Abortion, the ending of a pregnancy, whether is occurs naturally or spontaneously or if it results from man's intervention. You cannot do anything about a spontaneous abortion. Those are ones that occur naturally. There is either a genetic abnormality or something wrong/not just right in the mother. This post is to address those abortions that result from man's intervention, which results in the death of the baby.
It is MY choice. It is my body and I can do with it as I please.
How selfish can you get? What about the baby's body? Oh, they do not get a choice. They must do what the mother decides. If she wants the baby to die, then it is ok, because the baby is in her body. The child's life is worth less than her own, so she can be like God and decided it the baby will live or die. (And yes, I am using baby to describe the child in the womb. The turn "fetus" may be what is acceptable to science, but that turn is just another name to describe a baby in the womb and the turn "fetus" just takes away from the humanity of the baby in the womb) In many cases (not all) it was the woman's choice to have sex and pregnancy is a consequence of sex. If you do not want to have a baby, then do not have sex. There are contraceptives available to those women who wish to still engage in sex, and while they are not 100% effective, they are still there and available for women to use.
What is inside me is not a person, so it is ok.
So, when does it become a person? You know, that one week old baby in the womb has the same DNA as a 1 week old baby outside the womb. What makes us human and not monkeys or dog or fish? Our DNA. It is my believe that you are a person from the moment you are conceived.
Isaiah 49:1 The Lord called me before I was born. He named me while I was in my mother’s womb.
The Lord clearly thought Isaiah was a person before he was born. He even gave Isaiah a name.
Jeremiah 1:5 I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah was chosen before the womb. Once God chose to make him, he was set apart for the work of the Lord to be a prophet.
Luke 1:15 He (Jesus) will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb.
Here the Messiah was filled with the Holy Spirit before he left the womb.
It is clear in the Bible that baby's in the womb are recognized by God and that he considers them special and important before they are ever born. Why can we not value the life in the womb like God? I know why. We are selfish. We want things our way and when something happens we do not like (like an unwanted pregnancy) we take action to "fix" it. We disregard why we are in the situations we are in and instead of dealing with the consequences, we take the easy road out and do want is good for us now. We think we know what the future would be like as a single mom, or even in a marriage with an unwanted child, but we can never know how it will affect us unless we let it happen. We fear the unknown and want to keep thing the same.
Some people even argue that since the baby is dependent on the mother for it's life, then it isn't truly a person. The baby cannot survive outside the womb, so it isn't "alive." While that is true, that the baby cannot survive outside the womb FOR A TIME. Just because the baby is in the womb does not mean it is not alive. The baby does not become alive once it exits the womb, it already is alive! But how long must the baby stay in the womb before it can survive outside? Well, you cannot say for sure. It is different from baby to baby. Some can survive as early as 25 weeks and some at the same 25 weeks would not live past the birth.
Women just do not understand what is happening in an abortion.
Yes, they understand they are stopping a pregnancy. The unwanted "fetus" will no longer be there. It is just a blob of tissue that isn't really alive anyways. What they do not understand is that from early on in the pregnancy, the "fetus" looks like a baby. It moves like a baby. (The fetus is moving its limbs and body). It has a heart beat that is detectable by ultrasound from the 6th week. (It is actually sooner than that, but the length of pregnancy is measured from the first day of your last menstrual, so it is probably closer to 4 weeks of the actual age of the baby when it can be detected.) I was six weeks pregnant when I found out I was expecting. My daughter already had a heart beat. She was already moving. She was alive! Just looking at the ultrasound you can see that! Something that is not alive is still. It does not move and it will not have a heart beat!
Rape and Incest.
This is one category that gets a lot of people. Some one who is raped did not have a choice on whether or not to have sex. Therefore, they did not have a choice on whether or not to get pregnant. Why then should they have a choice to end the pregnancy? Yes, it will be a constant reminder of what happened. Yes, it is unwanted and not desired. But, what did the baby do to deserve no chance at life? All because the way they came into the world was not desirable, does not mean they do not deserve a chance at life. The same goes for incest, whether consensual or not.
What really gets me are those people that fight so aggressively against domestic abuse and rape, yet they feel abortion is ok. What about that poor, abused baby? It did not even stand a chance to fight for it's life. It was looked on with contempt from the moment it was conceived and abused in the thoughts of it's mother, though, until she had the abortion, could not physically harm the child.
The baby is going to be deformed or have a genetic disease.
And having a deformation or a disease makes one less human? Does a person with a deformation or a disease not count as a person? Even people who are excited to have a baby will consider or even go through with an abortion if told their baby is going to be born ill or deformed. Why? Doctors cannot tell with 100% accuracy what deformations or diseases, or even how severe anything will be, just from ultrasounds. There have been cases where people were told their baby would have this or that syndrome and the babies were born perfectly fine! There have also been parents who had babies who were told they were fine only to find out of some disease after they were born. Does it make a difference WHEN someone learns of a deformation or a disease? Whether in the womb or out of it? It does not change their DNA. It does not change how human they are. It does not change the fact they are alive.
The mother will die or the baby would not survive anyways.This is the topic that gets me. If the mother is pregnant and the pregnancy will result in her death, but she would be guaranteed to live otherwise, is an abortion ok? I think in the event of a tubal pregnancy, then an abortion is necessary to save the mother's life. I know it is rare for someone to survive a tubal pregnancy without intervention and even more rare for the baby to survive, though it has happened. Most tubal pregnancies are found after a heart beat is present and the baby is moving and growing. It is life. It is life that puts the mother's life in danger. If allowed to continue, then the baby will soon out grow the area and the tube will rupture. This almost always causes the death of the baby. The mother, without any intervention would probably die from blood loss. The goal is to stop these before the rupture, to avoid the blood loss in the mother.
There are viable alternatives
Are you pregnant and not wanting the baby? Well there are alternatives to abortion. I believe there is a lot of misinformation out there about the foster system and adoption. Many people think that all these women who are having babies and not wanting them are flooding the foster system that is already over burdened. Well, that isn't completely true. If there is a women who is not wanting her baby, that baby can go directly to adoptive parents without ever entering the foster system. I know this because my cousins have a beautiful baby girl they took home from the hospital that they are in the process of adopting. The baby never spent one day in foster care. The mother decided she did not want to keep the child and then found (by word of mouth, not through an adoption agency) a couple (my cousins) who wanted to have a child but could not and they worked it out so that my cousins could adopt her. They were present for the birth and took her home at the end of her stay. Now, I know that their case was slightly unusual, but it can be done. There are many adoption agencies that allow the birth mother to choose a couple from a variety of couples looking for children. (I know several people going through this route to adoption).
I guess what I really want to say here is that an unwanted pregnancy is not the end of the world and it takes a stronger women to keep the baby than one who kills it. An abortion is the easy way out and you do not even give the baby a change at life. You put your own comforts and feelings above that of another and choose to kill the weaker to make your own life better. It is clear that God values life, even life before birth. Children can be a blessing if you let them. If not to you, then to someone else who would be willing to take them and care for them.
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