The Abortion Debate (Part 1)

For the past year’s Bible study, we’ve been watching a series of videos from Summit Ministries, on defending our faith and understanding the major types of worldviews that are out there. The series is part of a curriculum that is based on David Noebel’s book: Understanding the Times. I highly recommend it.

As part of this, we recently watched a presentation on abortion, by bio-ethicist Scott Klusendorf. Although abortion is one of the hot-button issues of our age (right up there with same-sex "marriage" and euthanasia), I’ve generally had little interest in thinking and debating about it. In fact, the only time I ever did, was when I got into it with a family member, while my wife was pregnant with our son.

From my understanding, the correct Christian viewpoint should be that life begins at conception, and abortion at any stage of pregnancy is the same as murder. But as defenders of the faith and of the unborn, we should educate ourselves to best defend our position against the “pro-choice” movement.

This is what the goal of this series shall be, and I will borrow a lot of the arguments that Mr. Klusendorf put forth, which all depend on simple logic. Although Scott is a Christian, he feels that logic is much more effective against atheists and lukewarm “Christians”. And I believe he’s right. We serve a logical and reasonable God, who put the universe in motion, to follow certain rules. We need to have confidence that logic and science, even philosophy and psychology, ultimately lead back to Him.

What’s the Real Issue?

Think about the main arguments that the two sides are making. “Pro-lifers” state with vigor that abortion is murder, because a fetus, at any stage, is a human being. “Pro-choice” groups argue that the real issue is a woman’s rights over her own body. In fact, the names “pro-life” and “pro-choice” are very appropriate, when you think about it.

But abortion is NOT a human rights issue. When you analyze the worldviews professed by both sides, it all boils down to one question: “What is the unborn?” Pretty much everyone agrees that human life is sacred and that it’s wrong to ever end it, except maybe in extreme circumstances. People who are against abortion believe that a human fetus is a human being, whose life is just as sacred as yours and mine. Therefore, abortion is tantamount to murder and should be illegal. Abortion supporters, on the other hand, fundamentally believe that either the fetus is not fully human until a certain point in its development, or that a woman’s rights trump that of the fetus.

With Mr. Klusendorf’s help, we will prove that (1) a fetus is human from conception, and that (2) the mother has no ethical right to end its life.

To be continued...

The picture above was taken from a fetal development slideshow at medicinenet.com. It shows a 16-week-old fetus. "The fetus now measures about 4.3 to 4.6 inches and weighs about 2.8 ounces. The baby's eyes can blink and the heart and blood vessels are fully formed. The baby's fingers and toes should have fingerprints."