Abortion is Immoral and Murder
"I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.” —Ronald Reagan.
St. Meletios of Antioch: "Do not show obedience to bishops who exhort you to do and to say and to believe in things which are not to your benefit. What pious man would hold his tongue? Who would remain completely calm? In fact, silence equates to consent."
The communist Humanist Manifesto II (1973) approved abortion and sexual immorality with adults.
We have weak leaders today. "Orthodox" Christians, like the GOA Archbishop Elpidophoros who support politicians that are pro-choice are very sick individuals. They are literally enemies of God, and in my view enemies of humanity. There is something fundamentally wrong with the heart (and it's relationship with God), mind, and soul of a person who is pro-choice, or who supports a pro-choice politician, like Joe Biden. These people are not right! There is no hope of salvation for such miscreants (unless they repent). “Orthodox” bishops who are pro-choice are especially putrid, because they should know better. Even the utterly disgraceful Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”) maintained that the Bible forbids abortion just as it forbids murder.
This article will cover four sections:
Medical and Scientific Proof that Life Begins at Conception
Potential Psychological and Physical Damage Resulting From Abortion
The Teaching of Church Fathers on Abortion
The Holy Scriptures
MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PROOF THAT LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION
In 1973 the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade decision incorrectly stated, "It is impossible to say when human life begins." (see Lawyer Cooporative, U.S Supreme Court Supports, vol. 35 (1974), Roe v. Wade, 410 US 113, p. 181; 410 US 113 at 159 ; cf. Harold O.J. Brown, Death Before Birth, p. 81, cf. pp. 73-96; John Warwick Montgomery, "The Rights of the Unborn Children," The Simon Greenleaf Law Review, vol. 5, p. 64).
Roe v. Wade suppressed massive amounts of scientific information and deceived the people. Roe v. Wade was the product of social engineers and opinion, not scientific fact.
Two years before Roe v. Wade 220 distinguished physicians, scientists and professors showed the court how modern science has established the fact that an unborn child is a person at the moment of conception. (Motion Filed in the Supreme Court of the United States, Oct. 15, 1971 (Re: 70-18 and No. 70-40), titled Motion and Brief Amicus Curiae of Certain Physicians, Professionals and Fellows of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Support of Appellees, Dennis J. Horan et al., United States District Court 1971. pp. 19, 29-30).
The brief stated that it's task is "to show how clearly and conclusively modern science -- embryology, fetology, genetics, perinatology, all of biology--established the humanity of the unborn child." (ibid p., 7).
..."After the eighth week...everything is already present that will be found in the full term baby." (ibid., pp. 13-14).
The brief proved scientifically that human life begins at conception, and that "the unborn is a person within the meaning of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments." (ibid., p. 64, cf. pp. 19-20, 58-64).
The journal "California Medicine" noted in 1970, the "curious avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception."...(California Medicine, vol. 113, no 3, p. 67).
Medical dictionaries and encyclopedias all affirm that the embryo is human (eg., Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, Tuber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health which defines the embryo as "the human young from the time of fertilization of the ovum until the beginning of the third month." (Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health, 2nd. ed., pp. 335).
In 1981 the U.S Congress was told by Harvard University Medical School's Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, "In biology and in medicine, it is an accepted fact that the life of any individual organism reproducing by sexual reproduction begins at conception..." (see ibid., cf. Richard Exley, Abortion: Pro-Life By Conviction, Pro-Choice By Default, p. 18; Norman Geisler, Christian Ethics: Opinions and Issues, p. 149).
Dr. Watson A Bowes, of the University of Colorado Medical School testified to Congress that life begins at conception, and he said that this is a biological fact, and should not be distorted to serve sociological, political, or economic goals. (Landrum B. Shettles, Rites of Life: The Scientific Evidence for Life Before Birth, p. 114).
Dr. Alfred Bongiovanni of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School: "The standard medical texts have long taught that human life begins at conception." (ibid).
"this is human life at every stage albeit incomplete until late adolescence." (ibid)
Dr. McCarthy De Mere, a practicing physician and law professor at the University of Tennessee: "The exact moment of the [of] personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception." (ibid).
The chairman of the Department of Medical Genetics at the Mayo Clinic, Professor Hymie Gordon: "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception." (ibid., Report to Senate).
Professor Hymie also stated, ..."It is an established fact that all life, including human life, begins at the moment of conception. (ibid., and Richard Exley, Abortion: Pro-Life By Conviction, Pro-Choice By Default, p. 18).
At that time the U.S. Senate proposed Senate Bill 158, the "Human Life Bill." These hearings were conducted by Senator John East. The Senate Report concluded: "Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being--a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings." (Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Wilkie, Handbook on Abortion and Abortion Questions and Answers, p. 40).
In 1981 abortion advocates, invited to do so, failed to produce one expert witness who would testify that life begins at any other point than conception. (Shettles, Rites of Life: The Scientific Evidence for Life Before Birth. p. 113).
