Our society faces issues and asks many questions. People are looking for answers. It is time to address some of the big issues from an informed and pastoral view. We will begin to focus in the next few issues on abortion.
I have a niece in the United States. She is a Millennial, born in 1991. My niece is an intelligent thinker, thoroughly postmodern and secular progressive, has a soft, sweet, and compassionate side, but can be militant and combative, perhaps ‘triggered,’ if she doesn’t like what she hears. She loved US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders back in 2016 – she ‘felt the Bern.’ Though she had been exposed to the gospel, she chose to embrace an alternative lifestyle. She knows and respects that I am an ordained Christian minister with a conservative, high-view of Scripture.
Imagine my surprise when she asked me via Facebook the following question:
What is your view on abortion, and why do you feel that way? Your professional and personal qualms with the issue would be appreciated. Please feel free to get as deep as you would like. The more information the better. Thank you uncle.
So, as a blogger, I decided to share my answer to my niece with the world.
What would you say to your niece if she asked you about abortion?
Here is what I said to mine:
Terminology: First, let’s define terms. Abortion means the deliberate termination of a pregnancy, with the loss of life for the foetus. Miscarriages are actually called ‘spontaneous abortions,’ meaning they come from nature at any time, usually in the early weeks or months of a pregnancy. ‘Therapeutic abortion’ is caused by direct human intervention, normally by a medical professional. Unless there is human intervention in or interruption of the pregnancy, the mother will carry the child to term. It is the subject of ‘therapeutic abortion’ to which I will address.
Why abortion was outlawed in the past: If the foetus in the womb is truly a human-person from conception, then abortion is clearly murder. This was the consensus for centuries and the law treated it as a criminal offence. The Judaeo-Christian heritage of the western world, and the Ten Commandments as the foundation of the legal system, made it so. The sixth of the ten commandments clearly states ‘Thou shalt not murder’ (Exodus 20:13).
Even so, abortions have happened throughout history, despite the physical risks and the legal and Scriptural prohibitions.
Why did things change? We have had 200 years of The Enlightenment, where human reason became king and sought to marginalise Bible and theology. Then we had the advent of liberal theology, higher criticism that has a lower view of Scripture, and the rise of evolution. Add to this a cultural civil war that has lasted over half a century. In this war we’ve had a sexual revolution, the feminist movement, cultural Marxism, and postmodernism with its ‘truth is relative’ and ‘tolerance is a must.’
Roe vs. Wade 1973: The watershed happened on January 22, 1973. On this date, the United States Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision called ‘Roe vs. Wade,’ which gave American woman a right to have an abortion. Overnight, thirty-one states had their abortion laws overturned in an instant. Though ‘Roe’ was considered a ‘compromise’ and not a ‘blank cheque’ for abortion on demand, the fact is that over 60 million abortions have been performed in the US since 1973. That is more than the amount of people who perished in World War II.
TO BE CONTINUED