone who attacks a pregnant woman such that the unborn baby dies – unless of course that death was caused by an abortion, in which case they claim it is fine.
Let’s face it. There is no essential difference between you today and you before you were born that would justify killing you back then. There really are only four main differences between you today and you back then.
Size: You were smaller before you were born, but since when do we think it’s ok to kill someone just because they are smaller? Newborns and toddlers are smaller too, but that does not justify killing them.
Level of Development: You were less developed before you were born, but why would that justify killing you then? You were less developed when you were 3 months old and 3 years old than you are today, but that would not have justified killing you as a newborn or as a toddler. By the way, you will lose development if you live to old age, but that won’t justify killing you then either.
Environment: You were in your mother’s womb then and are out of her womb now, but how would your journey of eight inches through the birth canal justify killing you then but make immoral now?
Degree of Dependency: Sure, you were dependent on your mother before you were born, but how would that justify killing you then? You were dependent on your mom for years after you were born too. Imagine a mom is holding her baby over a high cliff. That baby depends on the mother continuing to hold on to it for survival, but that does mean the mom can let her baby fall to its death if she wants to. That would be intentionally killing an innocent human being, and so too is abortion.
Some people think the circumstances of a child’s birth can make abortion be permissible. Sure, the pregnancy may have been unplanned or unwanted, but how does that justify killing the baby? Parents of a six-month old baby may reach a point where they do not want that baby in their life at the moment, but that would not make it ok to kill their baby. Or, the baby may have been conceived through excruciating circumstances. Victims of these circumstances deserve love, care, and compassion. And so does the baby. We don’t solve a horrific injustice committed against one innocent human being by killing another innocent human being who had nothing to do with the crime.
Finally, even if someone is not sure that the unborn is a human being, they should still not have an abortion. The evidence above is more than enough to at least acknowledge the unborn might be a human being. Imagine for a moment there is a life-sized cardboard box sitting in a field. There is a great debate in society whether inside that cardboard box is a real, living human being, or merely a scarecrow. You’re not sure what to believe, but you are handed a machine gun and encouraged to fire it at the box. Would it be ok to fire it? No. When in doubt, you error on the side of protecting life. And so we should with the question of abortion.
Links
What hope does Jesus offer for anyone who has been involved in an abortion?
Podcast episode with Scott Klusendorf
Jeanne’s Set Free Story
Facing an unplanned pregnancy? Find free help near you!
1 Keith L. Moore, 2003. pp. 16, 2
2 https://www.ehd.org/your-life-before-birth-video
Abortion is wrong because it is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. From the earliest stages, the unborn are distinct, living, and whole human beings. So, it is wrong to intentionally kill them. People who are in favor of abortion try to pretend that the unborn are not human beings. This goes against the witness of Scripture, science, and common sense. Let’s take a look at each of these witnesses now.
The Bible teaches that God made people in His image (Genesis 1:27), so we have unique value. This unique value is why it is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being. Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image.” The Bible also teaches that the unborn are living human beings, made in God’s image, who share this unique value. God says in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you.” Psalm 139 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” So, the Bible is clear that God is intimately and intricately at work in the life of each baby still in their mother’s womb.
This truth that the unborn are real, living human beings is displayed in the story leading up to the birth of Jesus. In Luke 1, we read how Mary received word from an angel that she would soon become miraculously pregnant with Jesus. Shortly after she gets this news, she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is about 3 months pregnant with her son John. When Mary arrives, the Bible says, “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:41-45). Notice how it says that Elizabeth’s baby “leaped for joy.” Joy is an emotional response of a human person, not a clump of cells. Also, notice how Elizabeth calls Mary’s baby “my Lord” even though Mary is not yet past week 4 or 5 of her pregnancy. Sadly, most pregnancies today happen in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. Had Elizabeth and Mary lived today, they could have gone to an clinic to abort these babies and Mary could have even ended her pregnancy with pills shipped directly to her home.