Professor Roth of Harvard University Medical School: "It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception, when the egg and sperm join to form the zygote, and that this developing human always is a member of our species in all stages of it's life." (The Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, Report to Senate; cf. Exley, Abortion: Pro-Life By Conviction, Pro-Choice By Default, p.18; Geisler, Christian Ethics: Options and Issues, p. 149).
Landrum B. Shettles M.D., Ph.D., "There is one fact that no one can deny; human beings begin at conception." (Landrum B. Shettles in Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints, p. 16).
This is not a matter of religion, it is a matter of science. Scientists of every religious view and no religious view --agnostic, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist, Christian, Hindu, etc.--all agree that life begins at conception. (Weldon and Ankerberg, The Facts On Abortion, p. 8).
The International Code of Medical Ethics: "A doctor must always bear in mind the importance of preserving human life from the time of conception until death." (Hilgers and Horan, p. 317).
Please note, since human life begins at conception, abortion is the killing of a human being. This may even by why Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade changed her mind and became pro-life. (see Won By Love: Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, Speaks Out For the Unborn As She Shares Her New Conviction for Life).
The reason why modern science has come to the conclusion that human life begins at conception is because sound imaging and modern fetology has supported this judgment dramatically. (Geisler, Christian Ethics: Options and Issues, p. 140).
POSSIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL DAMAGE RESULTING FROM AN ABORTION
Death
Perforation of the Uterus
Cancer
Bleeding requiring transfusion (with possible hepatitis or AIDS infection)
Tearing of the cervix
Anesthesia- related accidents, including convulsions, shock and cardiac arrest from toxic reaction to the anesthesia used
Pelvic inflammatory disease and possible associated infertility
Bladder perforation
Bowel perforation
Persistent Bleeding
Anemia
Peritonitis (a serious infection of the membranous coat lining the abdominal cavity)
Minor infections and fever of unknown origin
Pulmonary emboli (obstruction of the pulmonary artery)
Venous thrombophlebitis (inflammation of e vein developing before a blood clot)
Depression
Suicide
Psychosis
(For the above, see Debra Evans, Without Moral Limits: Women, Reproduction and The New Medical Technology, pp. 50-61).
Resulting from the survey of the Royal College of Obstetricians: "The incidents of serious, permanent psychiatric aftermath is variously reported as between 9 and 59 percent." (Rearden, ibid., 119).
Abortion can lead to psychosis and schizophrenic reactions, including anxiety and paranoia. (ibid., 130-131).
On March 16, 1989 Congress heard testimony on the psychological dangers of abortion from psychologist Wanda Franz Ph.D., (National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, "Abortion Some Medical Facts," Washington, D.C., NRLETF, 1989, p. 7).
Women who reported horrible after-effects of abortion have reported nightmares of children calling them from trash cans, of body parts and blood. When reminded of the abortion, the women re-experienced it with terrible psychological pain. These women feel worthless and victimized because they failed at the most natural of human activities -the role of being a mother. (ibid., p. 5).
The "Report on The Psychological Aftermath of Abortion" (Rue at al., A Report on the Psychological Aftermath of Abortion, p. 8), lists:
guilt, depression, grief, anxiety, sadness, shame, helplessness and hopelessness, lowered-self-esteem, distrust, hostility toward self and others, regret, sleep disorders, recurring dreams, nightmares, anniversary reactions, psychophysiological symptoms, suicidal ideation and behavior, alcohol and/or chemical dependencies, sexual dysfunction, insecurity, numbness, painful re-experiencing of the abortion, relationship disruption, communication impairment and/or restriction, isolation, fetal fantasies, self-condemnation, flashbacks, uncontrollable weeping, eating disorders, preoccupation, confused and/or distorted thinking, a sense of loss and emptiness. (ibid., p. 7).
It is a lie that abortion is always safe. There is good evidence that abortion even affects the siblings of the pre-born child. (see P. Ney, A Consideration of Abortion Survivors, Child Psychology and Human Development, vol. 13, 1982, pp. 168-179).
THE TEACHING OF CHURCH FATHERS AND ANCIENT TEXTS
The Didache
“The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child” (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]).
The Letter of Barnabas
“Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born” (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).
The Apocalypse of Peter
“And near that place I saw another strait place . . . and there sat women. . . . And over against them many children who were born to them out of due time sat crying. And there came forth from them rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes. And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion” (The Apocalypse of Peter 25 [A.D. 137]).
Athenagoras
“What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers? . . . [W]hen we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it” (A Plea for the Christians 35 [A.D. 177]).
Tertullian
“In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed” (Apology 9:8 [A.D. 197]).
“Among surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery.
“There is also [another instrument in the shape of] a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: They give it, from its infanticide function, the name of embruosphaktes, [meaning] “the slayer of the infant,” which of course was alive. . . .
