Common Abortion Excuses Refuted
Bodie Hodge, Biblical Authority Ministries, July 3, 2020
Sadly, abortion is a commonplace in the Western World. Excuses
to make light of one abound.
Abortion is murder—I’m up front about that—there is no sugar
coating it. Excuses for murder are when people try to justify evil behavior and actions. Murder is evil and abortion is
evil. Yes, that is bold, but people need to hear the truth.
God commands in Exodus
20:13, "You shall not murder” (NKJV). If someone tries to say otherwise,
they are lying, whether knowingly or unknowingly. God also says in Leviticus
19:11, “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another”
(NKJV). By what authority can someone object to God’s absolute authority in His
absolute Word? It would only be via a lesser
authority which is a faulty appeal to authority fallacy—i.e., an arbitrary
authority.
Many unwanted pregnancies would not be an issue if people
would have listened to another of God’s commands in 1
Thessalonians 4:3, “ For this is the
will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual
immorality” (NKJV). Nevertheless, Psalm
127:3-5 reminds us of the blessing of children, “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb
is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s
youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be
ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate” (NKJV).
The demotion of children and their value in our culture and the elevation of sinful actions
like sexual immorality, lying, and murder have created a terrible situation in
our society. The response of many Christians is to give in to sinful behavior
like abortion; or if they do oppose it, it is often via shallow, feelings-based
answers—there are exceptions, of course.
I wanted to do something different with short, logical, biblical,
and snappy answers that are bullet-pointed below to cut to the heart of common
abortion excuses. I want to give a bold response, but at the same time I want readers
to realize these are still said with sincerity and kindness—even though they
are bold, direct, and to the point.
After all, it could save
someone’s life and even help a parent—maybe you—to realize the need to
repent of evil behavior and turn to the blood of Jesus Christ, who paid the
penalty for our sin on the cross through His
death, burial, and resurrection.
Common Excuses and a Brief Response
·
“I already have some children and we simply can’t
have more.”
o
Yes you
can. Gideon had 70 sons that were his own offspring (Judges 8:30). Beat that! How will your other children feel when they find out that
you murdered one of their brothers or sisters? Personally, I would never feel safe around my parent(s) if I
found out they willingly killed one of my siblings.
·
“I’m not ready to have a baby right now!”
o
Too late,
you already have a baby right now. Own up to the responsibility and take care of
him/her—the child is already counting on you. Furthermore, it’s too late to use
this excuse. If having “a baby right now” was a such a big deal, then why were
you performing the act that makes babies?
·
“I need to do other things in my life before
having children!”
o
This is
an either-or fallacy (bifurcation). You can do all sorts of
things with your life with a child—education, travel, etc. Perhaps you’ve been misinformed to this fact. Furthermore, if
these other things were your goal, then why were you attempting to have a baby.
Regardless, you are already with child
now so it’s too late to use this excuse. It’s time to get over that type of
selfish behavior and take care of your child.
·
“I’m not ready to be a good mother right now.”
o
Then step
it up and become a good mother. Keep in mind that you are already a mother at this point. Nourishing and caring for
your baby is being a good mother. Be honest with yourself, killing your baby would make you
a terrible, evil mother—but you’ll forever be a mother nonetheless. Perhaps you
should have thought of this prior to doing the act of making a baby.
·
“I don’t want to have a child with this baby’s
father.”
o
Too late—you
already have a child with this baby’s father; you should have thought of that
prior to doing the act that makes a baby with your baby’s father. Nevertheless,
this is no excuse to kill someone else—i.e., the baby.
·
“This child wasn’t my choice.”
o
Your
parents weren’t your choice either—that doesn’t justify murdering them. But it was your choice to have
sex with the father though since you engaged in the activity to make a baby.
·
“This child is the result of rape.”
o
First, these
claims need to be proved in in accordance with the Law in court. According to
Deuteronomy, did you cry out for help (per Deuteronomy 22:23:-27)? Were you in a city (people within
screaming distance) to get witnesses and help to prevent said rape; or were you
isolated in the countryside (no people within screaming distance) when this
happened? Depending on your response, there were two different things that
could happen. I’ll assume for the moment that it really was rape…which brings
me to the second point…
o
What
crime did the child do that deserved capital punishment (i.e., death)? Even if
the father did something wrong, does that mean that you or the child should
be held accountable for it? Should you go to jail for his rape for instance? Did
the child murder someone, rape someone, have sex with an animal, etc.? No. Then
why condemn your child to death for the sin of the father? God says, in Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of
the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon
himself” (NKJV).
·
“A pregnancy will be dangerous for my personal health.”
o
You don’t
know that and this borderlines on false prophecy. With the finest healthcare
today, that shouldn’t be a problem anyway. Besides, if you put yourself before
the child what does say about you? God says in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do
nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one
another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own
personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (NASB). I humbly suggest
that you conquer this self-conceit and put others first…namely your child.
Furthermore, if pregnancy was such a dangerous thing, then why risk engaging in
sex, which is how you get pregnant?
