WHAT ABORTION REALLY IS

By Gabrielle Stafford  

What is abortion? Why does it matter? Does it go against God? Why does God care? 

These are all important questions in talking about the topic of abortion and discussing if it’s wrong, what God says about it, and how we should feel about it, especially for those of us who are His children and seek to honor Him.

Simply put, abortion is murder. It kills a life. It hurts the mother. It does indeed dishonor God, and it kills the life of a child that God allowed to be conceived in a mother’s womb. Before you stop reading, hear me out. 

God made every person who is conceived in their mother’s womb, and as Psalm 119:73a reads, “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me:” God is the One who made and fashioned every one of us, so who are we to take away the life He created?

Abortion is murder. 

Life starts at the moment of conception.

Keith Moore, author of Essentials of Human Embryology, explains, “Fertilization is a sequence of events that begins with the contact of a sperm (spermatozoon) with a secondary oocyte (ovum) and ends with the fusion of their pronuclei (the haploid nuclei of the sperm and ovum) and the mingling of their chromosomes to form a new cell. This fertilized ovum, known as a zygote, is a large diploid cell that is the beginning, or primordium, of a human being.” 

The child that a pregnant mother conceived is a human life that is growing and developing. Terminating a growing life within the womb is murder. And according to God and His standards, murder is wrong. 

By definition abortion is, “the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy.” 

The definition of “deliberate”  is, according to google, “done consciously and intentionally.” 

Likewise, “termination” is defined as, ”the action of bringing something or coming to an end.” 

The definitions make the issue clear and straightforward. Abortion is a decision that terminates a pregnancy, consciously and intentionally. 

Every human life that God has fashioned and created must be protected. This of course includes the innocent life of the unborn. 

John R Ling, with the Christian Institute asserts,” Protection of human life is a recurring theme in Scripture. Uniquely in the created order it is only the lives of human beings that enjoy this special protection. The Sixth Commandment, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13), stands out as a great beacon to protect all innocent human life. ‘Innocent’ here does not mean those ‘without sin’, but those ‘without harm’… Even the accidental killing of another human being was to be punished – the killer had to flee to a city of refuge (Numbers 35:6-34).” 

The destruction of life, murder, is a very serious offense and sin against God. It’s not something to take lightly. Both murder and abortion take the life of a person that God created. Whether in the womb or out, murder of an innocent life is sinful in the eyes of God because He has given us the direct command not to murder, and when we are aware of this, we are held accountable. 

God is Life, and He alone is the giver of Life. He forms every child in their mother’s womb and gives them the breath of life, and we ought to protect that life.

God is Sovereign, not us. 

Every week I do what’s called sidewalk counseling. In front of the gates of one of the largest abortion facilities in the U.S., I watch cars drive up to the gates of Planned Parenthood, and as I say a silent prayer I approach each car in hopes that they will hear the hope I have to offer, take the literature for free local resources, and that those who are considering abortion would be able to see the value of the child they are carrying and choose life, not death for their child. 

From my experience, the main reason women are considering, or have fully decided to, terminate their pregnancy is because they are experiencing an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. It must be noted that the number one way for women to not experience an unwanted pregnancy is to guard and protect their sexual purity. Abortion is a sin, but so is sex outside of marriage as God has ordained. However, there is forgiveness, restoration, healing, and help. 

God’s Word says in Jeremiah 1:5a, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;” 

God knows about each woman’s pregnancy. He even knows when it’s unplanned.

Whatever the circumstances may be surrounding an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy, God is Sovereign. Even when a mother feels like they are not ready, or they are having financial issues, or maybe they just feel like they wouldn’t have any support, He’s still Sovereign, and there is real help available. 

One day when I was sidewalk counseling, I was speaking with a woman who asked me if I was raped would I have the baby, and my response was essentially this: yes absolutely! The life of the child is still beautiful, whether the baby was conceived from rape, or if I intentionally wanted to conceive. 

Situations, like financial instability, rape, emotional, or lack of support, are often used as excuses to proceed with abortion, however they do not give us the right to take the life of a child made in God’s image. Yes, situations are hard, life is not fair and people can be awful, but God is the giver of life and we have no right to take the life of an unborn child, especially out of selfishness and convenience.

