Abortion Part 1

Abortion
A Massively Controversial Issue
With Philosophical, Theological, Ethical, and Legal
aspects to it.
Please note this is not all my own work - other sources have
been used in compiling this work.

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Facts &
Case
Studies

In Britain, a woman who says she was
left severely traumatised after having
an abortion is trying to sue her health
authority for negligence. She claims
no-one warned her about emotional
side-effects and would like other
women to be given better counselling.

A woman who was 7 months pregnant
was hit by a car in Bristol. The baby
was delivered in hospital, but did not
survive. The 27 year old driver will be
charged with causing death by
dangerous driving. If the unborn baby
had died before being delivered, no
such charge could have been brought.

Pro-life campaigners in America are using a
murder case to try to force the federal
government to recognise the foetus as an
individual in cases of violent crime. The
body of Laci Peterson, who was pregnant
with an unborn son she intended to call
Connor, was washed up on the California
coast earlier this year. Soon after the bodies
were discovered, Laci's husband Scott was
arrested. Under California state law he was
charged not with one murder, but with two
- the killing of his wife and unborn baby.
However, under US federal law the double
charge could not be brought.


Rev Joanna Jepson was born with a
cleft palate – usually very easy
correct with an operation. She
campaigned – unsuccessfully – to
bring criminal charges against two
doctors who performed a late
abortion at 28 weeks in 2001. The
doctors argued that a cleft palate
could lead to ‘severe disability’ and
abortion was therefore legal after
24 weeks. The CPS announced in
March 2005 that it would not bring
charges against the doctors.


Cleft palate is a treatable birth
defect. It happens when the roof of the
baby's mouth (palate) does not
develop normally during pregnancy,
leaving an opening (cleft) in the palate
that may go through to the nasal
cavity. A cleft can form on any part of
the palate, including the front part of
the roof of the mouth (hard palate) or
the small ﬂap of tissue that hangs
down from the soft palate (uvula).
Cleft palate and cleft lip are the most
common birth defects of the head and
neck. Until it is treated with surgery, a
cleft palate can cause problems with
feeding, speech, and hearing.

More than 25,000 people in Spain have
asked the Roman Catholic Church to
excommunicate them (they want to be
kicked out of the church). Their move is in
support of a Nicaraguan couple who were
thrown out of the Church for allowing
their young daughter to have an abortion
after she was raped. The nine-year-old
girl's parents said she became pregnant
after she was raped in Costa Rica where
they were working on a coffee plantation.
She was four months pregnant at the time
and medical experts warned she could die
whether she had the abortion or not. The
Nicaraguan authorities ruled that the
parents would not face criminal charges.

Stephen Hone, 24, went to the High
Courts to prevent his ex-girlfriend
Claire Hansell, 31, from ending her
pregnancy. Mr Hone said he would
take care of the baby when it was
born, but if Ms. Hansell had an
abortion he would seek access to the
unborn baby’s remains to arrange a
funeral. Ms. Hansell had an abortion
in March 2001.


Illegal abortions are killing thousands of
women in South America. The WHO say
that over 4 million women have illegal
abortions every year in Latin America.
"Unsafe and illegal abortion in Latin
America is a social justice problem. Women
who have no resources die,” claimed the
director of Catholics For The Right To
Decide. In Peru alone, an estimated 50,000
women a year either die or suffer serious
complications after an illegal abortion.
Many doctors in Latin America are against
abortions, and there are some who report
their patients to the police after they have
operated on women for whom
complications have arisen.

US scientists have successfully
restored a woman's vision using
eye cells taken from aborted
foetuses.

Authorities in India have been
ordered to enforce laws designed
to stop the abortion of female
foetuses. The Supreme Court ruled
that clinics must be punished for
using womb scans to determine
the sex of a foetus. A children's
charity claimed many Indians have
abortions after ultrasound scans
tell them to expect a baby girl.