“[The doctors who performed abortions] all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and [they] pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive” (The Soul 25 [A.D. 210]).
“Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does” (ibid., 27).
“The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex. 21:22–24]” (ibid., 37).
Minucius Felix
“There are some [pagan] women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your [false] gods. . . . To us [Christians] it is not lawful either to see or hear of homicide” (Octavius 30 [A.D. 226]).
Hippolytus
“Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!” (Refutation of All Heresies [A.D. 228]).
Council of Ancyra
“Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees” (canon 21 [A.D. 314]).
St. Basil the Great
“Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years’ penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not” (First Canonical Letter, canon 2 [A.D. 374]).
“[T]he man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it dies upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees” (ibid., canon 8).
St. John Chrysostom
“Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication. . . . Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?—where there are many efforts at abortion?—where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter?” (Homilies on Romans 24 [A.D. 391]).
St. Jerome
“I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother. . . . Some go so far as to take potions, that they may ensure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder” (Letters 22:13 [A.D. 396]).
The Apostolic Constitutions
“Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for he says, ‘You shall not suffer a witch to live’ [Ex. 22:18]. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. . . . [I]f it be slain, [it] shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed” (Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 [A.D. 400]).
St. Augustine wrote on abortion, rape and suicide. (Ferguson, Church History, 273).
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
St. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit when in his mothers womb, indicating personhood (Luke 1:15). St. John even recognized Jesus in Mary's womb three months before his birth (Luke 1:44). John the Baptist was called a "son" (Greek, huios) three months before birth. (Luke 1:36).
The Hebrew word yeled is usually used of children, but in Exodus 21:22 it is used of a child in the womb.
In Genesis 25:22 the word yeladim (children) is used for the children struggling in Rebecca's womb.
God is caring for and molding a child (Psalm 139: 13-16).
God has concern for the "children yet to be born." (see Psalms 78: 5,6).
"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.Your eyes saw my unformed substance;" (ESV, Psalms 139:13-16).
God views the pre-born children in the womb as persons (see Jeremiah 1:5; Galatians 1:15,16; Isaiah 49:1-5, etc).
People are the offspring of God. (Acts 17:29, NASB). In God we live and move and exist (see Acts 17:28, NASB).
The Prophet Malachi asked: "Have we all not one Father? did not one God create us?" (Malachi 2:10).
God "Himself gives to all life and breath and all things." (Acts 17:25, NASB).
God "made the world and all things in it." (Acts 17:24, NASB).
The Prophet Isaiah prayed, "O Lord, Thou art our Father, we are the clay, and thou our potter; and all of us our the work of thy hand." (Isaiah 64:8).
"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." (Psalm 24:1).
"Your hands made me and formed me." (Psalm 119:73).
"The Lord... forms the spirit of man within him." (Zechariah 12:1 NASB).
God himself declared, "Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine." (Ezekiel 18:4 NASB).
Since God created absolutely everything and absolutely everything belongs to Him, no one has the right to kill something God has created. (see Exodus 20:13).
Scripture also teaches that we must protect and defend the weak, the defenseless, the innocent, the needy:
Proverbs 31: 8-9: Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of those who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Proverbs 82:2-4: How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
"Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back! If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He who weighs the hearts not consider it? And does He who watches over your soul not know it?
And will He not repay a person according to his work?" (Proverbs 24:11-12).
Numerous Scriptures condemn the killing of innocent life (Proverbs 6:16-19; 12:6; Deuteronomy 19:10; 27:25).
Can anyone imagine the Lord Jesus approving of abortion? He taught, "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones; for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven."..."So it is not the will [j]of your Father who is in heaven for one of these little ones to perish." (Matthew 18:10, 14 NASB).
The Bible teaches that the fetus in the womb at every stage is valued as highly as an adult life:
“Now if people struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, but there is no injury, the guilty person shall certainly be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." (Exodus 21:22-25).
Keil and Delitzsch explain in their Old Testament commentary on the book of Exodus that this passage demands exactly the same penalty for injuring the mother as the child." (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, vol. 1 (Exodus), pp. 134-135).
According to the distinguished Old Testament Hebrew scholar Dr. Gleasn Archer, ..."There is no second class status attached to the fetus under this rule. The fetus is just as valuable as the mother."...(Television program transcript, "Abortion" Chattanooga, TN, The John Ankerberg Evangelistic Association, 1982, p. 3).
Abortion has been declared wrong by many societies, Christian and pagan, since the dawn of civilization. The 18th century B.C. Code of Hammurabi contained a penalty for unintentionally causing a miscarriage. The 12th century B.C. Persian ruler Tiglath-pileser punished women who caused themselves to abort. The Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) opposed abortion. The second century Seneca praised his mother for not killing him. Blessed Augustine and Thomas Aquinas considered abortion immoral. English common law exacted a punishment for abortion, as did early American law. Before 1973, laws in nearly all the U.S. states opposed abortion.