·
“This child was given a terminal diagnosis or
will be born disabled.”
o
Everyone
has disabilities and a terminal diagnosis. Even you. You are going to die and
not live to 900 years old for instance like Adam, Methuselah, Noah, and several
others. We are all degenerate mutants since sin and the curse in Genesis 3,
when we were given a taste of what life is like without God upholding things in
a perfect state (e.g., Genesis 1:31, Deuteronomy 32:4). A lot of people say this as an excuse to
abort. But it is irrelevant. The child did nothing to deserve capital
punishment any more than you deserve it.
o
Keep in
mind where this argument leads (reductio
ad absurdum). If you got in a car wreck and lost your leg—you would be
disabled. Does this mean other people
can put you to death because you are disabled? That is where this argument leads.
Instead, we should take care of those who are less fortunate, not destroy
them.
·
“I can’t have a child! What will people think
about me?”
o
Most
people will think you are a murderer if you murder your baby—even if they don’t
say it to your face, they will often think it. You may be able to hide it for a
while, but it will come out on
Judgment Day when you answer for it. If you are okay with murder—which it is
sounds like—then why would you care about anything that respectable people will
think when you keep your child? Contrary to what you’ve been led to believe,
most people will think highly of you
for protecting and caring for your child like a good mother.
·
“Everyone’s telling me a termination is the
right choice for me.”
o
Not
everyone—that is a straw man fallacy. I’m not for instance and hosts of
pro-life people would join me in telling you that you should keep your child. Also,
God disagrees with those pushing you to murder your child. Do you really think
people supporting murder should be the role models you should listen to? There
are plenty of people encouraging you to care for your baby or at the very least,
put the child up for adoption—stop ignoring the people who care and stop
listening to the people who are leading you down a path of evil and murder. God
says in Proverbs 4:14 , “Do not enter the path of the wicked,
And do not walk in the way of evil” (NKJV).
·
“There’s nothing wrong with an abortion. It’s
just my preference for what is right for me.”
o
God
defines right and wrong, not you. Be careful of promoting this idea that a
person can come up with their own concepts of right and wrong. Otherwise, you
are unwittingly agreeing that a rapist can rape you, a murderer can murder you,
a torturer can torture you, a thief can steal from you, a liar can lie to you, a
cheater can cheat on you, etc. because these sinners are okay with saying that what
they do is right in their own eyes
too. God already established that it is not right to murder someone—including
your own child.
·
“I’m a Christian, but I’ve been told the Bible agrees
that it’s okay for me to have an abortion.”
o
This is a
crackers in the pantry fallacy. It’s
among the easiest fallacies to solve and get to a solution. The answer—look it
up in the Bible and see. Read the passages where God supposedly supports
murder, and you’ll find the opposite is true. The point is not to trust what people say is in the Bible, but look and
see what God actually says. Again,
God says in Exodus 20:13, "You shall not murder”
(NKJV), among other passages (e.g., Numbers 35:16-19, Deuteronomy 5:17), etc.).
·
“It’s just a bunch of tissue, so why not get an
abortion”
o
By this
standard, you are a clump of tissues too! Is it okay for someone apart from you to make the choice to murder
you too then? The fact is that you and
the baby are more than a clump of cells. The baby, like you, is a unique
growing human being made in the image of God which gives him/her a value over
plants, trees, rocks, and animals. And if you kill your child, it will be
murder. And you will have to answer for that murder before God on Judgment Day.
So this argument is irrelevant.
·
“It is my body—I can do what I want with it!”
o
No, it’s
not your body. Your child is no more part of you than you are part of your
mother’s body. If you are making this argument, then per reductio ad absurdum, you
and the baby are technically your mother’s body too (i.e., grandmother, great
grandmother, etc.). This is a false premise fallacy. Your child’s DNA is unique
from yours. If the child is your body,
then the father should never have any responsibility of the child whatsoever
either (this would reduce any liability for a father to be held for child
support and a rapist would be immune from any responsibility for a child either).
The facts is that your body and the baby’s body comes from God and He owns all
things. The life Adam and Eve received from God has been passed down from every
generation to you and your child. And you will have to give an account for how
you used your body and how you cared for your child that God entrusted you with
on Judgment Day.
o
Secondly,
when you claim “it’s my body”, this is a property argument—assuming you can do
whatever you want just because you “own”
it. This is the same argument used to promote slavery or in our modern
vernacular human trafficking. The
people enslaved are seen as property that you can do whatever you want with them—rape
them, beat them, work them to death, or murder them all in the name of ownership.
No, the child is not your body but a unique individual, whom you chose to make
with the help of the father by doing the act of making a child.
I know these are hard-hitting responses but it was designed
to make people think. Very few people are willing to state things as they are and they tend to let emotion
cloud their judgment. Many times, we just sugar coat the truth. I wanted to do
something different here.
I also understand that people have gone through the killing
of their child and often feel very bad about it afterward—and rightly so. Jesus
Christ offers forgiveness when you turn from your sin (repentance) and confess
it to Christ.
Jesus took the punishment we deserve for our sin on the
cross. He took the infinite punishment from the infinite Father that we should
rightly receive for our sin. Jesus’s sacrifice satisfied God’s wrath upon our
sin so we can be forgiven and receive the free gift of eternal life because
Jesus’s righteousness is transferred to us (imputed to us). On Judgment Day,
God sees us as spotless like Christ because of Christ’s perfection.
And he brought them
out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" So they said,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your
household" (Acts
16:30-31, NKJV).
