When Life is Reduced to a Choice: Opposing Abortion While Reaching Out to Hurting Woman by Bill Shannon

I’ll never forget meeting my third granddaughter for the first time. She was beautiful. As my wife and I stood in that ordinary hospital room, we stared with joyful fascination at the extraordinary miracle of life. We marveled out loud at how God had fashioned her little arms, legs, fingers, and toes. We wondered about which side of the family she might grow up to look like; and we rejoiced in the fact that she was healthy and strong. We could hardly take our eyes off her. She was undoubtedly part of our family, and we were so thankful that God had brought her into our lives.

Now we just had to wait until she was born.

But it would be seven more months before her birthday would come. In fact, our granddaughter was still in her first trimester of life when we met her for the first time. Her mom had been hospitalized for pregnancy-related sickness; and our first glimpses of her were via a three-dimensional ultrasound machine. But there she was as a seven-week-old fetus—affectionately known as Peanut—with recognizable ears, eyes, elbows, fingers, toes, and a nose. I was shocked at how distinct her features were. “How could anyone think this is not a human being?” I asked my wife. The images we saw were not of an indistinct blob. No, we clearly saw our granddaughter, her tiny heart beating inside her tiny body. There she was, complete in all the beauty of personhood.

Abortion in American Culture

My granddaughter was not even two months along when I first met her. As impossible as it is for me to imagine, that is the same stage of development at which millions of other unborn babies are killed each year. According to recent statistics, 22 percent of all pregnancies in the United States (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion. Since Roe v. Wade, over 45 million abortions have taken place in the United States. Some 61 percent of these take place before the fetus is 9 weeks old, with another 28 percent occurring between 9 to 12 weeks. By far, the most common reasons for having an abortion are social in nature, meaning that the pregnancy is inconvenient or the child is unwanted by the mother for one reason or another. And of those women who have abortions, at least 65 percent would consider themselves Christians (with 43 percent identifying themselves as Protestant, and 27 percent as Catholic).1

The American legal system, ever since the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, has held that women in the United States have a constitutional right to obtain an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy—that is, before the fetus is considered “viable” (or able to live on his or her own outside of the mother’s womb). Beyond the fact that “viability” is an inherently subjective standard, a point admitted even by abortion advocates, the irony is that a newborn baby is immediately granted full legal rights as a human being; yet only a few months (or even hours) earlier, that same child is not even considered a person.

Abortion and the Bible

Ever since the Supreme Court decided against the unborn, abortion as a medical practice has been widely accepted in American society. But does the legalization of abortion in the eyes of the government make it right in the sight of God? To answer this question, one must begin by determining God’s view of the human fetus. Does He consider the fetus a person or merely protoplasm? If the Bible fails to grant personhood to the unborn fetus, then  perhaps the premature extermination of such life is morally inconsequential. But, if God’s Word demonstrates that the unborn fetus is indeed a person, then abortion is nothing less than murder (Genesis 9:6; Exodus 20:13).

A number of Bible passages make it clear that God regards conception as the moment at which personhood begins. Job 10:8-12 and 31:13-15, for example, attribute divine value and human qualities to the unborn fetus. Psalm 139:13-16 similarly exalts God for His creative work in the fashioning of the unborn baby. Isaiah 49:1-5, Jeremiah 1:4-5, and Galatians 1:15-16 all note that God can work in the lives of His chosen servants even before they are born. Furthermore, Luke 1:41-45 documents the emotional joy of the unborn John the Baptist when Mary visited Elizabeth. And Psalm 51:5 points to conception as the beginning of a person’s sinful nature. None of these things would be possible if personhood did not come until after birth.

In some passages, the Bible speaks of an unborn child in the same way that it does of those who have been born—thereby showing that God views them both the same way. For example, in Exodus 21:4 and 21:22 the same Hebrew word translated “child” or “children” is used, despite the fact that verse 4 refers to a postnatal child while verse 21 refers to an unborn life. The New Testament also uses the same Greek word for life before birth (Luke 1:41,44) as it does for life outside the womb (Acts 7:19). It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that the unborn are often described in the same ways as those who are born (Genesis 25:22-23; Job 31:15; Isaiah 44:2; Hosea 12:3). For that matter, the prophet Jeremiah notes that had his death been prenatal, the womb would have been his grave (Jeremiah 20:17); and the prebirth death of one of God’s prophets cannot be equated with the death of a nonperson.

Scripture further espouses the fact that all human persons are the offspring of other human persons. After all, Genesis 1:24-25 decisively mandates that each “kind” within creation is to reproduce solely after its own “kind.”

The procreation of existing human persons, therefore, is limited solely to the generation of new human persons. In other words, via the reproductive process, it is impossible for existing persons to even produce a nonperson.

God’s image in man (see Genesis 1:26; James 3:9) is particularly attacked by abortion. After all, abortion not only destroys the image of God in the fetus by killing the baby, but also disregards God’s command to multiply His image in future generations by terminating the reproductive process. In the end, because the fetus results from two persons, each made in the image of God, Scripture indicates that he or she is also a person found in God’s image.

