Protection of Life (unborn)
Editor’s note: The is the third of six posts looking alternately at Republican and Democratic priorities that I believe Jesus probably supports. If you’re new to this blog, it would be helpful to start from the beginning. But regardless, recognize that the very predictable reactions of cheering for one and booing for the other are the reasons for the earlier material.
Editor’s note: Tomorrow, January 22, marks the 47th anniversary of Roe vs Wade.
The irony of a topic like “protection of life” is that each party has parts of the picture, but neither party seems to do a very good job of seeing how all the pieces are part of the same puzzle.
The tragedy is that in America today, one can’t vote for a consistent ethic of life. (*1)
This is the Republican chapter of the book, and the elephants’ strongest pro-life advocacy is in the area of the unborn, so that’s where this section will start.
Putting all my cards on the table, this is an issue of high priority for me, because there can be no harsher form of discrimination than to decide that a block of people has no right to live, and then proceed to carry out the death sentence. If only one person were to be so victimized, it would be of utmost importance, but the fact that we’re talking about nearly 1,000,000 people (*2) a year in the United States alone, year after year, merely heightens the urgency. (*3) Conservative numbers after looking at several different sites tell us that well over 50,000,000 babies have been aborted in the U.S. since 1973, and well over 1 billion globally since 1980. We are rightfully horrified when innocent life is snuffed out in a terror attack. Yet if we add up all the Americans who’ve died in every war the country has fought, Revolutionary through the current Global War on Terror, the total number of Americans killed by war or terror in the country’s entire history is approximately equal to the number killed by abortion every single year. (*4) And just in case the above don’t already have your attention, the U.S. is one of only seven countries in the world that allow for abortion after 20 weeks gestation, linking us with China and North Korea as two of the remaining six. (*5)
Jesus consistently attributed value to those the culture devalued, such as slaves, Roman oppressors, women, Samaritans, and children. When Peter cut off the ear of a slave in an attempt to keep Jesus from being arrested, Jesus picked up the severed ear and healed it. (*6) When a Roman centurion came seeking healing for his servant, not only did Jesus heal the servant, but lauded the centurion’s faith as being greater than anyone in Israel. (*7) Women weren’t considered credible witnesses in Roman courts of law, yet all four gospels record that women were entrusted as the first witnesses to the most important event in the Bible, Jesus’ resurrection. (*8) Jesus consistently treated women with respect and love. (*9) Jesus personally interacted with Samaritans and gave them respect, and He also used them as positive examples and role models in His stories. Most pertinent of all were Jesus’ interactions with children. The disciples tried to dismiss the children coming to see Jesus, and Jesus rebuked His followers for doing so. (*10) The clear witness of Jesus’ life is that He valued all human life equally, and particularly highlighted those slighted or oppressed by the culture.
The Bible consistently views human life as starting at conception. When Mary, pregnant with Jesus, went to visit her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, the baby Elizabeth was carrying (John the Baptist) responded to Jesus’ presence by leaping in the womb. (*11) Both Jesus and John had not been born yet, and personhood is attributed to both. Of particular significance is the fact that the Greek word Elizabeth used to describe her preborn child, brephos, is the same word used for a baby before and after birth. In Psalm 51, David speaks of birth and conception equally, speaking of both in very human terms. (*12) Later, David writes,
Image: DanEvans/Pixabay
For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. (*13)
Isaac’s wife Rebekah was pregnant with twins, and their rivalry didn’t wait for the light of day. (*14) And in the Old Testament laws designed to protect life, if a baby in the womb was injured or killed, the value of that unborn baby was the same as any adult. (*15)
Medically, the moment a female’s egg is fertilized by a sperm, a genetically unique, whole, living human being begins to exist. Dr Dianne Irving, a biochemist, biologist, and former professor at Georgetown University writes,
Upon fertilization, parts of human beings (egg and sperm) have actually been transformed into something very different from what they were before; they have been changed into a single, whole human being. The product of fertilization is a living human being with 46 chromosomes (plus or minus, as in the case of Down’s or Turner’s syndromes.) (*16)
The argument that we aren’t talking about full human beings since they’re dependent on their mothers for life is weak, since children remain fully dependent on adults to stay alive for years after they’re born. The advent of sonography has made what has always been the case more visible, so that a mother can now see the child in her womb. Once a mother does see the baby she’s carrying, a high percentage of abortion-minded mothers change their mind. Our largest Tucson crisis pregnancy center, Hands of Hope, reports that 87% of clients who see the ultrasound choose to continue their pregnancy. (*17) As medical technology advances, we’re learning more and more about the miracle taking place inside a mother’s womb, and arguments that dehumanize these preborn children become harder and harder to support.
