God's Stance on Abortion

Six things that the LORD hates, indeed, there are even a total of seven which are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, lying lips, hands that shed innocent blood....

In the old days, before IV's, they used to do blood transfusions by putting one person on a cot above the recipient, like a bunk-bed, and run a line to the person below, and let the person in the upper bunk's heart do the work of pumping blood for both. It was dangerous (especially with incompatible blood types, infection, etc), and risky for both.

Imagine you've been in a catastrophe, and, while you were unconscious, the doctors connected you up to another person. They are depending on you for their continued existence. Granted, it is weakening you, stealing a bit of your vitality, and you are wounded too. But if you will endure it for a few hours, the other person, someone you don't know... will live, and go on to probably have a good life.

So, do you have the right to say, "No, unplug that person! I never agreed to this, and I have a right not to keep someone else alive! I don't want to help a stranger and risk my own health for that persons sake--unplug them! Let them die! I don't owe them a single thing, and you shouldn't make me save someone else's life against my will!!!!

What would you think of a person like that?

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


Aside from the really gross violation of that patiants rights; with the sheer amount of people who have contracted aids and died because of blood transfusions I'd think that person would have every right to be pissed off. Your scenario is nothing like a woman being pregnant, whats more it involves two adult fully formed human beings and no matter how many ways you compare a pregnant woman to another situation you can never made a fetus anything more than a fetus. The personhood of a zygote/fetus is often under dispute and as I said before the punnishment for causing miscarriage is not death in the bible which implies they did not think the value of the fetus was the same as the mother's.

I am NOT telling people they should be pro-choice.. I am just saying that the bible does not really take an anti-abortion stance and that the beliefs of midle eastern people two thousand years ago may not have reflected current christian beliefs.

reply to post by riley


I agree with you in many facets, I think.

-A fetus is not equal to an independent child. I might even say that a fetus is not fully human. Although if nature takes its course, it would almost certainly become one.

-Based on that, I don't think that abortion is murder. I think it IS the shedding of innocent blood, which is why I started with that quote, instead of one about murder.

-Looking at the Torah as a whole, it seems like the ancient Hebrews (and most of their neighbors, from literature and archaeological evidence) had a huge problem getting the infant mortality rate down to sustainable levels. I say that from the Torah based on polygamy, concubinage, exogamy, the horror at child sacrifice, etc.

In a culture where successful childbearing greatly enhances a woman's (or man's for that matter) prestige, abortion probably would not come up. In that culture, wish a couple many children was a blessing, rather than a curse. This is true in most agrarian and nomadic societies.

The trick for Christians is to internalize the moral teachings of the Bible, instead of merely trying to mimic a particular culture (like the Amish), and assuming that doing so is enough to please God.

Bill Clinton once said that he wished abortion was legal but extremely rare. I agree with that. The problem is, America and its medical-industrial complex turns everything into a business that serves a lot of interests other than the patient's, or her developing child.

No, I brought up the whole "unwilling blood donor" because I think it really DOES highlight an unwilling mother's predicament. It isn't fair for any patient to have their independence subverted for a stranger's sake, and against their will, too. On the other hand, when the donor's decision results in someone else dying, a thinking person must admit it is a gut-wrenching an momentous decision, regardless of the particular choice made.

It is not like any woman gleefully skips down to the abortion clinic after a starbuck's in the morning on the way to getting her nails done. On the other hand, we live in what is becoming a "culture of death," where the life and death of an anonymous nobody is seen as having no inherent importance.

I feel abortion a bit like I do about suicide. I don't think suicides automatically go to hell, and I want to respect their right to choose their own destiny. But like an unwilling mother, I wish they would have faith in the future, and at least try it. Maybe their dreams wont come true; but perhaps the future won't be the nightmare they imagine, either.

Some choices will always be a mix of good and evil.

Some of these verses from the old testament give me great difficulty in excepting the premise that at least the old testament god was pro life.
They are appalling and show no regard for life.
It would be troubling today if people turned to verses like this to justify war crimes. They could use it support
the fact that they committed genocide because it was gods will.

"...They shall fall by the sword:
their infants shall be dashed in
pieces, and their women with child
(pregnant) shall be ripped up!"
direct quote from YHWH -- Hosea 13:16

"Their children shall be dashed
to pieces before their eyes!
There houses spoiled, and their
wives raped...Dash the young men
to pieces...have no pity on the
fruit of the womb, the children
shall not be spared"
-- Isa 13:16-18

“Happy shall he be, that taketh
and dasheth thy little ones against
the stones.” --Psalms 137:9