The Bible overwhelmingly argues for the personhood of the prenatal fetus, while simultaneously denouncing the horrible murder of unborn humans (cf. Exodus 21:22-23).2 When all the facts are in, abortion may have been legalized by the Supreme Court, but it cannot be viewed as anything less than a direct assault on the moral law of God.

The Devastating Consequences of Abortion

Abortion rights is unashamedly driven by a feminist agenda that claims to put the feelings and interests of the mother above anything else. Thus, the right to choose on the part of the mother overrides the right to live on the part of the unborn child. As a result,


Appeals to Biblical morality, to the constitutional right to life, to scientific facts about the development of life in the womb, to the brutality of abortion techniques—these objective issues carry no weight with people whose worldview allows for no external absolutes, who accept no moral criteria beyond a woman’s arbitrary choice, or who uncritically accept orthodox feminist party line.3

Dr. Larry Epperson explains that “the underlying reason people want to have the option of abortion is to maintain the ‘sexual freedom’ and personal convenience. Their demand for such ‘rights’ is so overwhelming that their solution to the unwanted consequences of sexual relations is not to stop promiscuity, but to kill the unborn children that result.” 4

Though women who choose to abort may be ignoring God’s moral standards in the moment, they rarely escape the lifelong guilt and heartache that results from their tragic choice. They have been designed by God as nurturers (cf. 1 Timothy 2:15; Titus 2:4); they have God’s law written on their conscience (cf. Romans 2:14-15); and they have often been manipulated into their decision by others (perhaps a boyfriend or husband). As a result, they are often scarred by feelings of regret and shame even if they do not know the Lord (cf. Psalm 32:3-4).

These woman generally desire healing, but do not know where to find it. Some become depressed and suicidal. “Compared to women who have not been pregnant in the prior year, deaths from suicide, accidents, and homicide are 248 percent higher in the year following an abortion, according to a new 13-year study of the entire population in Finland. The study also found that the majority of the extra deaths among women who had abortions were due to suicide.”5 Another study found that “among the most worrisome of these reactions is the increase of self-destructive behavior among aborted women. In a survey of over 100 women who had suffered from post-abortion trauma, fully 80 percent expressed feelings of ‘self-hatred.’ In the same study, 49 percent reported drug abuse and 39 percent began to use or increased their use of alcohol.” 6 Though not comprehensive, reports like these illustrate the mental and emotional anguish that can follow an abortion.

Guilt and shame presuppose sin, and sin can only be remedied through the forgiveness found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Although the mother has sinned against God and her child, there is real hope to be found in God’s grace, just as there is for any sinner. As David exclaimed in Psalm 32:5-6, writing after his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.’ And You forgave the guilt of my sin.”

Abortion and the Church

How can the church help women who are either pregnant (and considering an abortion) or who have already terminated a pregnancy?

Most basically, the church should help educate women so that they do not make this decision in the first place. This includes teaching biblically on the topic, and making prolife resources available to those in the congregation (including information on adoption and postpartum support). Also, teaming up with a nearby Pregnancy Resource Center is a helpful way to offer additional counseling and support to women who have questions.

Pregnancy Resource Centers, for instance, often have ultrasound machines that can help expectant mothers meet their unborn babies—in the same way that my wife and I met our granddaughter before she was born. Among abortion-minded women who visited the Pregnancy Resource Center in North Hills, California in 2006, the non-ultrasound clients chose to abort 61 percent of the time. However, those who used ultrasound would abort only 24.5 percent of the time.7 This is just one example of how a Pregnancy Resource Center can supplement the church’s efforts to convince women that abortion is not the answer.

What can the church do for women who have already had an abortion? Obviously the ideal scenario is to have opportunity to counsel a pregnant mother before any irreversible decision has been made about the fetus. But even when it is too late, pastors and other Christians can still offer the hope of the gospel to a mother who desperately needs forgiveness and salvation. Though conversion cannot erase the memory and pain of a wrong choice, it does bring supernatural peace with God in knowing that all sin has been forgiven through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Psalm 103:8-12 promises this to  those who embrace God’s grace:

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

He will not always strive with us,

Nor will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

What about the church’s response to the abortion rights movement? Grace Community Church believes that Christians should vigorously employ all legislative and legal means to end abortion. This includes our constitutional rights of speech, press, petition, and assembly. Yet even in the exercise of our legal rights we must be careful to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ not only for the unborn but also for those who oppose us—seeing them not as the enemy, but as the mission field.

The church should never stoop to illegal or dishonest methods in order to stop abortion. Such is neither biblical (cf. Romans 13:1-7) nor honoring to the glorious name of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). Thus we would not sanction the use of violence to achieve God’s purposes. Instead, we would emphasize the preaching of the gospel. After all, hope for true lasting change (at either the individual or national level) can only be found in the good news of Jesus Christ.  MacArthur, ppg. 79-96.