by Samuel Brooks; cover photo credit: Zach Lucero
The goal of this post is to provide support for the pro-life argument through biblical, moral and scientific evidence. This post is targeted towards both Christians and non-Christians who support the pro-abortion stance.
Below are some common statements made by pro-abortion activists (in italics) with pro-life rebuttals.
- At what point does life begin? As a Christian, I believe that life begins at conception/fertilization (Exodus 20:13; Genesis 1:26-28; Ephesians 2:10; Psalm 127:3-5, 139:13-16; Job 31:15; Isaiah 49:15; Jeremiah 1:5) and that abortion is the same as murder. Aside from the biblical evidence, science is clear that the sperm and egg by themselves aren’t a new life until fertilization: “During the first 24 hours, once the sperm and egg bind to each other, the membranes of these two cells fuse, creating in less than a second a single hybrid cell: the zygote, or one-cell embryo. To protect his or her bodily integrity, within minutes the zygote initiates changes in its ionic composition, releasing zinc in a spark that induces “egg activation,” first modifying the surrounding zona pellucida blocking further sperm binding to the cell surface. Cooperation between sperm and egg components to achieve replication of DNA, cell division, and growth occurs as maternally and paternally derived factors in the zygote begin interacting with and chemically modifying each other to initiate the final round of meiotic division in the maternally derived nucleus to enable DNA replication. Finally, the nuclear membranes of the pronuclei break down (called syngamy—technically, pronuclear membranes). No new nuclear membrane encompassing both pronuclei is formed; rather, mitosis occurs and two cells, each with its own identical nucleus encased in a nuclear membrane, are formed” [American College of Pediatricians]. Furthermore, according to the British Heart Foundation, “the human heart starts beating as early as 16 days after conception”. Prior to birth, the “unborn’s reproductive organs begin to develop and then continue to develop after birth (for example, preborn female children have early reproductive cells in their ovaries by 9 weeks post fertilization or 11 weeks from a woman’s last menstrual period” [EHD]. An individual’s developmental stage – fetus, toddler, teenager, adult – doesn’t determine their humanity. Ben Shapiro even makes the following statement: “If a baby were outside the womb and you stuck a knife through its chest, you’d be charged with first-degree murder. You kill it inside the womb and we call it a ‘human right’.”
- It’s just a clump of cells with a heartbeat. What’s your skin, hair, internal organs and fluids made of? Cells! Therefore, using that same logic that pro-abortion activists use, we all are a clump of cells with a heartbeat.
- What about personhood? By definition, ‘personhood’ is “the quality or condition of being an individual person.” At a point in history, Africans and Irish were enslaved, Jews were placed in concentration camps, and preborn babies have been aborted; these groups were (or are in regards to the aborted babies) not considered to be a ‘person’. So what I am saying is that the “right to life is grounded in the biological category of ‘human’ rather than a legal or philosophical label of ‘person'” [Live Action].
- It’s my body; my choice. You’re right that it’s your choice because we have free will; however, like every choice, good and bad, there are consequences. Some of the emotional and psychological consequences of having an abortion “can range from mild regret to more serious complications such as depression” [American Pregnancy Association]. I also realize that some women may experience some of these same complications if they get pregnant later in life. If that’s the case, I recommend contacting professional support whether it’s a counselor and/or a minister sooner rather than later. As far as choices go, I believe in four of them: motherhood, contraception, adoption and abstinence. Furthermore, it’s technically two separate bodies: the mother and the infant. On the flip side, if they’re not two separate bodies, does that mean that the mother has four feet, 20 toes and two hearts? If the fetus is a boy, does that mean that the mother has a penis? Of course not! To also be clear, as a man, we’re not here to control what women do with their bodies but, rather, to stand up for human rights. As a Christian, I have a moral obligation to do so as Proverbs 24:11 NLT says “Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death.” Not to mention, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.