As discussed in Chapter 3, the question of caring for the mothers and caring for the babies is a classic both/and, not an either/or. There may have been a time when those advocating for the life of children yet-to-be-born did so with little apparent concern for the mother, but that time is significantly fading into the past. The organizations I’m familiar with show nothing but unconditional love and concern for the mothers, regardless of whether or not they decide to carry or abort, and for an unlimited number of years after such decisions. The needs of the mother – physical, emotional, financial, material, and spiritual – are given front-and-center attention. Based on a host of stories I’m familiar with, the care and concern shown to the mothers by abortion clinics pales in comparison to the care and concern shown by crisis pregnancy centers.
What about the tougher cases?
Let’s take the most common ones one at a time. When the life of the mother is at stake, as in an ectopic pregnancy, there are two lives in jeopardy, not one. If the life of the mother can be saved by ending the pregnancy, that would be a thoroughly Biblical option. Unless intervention happens (either divine or human), both lives will be lost, so saving one is better than saving none.
Significantly less than 1% of all abortions consist of pregnancies caused by rape or incest (*18), yet those instances deserve attention. Some would argue that a thoroughly consistent ethic would recognize that the innocent human life in the womb should not be sacrificed no matter what the cause of the pregnancy, any more than we would attempt to justify taking the life of a child after being born due to the sin/crime of a parent. Others would argue that to require a traumatized woman to carry a baby to term would be cruel and inhumane, and that if abortion were made completely illegal except where the life of the mother was at risk, these same traumatized women might seek out far more dangerous illegal abortions. Speaking only for myself, my advocacy would be to tackle the >99% of abortions first, and cross this bridge later. In other words, make an exception for instances of rape or incest at least until the 99+% of abortions are adequately addressed, and then tackle the tougher question with great care and concern for all involved.
In a country founded on freedom, such as the freedom of religion, is it right to impose one set of morals on everyone? That’s a fair question, but what the question seems to miss is that all laws impose a set of standards on everybody else. Law by its very nature is a cultural statement on what’s right and what’s wrong. Laws against murder, theft, polygamy, sexual harassment, pedophilia, and every other law that could be named are all taking a set of standards and making them more universal. Unless one is going to argue for lawless anarchy, the question isn’t whether or not standards should be imposed on others, but which standards and in what circumstances. It seems to me that one of the highest functions of law is to protect innocent life – especially life that needs protection, life that would be highly vulnerable to attack without legal protection. I can think of no clearer example than the unborn.
The critique that rings the truest to me of Republican policies protecting life in the womb is that the elephants are inconsistent in their ethic for life. That critique says nothing about the validity of a position attempting to protect the unborn; rather, it argues for equal protection for other categories of human life. Some of those will show up in the Donkey chapter, since those tend to be priorities for the other side of the political aisle. But let’s briefly address euthanasia and capital punishment. Regarding euthanasia, a distinction must be made between medical procedures that sustain life and medical procedures that intervene in order to end life. Refusing further cancer treatment is a far cry from suicide, self-induced or physician-assisted. Do-not-resuscitate orders are not euthanasia. We aren’t required to avail ourselves of everything medically possible. Nevertheless, all life matters to God, from the unborn to the elderly, and both need legal protection. Where euthanasia is legalized, it’s a guarantee that at some point, some greedy inheritors will pressure their ancestors to speed up the process.
Regarding capital punishment, a consistent Biblical ethic of life would seem to argue against capital punishment. The counter-argument to this is that the Bible clearly supports governmental authority, and that authority could include capital punishment for murder cases, for instance. My counter-arguments to the counter-argument are more practical in nature. The number of death-row candidates exonerated by DNA evidence, for example, is frightening. For the government to wrongly execute someone for a crime he/she didn’t actually commit only compounds one tragedy with another. Further, it’s well documented that ethnicity and socio-economic standing affect both the severity of punishments meted out and the quality of the legal defense employed. The death penalty is not administered equally to the population. Finally, the legal costs associated with capital punishment in the U.S. make it more costly than life sentences without parole. For all these reasons, I agree with the critique, and believe a consistent life ethic opposes abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment.
Jim Wallis, God’s Politics, p. 301.
Yes, I’m aware that perhaps the ultimate issue at hand is whether or not the baby in the womb is a person. I will address that question below. And yes, I will also address the needs of the mothers.
Approximately 862,320 abortions were performed in 2017, down 7% from 926,190 in 2014. The abortion rate in 2017 was 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44, down 8% from 14.6 per 1,000 in 2014. Thankfully, this is the lowest rate ever observed in the United States. Guttmacher Institute, https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states
1,196,554 Americans have died in all wars combined, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/many-americans-died-u-s-wars
“It is also clear that Jesus did not treat women as others in his culture did; he treated them with dignity, as people with worth.” Life Application Bible, NLT, p. 1797.
Genesis 25:22-23, Isaac was Abraham’s son. One of the twins both to Isaac was Jacob, later renamed Israel.
As quoted in Grudem, p. 161-162.
Elisa Medina, Hands of Hope Executive Director, 1/15/2020.
https://abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/, citing studies from both the Guttmacher Institute and the state of Florida.