A row has broken out in Australia over the
use of aborted foetuses for medical research.
A leading scientist has said that he has been
using aborted foetuses for stem cell research
for more than 20 years, but the Australian
deputy prime minister has described the
practice as a moral "slippery slope".
Professor Bernie Tuch is currently looking at
embryonic stem cells as a potential treatment
for diabetes, and has said that society should
view such research as a beneﬁt for
humankind. But a number of political ﬁgures
have expressed concern, saying that
embryonic stem cell research is ethically
dubious, worried that it may "give some
bizarre moral foundation to abortions".

Although the material here is
presented through American eyes it
should not be hard to adapt and apply
it into the culture you ﬁnd yourself in.
Pro-life = removal of current laws
allowing abortion on demand
Pro-choice = a woman has a right to
choose what happens in her body
Jan 20 1973 - US Supreme Court - Roe
v Wade case decided in favour of
legalising abortion
Pro-choice - setting women free
Pro-life - an attack on the most
vulnerable in society


The abortion debate in the US has
intensiﬁed since that day and shows
no sign of dimming - it is a great
diving issue in society.
Also at issue:
- late abortions, called partial
birth abortions
- embryo research - the desire to
use embryonic stem cells to try to
ﬁnd treatments / cures for some
debilitating diseases
- should abortion be illegal even if
viewed as immoral?


The legal background in the USA

Numerous legal cases but 5 major
ones decided in the US Supreme
Court (the focus for the legal battle in
the US) - these establish the right to
abortion and the limits upon that
right. We shall mention only the most
famous one:
Roe v. Wade


Roe v. Wade (1973)

Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) claimed
she had been raped and that Texas law
was forcing her to complete the
pregnancy even though she had been
impregnated against her will and did
not want to have the baby. (She later
admitted she was not raped but was
pregnant due to birth control failure.)
The court ruled that she had a
constitutional right (14th amendment)
to privacy and that included her
womb - so she could have an
abortion.


Court ruled:
The woman has a right to an abortion.
The state has an interest in protecting her life
and the potential life of the fetus - this
increases through the trimesters of any
pregnancy.
A woman has a right to demand an abortion
during trimester 1.
After T1 the state regulates on the basis of
the health of the mother (requiring use of
licensed medical facilities/personnel etc.) -
abortion is still available but not on demand.
After viability (when a baby can live on its
own outside of the mothers womb) the state
can regulate / restrict abortion on the basis
of mothers health.

What does the Bible say about
Abortion?
Where does the Bible speciﬁcally say,
“The fetus is a baby”
“You should not have an abortion?”
Nowhere - but the overwhelming tone of
the Bible is pro-life.
Ex 20:13 “You shall not murder” is applied
by some - but leaves us to ask questions of
the nature of the unborn - is the fetus in the
womb a person with a right to life?
Undoubtedly the Bible declares God is
involved in fashioning life in the womb - and
God cares for the unborn - so in abortion
are we terminating the work of God?

However we still have to ask are
we ending the life of a person?
After all God creates plants and
animals as well - do they have to
be thought of in the same way as
the human fetus?
We have to establish that
God attributes the same
characteristics to a person
inside or outside of the
womb - i.e. a person exists in
the womb.
Picture right - 16 weeks fetus


Additional: Partial birth abortion

A controversial abortion
technique - used in emergency
late term cases.
The baby is partially delivered
but the skull remains in the
womb - a cut is then made at
the base of the skull through
which the brain tissue is sucked
out resulting in immediate
death.


Additional: Partial birth abortion

This is frequently cited as
infanticide by prolife people -
though a small part of the fetus
is still in the womb. The
procedure was outlawed in the
USA though it can still be used
if the woman’s life is in danger.
It is worth stating that although
this technique is banned late
term abortions are not.