Science confirms human life begins at conception. In the textbook, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology: 7th Edition we read: “Zygote: This cell…is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo).”1 The mother’s egg and the father’s sperm each carry half of the genetic material, or DNA, needed to make a new, living, distinct, and whole human person. At the moment of conception, the egg and sperm unite to make a new, unique person with his or her own genetic code or DNA. This means that the embryo is not part of the mother’s body like her liver or tonsils, because the embryo has its own new, complete, and distinct DNA, that is in fact different from the mother. It has this from the moment of conception.
Science also confirms the unborn are human life as we see the way the embryo develops from the earliest days. We all remember major milestones in our lives after we were born, but often forget milestones in our lives before we were born. Look at just some of the incredible milestones you achieved while you were still in your first three months in your mother’s womb.
Day 0: You were conceived and your life began.
Day 18: Your heart already started to form
Day 22: Your heart began beating, which it would continue to do more than 50 million times before you were born.
Day 35: Your brain and spinal cord were mostly developed, and your lungs began to form.
Day 42: Your mouth and ears had formed, and your face responded to light touch.
Day 44: Your brainwaves were already measurable!
Day 49: You could move your head, hands and legs. You also began to hiccup. Your heart was beating at 165-170 beats a minute.
Day 56: You went from being a single-celled human being on Day 1 to having over 1 billion cells.
Day 84: You had developed every organ system that you have in your body today. Your heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, skin, hands, eyes, ears, feet, nervous system – all of it – were all present in your body by this point.
People who are in favor of abortion like to say the unborn are nothing more than a clump of cells. But this is not how we think and talk at all. No one says, “Congrats on your clump of cells!” or “Have you picked out a name for your clump of cells?” or “Let’s have a gender reveal party for our clump of cells?” Many laws on the books in our land today give extra punishment to anyone who attacks a pregnant woman such that the unborn baby dies – unless of course that death was caused by an abortion, in which case they claim it is fine.
Let’s face it. There is no essential difference between you today and you before you were born that would justify killing you back then. There really are only four main differences between you today and you back then.
Size: You were smaller before you were born, but since when do we think it’s ok to kill someone just because they are smaller? Newborns and toddlers are smaller too, but that does not justify killing them.
Level of Development: You were less developed before you were born, but why would that justify killing you then? You were less developed when you were 3 months old and 3 years old than you are today, but that would not have justified killing you as a newborn or as a toddler. By the way, you will lose development if you live to old age, but that won’t justify killing you then either.
Environment: You were in your mother’s womb then and are out of her womb now, but how would your journey of eight inches through the birth canal justify killing you then but make immoral now?
Degree of Dependency: Sure, you were dependent on your mother before you were born, but how would that justify killing you then? You were dependent on your mom for years after you were born too. Imagine a mom is holding her baby over a high cliff. That baby depends on the mother continuing to hold on to it for survival, but that does mean the mom can let her baby fall to its death if she wants to. That would be intentionally killing an innocent human being, and so too is abortion.
Some people think the circumstances of a child’s birth can make abortion be permissible. Sure, the pregnancy may have been unplanned or unwanted, but how does that justify killing the baby? Parents of a six-month old baby may reach a point where they do not want that baby in their life at the moment, but that would not make it ok to kill their baby. Or, the baby may have been conceived through excruciating circumstances. Victims of these circumstances deserve love, care, and compassion. And so does the baby. We don’t solve a horrific injustice committed against one innocent human being by killing another innocent human being who had nothing to do with the crime.
Finally, even if someone is not sure that the unborn is a human being, they should still not have an abortion. The evidence above is more than enough to at least acknowledge the unborn might be a human being. Imagine for a moment there is a life-sized cardboard box sitting in a field. There is a great debate in society whether inside that cardboard box is a real, living human being, or merely a scarecrow. You’re not sure what to believe, but you are handed a machine gun and encouraged to fire it at the box. Would it be ok to fire it? No. When in doubt, you error on the side of protecting life. And so we should with the question of abortion.