- It’s a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion. The specific right that’s being cited is the 4th Amendment of the Constitution where it provides the right to privacy; however, its context refers specifically to search and seizure without probable cause and the need for a warrant. There’s no Constitutional amendment that supports, or is intended to support, abortion within the document’s context. Plus, the right to liberty doesn’t grant us permission to cause harm to others. Two other parts in the Declaration of Independence included with the right to liberty statement are the right to life and pursuit of happiness. So what about the unborn woman’s right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness?
- Planned Parenthood provides reproductive healthcare for women. What kind of “reproductive healthcare” exactly? They don’t provide mammograms, there’s no pre-natal care being offered by the majority (only 5 out of 97 facilities provide pre-natal care), and ultrasounds are only used to conduct abortions similar to using a GPS when traveling. The abortion industry, including Planned Parenthood, is also rooted in racist and eugenic principles. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, has made statements such as: “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective”, “A free race cannot be born of slave masters”, and “The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Today, black women account for “12% of the U.S. population but account for 38% of reported abortions with approximately 649 abortions being committed every single day”; it’s the “number one killer among black Americans as they’re at least 3.8-5 times more likely to have an abortion than white women” [Live Action]. Furthermore, “3,000 preborn children will die in America today and a child is aborted at Planned Parenthood every 90 seconds” [Live Action].
- What about all of the children in the system that are unwanted and abused? Is the system perfect? No! Does abuse and neglect happen? Yes, and those that abuse children should be punished! However, to use this as a way to say that children aren’t wanted or that these situations happen by a large margin isn’t completely accurate. There are plenty of people that have a desire to have children and adoption provides one option. Furthermore, regardless of the circumstances, those children are loved, and can find peace, refuge and purpose in Jesus Christ! To use abortion as a way to spare a baby from a ‘life of suffering’ is simply “cruel and barbaric” [Kirchoff]. Read more about the misconceptions of foster care here.
- What about major cases such as rape, incest, risk to the woman’s life, or poor prenatal diagnosis? First off, rape and incest are horrific instances and the perpetrator(s) is the only guilty party. When it comes to the statistics, between the first half of 2018 and first half of 2019, the FBI showed a decrease in rape by 7.3% but rape cases increase when you include the prison population [NSVRC]. The Bureau of Justice reported that “allegations of sexual victimization in adult correctional facilities nearly tripled from 2011 to 2015. Correctional administrators reported 24,661 allegations of sexual victimization in 2015.” When it comes to abortion, rape only accounts for approximately 1% (o.5% for incest). So, why should the child, or children, be held at fault for the guilty party’s actions? You can’t meet an evil act with a greater evil act. Here’s a testimony from Lianna Rebolledo, who chose to keep her child that she conceived in a sexual assault: “I was brutally raped by two men and I became pregnant…I kept my baby. And when I had my baby girl she gave me hope and she helped me go on in my life. When she was a little girl she used to tell me, ‘Mommy thank you for giving me life; thank you for keeping me.’ That’s when I realized she was the one who gave me my life back…[She] is now a 22-year-old woman. She’s a beautiful woman, very caring. And she helped me to move on; she helped me to heal. I never saw my rapist through my daughter because she showed me that it was a different person that had nothing to do with that night”. Second, in cases of the woman’s life being at risk, abortion is never a reasonable action; such cases only account for approximately “4% nationally” [Abort73]. As a justifiable cause, multiple medical professionals have stood against it, including former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino who gave the following testimony: “I was faculty at the hospital for nine years, and I saw hundreds of cases of really severe pregnancy complications — cancers, heart disease, intractable diabetes out of control, toxemia of pregnancy out of control. And I saved — in those nine years — I saved hundreds of women from life-threatening pregnancies. And I did that by delivering them — by ending their pregnancy by delivery, either induction of labor or caesarean section. Delivering the baby. And I always tell people: in all those years, the number of babies that I had to — that I was obligated to deliberately kill in the process — was zero. None.” Lastly, when it comes to a poor prenatal diagnosis, let’s look at 2 cases: short-term life and born with a disability. The cases for fetal health problems as a reason why a woman aborts accounts for only about 3% according to a survey. One testimony comes from the mother of a child that was born with only 5 days to live: “…I can’t imagine what it would have been like to not have had this opportunity to go through this with him and to get to know him and to love him. It really has been amazing as opposed to just shoving it down and forgetting about it and pretending that his life didn’t happen and that it didn’t matter” [Thomas]. When it comes to someone being born with a disability, it’d be a human rights violation to end their life at 25 years just as it would be to end their life in the womb. An individual’s differences doesn’t determine their humanity nor does it mean that they shouldn’t be protected. According to BBC, people with disabilities “consistently report a quality of life as good as, or sometimes even better than, that of non-disabled people.” The reason being that there’s “nothing to which they can compare their current existence.” Watch a video by Steven Crowder here.