Abortion can be a way of someone stepping into the role of God, and that’s wrong. God is the only one that is Sovereign. He can provide, cover, and heal no matter the cause of pregnancy, and no matter the cons of adoption or foster care. Nothing surprises God because He is all knowing. He is a gentleman and is more than able to take care of the baby, mother, all that are involved, and the overall situation.

Ultimately, we are not God. We do not know all, nor are we in control. Only God is. God does see and hear all things. He sees the concerns. He sees the pain. He sees the heartache. He sees and He cares. And at the end of the day, God is in control. He is the One that sits on the throne, not us. All we must do is honor and be faithful to Him in every situation no matter how hard it is. He knows what is truly good for us.

Abortion is an insult to God. 

God is our Creator, who fashioned each child to ever be conceived in their mother’s womb. He also is a God of order. 

God set order in Genesis with the institution of family, and He gave mankind to have dominion, and be stewards of the earth (Genesis 1:26). 

To have dominion or rule over the earth entails taking care of animals, people and God’s beautiful creation, not treating them cruelly or unreasonably. We are to be caretakers who represent God and all that He stands for. Having dominion does not allow us to step outside God’s order and purpose. 

We are all made in God’s image, and intentionally taking human life that we did not give or make possible is a direct insult to God. Life is a gift! To turn around and destroy that gift is a slap in God’s face. 

If there was an artist that created a piece of art that you personally did not like, or thought that it was of no use, do you have the right to insult the artist and destroy it? No, absolutely not. 

The same principle here goes for the life of a child. Abortion is an insult to God, and we essentially put aside the fact that He’s God and decide to damage and destroy the innocent life that He has created. How dare we?

Abortion hurts the mother. 

Abortion is traumatic and hurts the mother emotionally and physically.

Emotionally, some women fall into depression, battling feelings of guilt, regret, shame, and some becoming emotionally unstable. 

I have personally seen women, both grown women and young teenagers, coming out of the abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood, crying and in pain. It’s so hard to see women coming out in pain. To see them hurt and so sad. My heart goes out to the women who experience intense feelings of guilt, shame, and pain. God wants better for His creation. 

Physically, many women have severe damage to their reproductive system, resulting in infertility, or resulting in many future pregnancy and labor complications, such as their body rejecting their child; infection, hemorrhage, etc. 

The Science Times lists some of the short term side effects, including, “excessive bleeding, pelvic infection, uterine perforation, cervical tears, and in extreme cases death.”

David C. Reardon, Ph.D., director of the Elliot Institute and widely recognized as one of the leading experts on the after effects of pregnancy loss on women, states that, “compared to childbirth, abortion and miscarriage are associated with higher rates of maternal death, psychiatric hospitalization, subsequent substance abuse, clinical depression, and numerous other complications.”

Both the woman and her child are so important to God, and He has given them both purpose. They are both His creations, and as the loving God that He is, He wants the best for both mother and child.  

Exodus 21:22 reads,”If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.”

Here we see how God feels about the life of the mother and the baby she carries. Their lives are so precious in His sight, and He deems it necessary to punish the individual that would bring them harm, because He’s just.  

Imagine a newborn being left on the steps of an old, run down and abandoned house because their mother did not want to raise a child. You’re walking down the street and hear the baby crying. Would you rescue the child and do what it takes to make sure that they find a safe home, or would you just leave them there? There really isn’t a difference between a baby being ripped apart outside or inside the womb. In both cases, the child is still being killed. 

We are to care just as much about a child being killed inside the womb as we do for a child being harmed, let alone killed, outside the womb. 

Whether you consider yourself pro-life and you acknowledge that yes, the child in the womb is a human life that God lovingly created with purpose, or you consider yourself pro-abortion and you advocate for a woman having the choice to kill her child, I urge you to reflect.  

Reflect on this: God is Sovereign, and He is the giver of life; abortion is murder, abortion harms the mother, God calls us to protect life not destroy it, and God has purpose for every person conceived in their mother’s womb, no matter the circumstance surrounding a woman’s pregnancy. 

To protect life is to honor God, to destroy it is to dishonor Him.

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References:

• Keith Moore. 1988. Essentials of Human Embriology. 
• John R. Ling. 2017. When does human life begin?. The Christian Institute.
• Anna Amad. 2015. Worst Long Term Effect Of Abortion. The Science Times.