The passages which will be quoted offer
the strongest biblical evidence for a view of
life beginning very early in pregnancy.
Job 3:3 -“May the day of my birth perish,
and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’
This form of synonymous parallelism
suggests that birth and conception are
the same. What was present at birth was
considered equivalent to what was present
at conception. Note that a boy is conceived
- not a fetus, piece of tissue etc.
This word - geber - is also used for man in
other parts of the OT, Ex 10:11, Dt
22:5, Jdg 5:30

Jer 1:5 -“Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you, before you were born I
set you apart; I appointed you as a
prophet to the nations.”
God appears to know Jeremiah before
he was born and called him then - in
just the same way he calls adults to the
prophetic ministry.

Isa 49:1 -Before I was born the LORD
called me; from my mother’s womb he has
spoken my name.
Calling and naming prior to birth -
sows a strong and intimate personal
interest as God shows with adults.

Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s
womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths
of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were
written in your book
before one of them came to be.


Psalm 139:13-16
Note here:
For you created my inmost being;
The Psalm together continuity of
you knit meteaches ain my mother’s
womb. identity from the early
personal
I praise you onwards.I am fearfully and
pregnancy because
wonderfully made; knows God at the
The person who
your works are wonderful, the same one
start of the psalm is still
I know that full well. formed in the
who was intricately
My frame was not hidden from you
womb - and whose heart was known
when I was made in the secret place,
by God. woven together in the depths
when I was
The psalm suggests that a person
of the earth.
exists in the womb not a potential
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
person who becomes ame were
all the days ordained for person
written in your book gestation
sometime during the
before one of them came to be.
period.


Note that these passages use poetic
language - which can be hard to
interpret - but that does not mean it
is not clear in meaning or that its
contribution should be minimised or
disregarded - ﬁgurative language is
always making some literal point.
Taken together these texts suggest a
continuity of personal development
and especially identity from the early
stages of fertilisation / conception.


Psalm 51:5 -Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived
me.
David confesses that the innate
inclination to sin is present from
conception - birth and conception seem
to be treated as synonymous.
Brephos - the Greek for baby is used of
Jesus as a child in the womb as well as
after physical birth. See Lk 1:41-44
In verse 43 Elizabeth refers to Mary as
“the mother of my Lord” even though
the pregnancy is very early - at a stage
where many women do not even know
they are pregnant - and of course, JTB
jumps in his mothers womb.

In general terms the signiﬁcance
of the incarnation is recognised
here way before birth, in fact
probably at conception. It is
argued therefore that the
incarnation began here before
Jesus’ birth - at the time he was
conceived.
This idea of the unborn being
recognised as a person by God
is seen generally throughout
the Bible.
However there are some
passages which are
thought to give a different
perspective.

Ex 21:22-25 ESV
"When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that
her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her
shall surely be ﬁned, as the woman’s husband shall impose on
him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is
harm,[a] then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for
wound, stripe for stripe.
Footnotes:
Exodus 21:23 Or so that her children come out and it is clear
who was to blame, he shall be ﬁned as the woman’s husband
shall impose on him, and he alone shall pay. If it is unclear who
was to blame . . .


Ex 21:22-25 NIV
22 “If people are ﬁghting and hit a
pregnant woman and she gives birth
prematurely[a] but there is no serious
injury, the offender must be ﬁned
whatever the woman’s husband demands
and the court allows. 23 But if there is
serious injury, you are to take life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn,
wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Footnotes:
Exodus 21:22 Or she has a miscarriage


The problem is that it is suggested
that if fetus dies only a ﬁne is paid. It
is not life for life - so fetus is not
equivalent to a full human being.
The debate rages around whether a
miscarriage takes place - or
simply an early (premature)
birth? The usual term for
miscarriage is Heb shakal, but
yasa is used here - which is usually
in connection with a live birth.
Rae suggests that we should read it
as giving birth prematurely - but
verse 23 applies life for life if a
miscarriage occurs.

Abortion Part 1

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Abortion Part 1