- Women won’t have the opportunities to be successful unless they have an abortion. This is an argument based on convenience. Statistically speaking, “4% of the cases see pregnancy as interfering with their education or career, 8% not wanting to be a single mother, 23% unable to afford a child, 25% not feeling ready to have children, 7% as not being mature enough to raise a child, and 19% being done with having children. Majority of abortion cases fell on the 20-24 year age range at 30% with 28.5% accounting for 25-29 years” [Abort73]. However, this argument is based on a lie! Like so many other cases, 21 year old business major Kelsey was pregnant with twins. “Her pro-life stance was put to the test when she was being pressured to get an abortion by her boyfriend and had considered it amid the anxiety. ‘This wasn’t supposed to happen to me. My parents had raised me in a manner so that I didn’t end up pregnant at 21 like my mom had been with me, and here I was pregnant at 21. Honestly, at that moment I felt like a failure.’ However, it wasn’t until she came across an ad for Pregnancy Resource Center of Rolla and began making appointments with them that she ended up choosing life for her twins.” A director stated that “She loved the coaching. She loved being able to express herself without being judged. Without that coaching, Kelsey would not have continued to come back to us and I honestly believe those babies could have been lost to abortion.” Given the circumstances, Kelsey ended up graduating college on time. You can read more about Kelsey’s story here.
- Should abortions be kept legal in order to prevent illegal abortions? Click here for a full response.
- Late-term abortions don’t happen as frequently as you might think. Actually, they do unfortunately. Click here for a full response.
- Pro-lifers are only “pro-life” until after the baby is born. That’s not true at all! Click here for a full response.
Pro-Life | Change My Mind
I want to be clear, the purpose of this post isn’t to condemn you if you’ve had an abortion. While abortion is morally wrong like many other things, the purpose is to inform on the matter. Most importantly though, regardless of your past choices or experiences, there’s grace, peace and healing in Jesus Christ, as well as, there being plenty of counselors and organizations out there that provide support…same thing for the workers that are looking for a way out. If you’re considering on having an abortion, there are plenty of resources – Pregnancy Resource Center of Rolla for example – and options out there to consider. The choice is yours to make when it comes to either situation. Now, if you’re claiming to be a Christian yet support abortion, it’s time to take a real hard look at yourself and re-evaluate your beliefs because the scientific, philosophical and biblical evidence doesn’t support what you’re professing as it relates to your faith. Even though you have the choice because of free will, you do not own your body! We were all created by God, in His image, and when He came down from heaven as Jesus, He took sin upon himself when He was nailed to the cross. With that said, God owns you and I as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV says “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” President Ronald Reagan once said “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”
For more information and resources, visit Abort73, Live Action, Students for Life, Protect Life Michigan, and And Then There Were None. I also recommend watching Unplanned, Beautiful Lives with Abby Johnson, Gosnell, Alison’s Choice, Sarah’s Choice, and Life After Abortion.
Crazy Christian 