This is the Ask Pastor Alex podcast with your host, Pastor Alex.
All right, welcome back to the podcast, everyone. We’re here with another episode and another question. And the question for today’s episode is, is abortion a sin? That’s a good question. And let’s just say at the start, we know that this is a controversial question, but we don’t steer away from the hard, controversial questions here. We address every question head on and we look to see what the Bible has to say about these things. So first, we really need to define our terms when we begin this discussion. As we refer to abortion throughout this episode, we’re referring to the intentional ending of an unborn human’s life. Now, why do I need to clarify that? Well, the reason is simple. That’s because there are procedures that are technically called abortion and classified as abortion that would not be what we’re referring to here. So for instance, there are circumstances when a child’s life ends in the womb. They die for whatever reason in the womb and the mother might not be far enough along to deliver the baby. And so the doctors have to remove the baby through a procedure that technically falls under the medical category of abortion. That’s not what we’re referring to here. When we refer to abortion, we’re referring to the intentional ending of an unborn baby’s life. And if you just want a quick, simple answer right here at the beginning of the episode, the answer is yes, abortion is a sin. Now I know a lot of people will disagree with that, but I hope to show by the end of this episode that their disagreements are not based on scripture, but based on personal preferences. In fact, I want us to think about this logically.
I know that we live in a world that doesn’t really like logic, but let’s think about this logically and put this in terms of a syllogism. A logical syllogism is just when you make a number of arguments or propositions, in
which case if all the arguments or propositions are true, then the conclusion must also be true.
For instance, one of the most famous ones ever was all men are mortal. Socrates was a man, therefore Socrates was mortal. So if all those propositions are true, then the conclusion must be true. Is it true that all men are mortal? Yes. Was it true that Socrates was a man? Yes. Then the conclusion must be true. Socrates was mortal. So here’s our syllogism for the abortion episode. Human life begins at conception. The unlawful and unjust taking of human life is murder. Murder is a sin. Abortion is murder. Therefore, abortion is sin. If all of our propositions or arguments prove to be true, then the logical conclusion must also be true that abortion is a sin. So now we’ve said that, but as always, what we have to do is we have to prove it.
So let’s begin by proving point one of our syllogism. Human life begins at conception. And to do this, what I want to do, I mean, I could make a number of arguments or cases, but what I want to do is I want to quote at length here, a quote from the American College of Pediatricians. This is a non-religious organization of medical doctors. This is what they say. The American College of Pediatricians concurs with the body of scientific evidence that human life begins at conception, fertilization. Scientific and medical discoveries over the past three decades have only verified and solidified this age old truth. At the completion of the process of fertilization, the human creature emerges as a whole genetically distinct, individuated, zygotic, living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment in order to grow and develop. The difference between the individual in its adult stage and in its zygotic stage is not one of personhood, but of development. That last line is incredibly important that they recognize the baby in the womb is a full person. And the difference between a baby in the womb and an adult is not a matter of personhood, but a matter of development. And it’s an important quote for our discussion because many pro-choice advocates claim that life does not begin until a heartbeat begins or even sometime later in the developmental process. This leads many to support abortion up to the time of the heartbeat or maybe some other time in the development process. But this non-religious organization of medical professionals concludes in accordance with all of the scientific research available that human life begins at the moment of conception. That’s not a religious principle, that is a scientific fact. At the moment of conception, an entirely new person emerges, one with its own unique DNA distinct from its mother and father. Princeton University also verifies this claim. In an article written by Dr. Diane Irving of Princeton University, she informs that
scientifically something very radical occurs between the process of gametogenesis and fertilization. The change from a simple part of one human being, i.e. a sperm, and a simple part of another human being, i.e. an egg, which simply possess human life, to a new genetically unique newly existing individual whole living human being, a single cell embryonic human zygote. In other words, that is, upon fertilization, parts of human beings have actually been transformed into something very different from what they were before.
They have been changed into a single whole human being. During the process of fertilization, the sperm and the egg cease to exist as such and a new human being is produced. That is the conclusion of a medical doctor who is not arguing from a religious standpoint but from a scientific medical standpoint. In accordance with the overwhelming body of evidence that we have, these scientists conclude that life begins at the moment of conception. And this is incredibly important for our discussion because it means that the entire time a baby is in the womb from the very moment of its conception, it is an actual human being.
Not a potential human, not a potential life, but an actual unique human being. This means that point one of our syllogism proves to be true. Life begins at conception. Now point two of our syllogism is that the unjust, unlawful taking of a human life is murder. So let’s try to prove that point and this one is the easiest one to prove. If you just go and look up any dictionary online, they will all say something like, murder is the unlawful premeditated taking of a human life by another. That is beyond dispute. That’s just the very simple definition of murder. But there is an interesting point raised at this point where someone will say something like, well, if abortion is legal, then it is lawful to murder in that situation. And I would say, well, you’re right, unfortunately.
Abortion is nothing more than legalized murder. But the question is this. This is the question we should actually be asking. Who ultimately determines what’s lawful? Because here’s what I know.
When we stand before God on judgment day, he’s not going to hold us accountable to the standards of our country’s government. He is going to hold us accountable to his standards. So the question that we should actually be asking is, is it lawful in God’s eyes to murder? So we need to turn to the Bible for that answer.
What does the Bible actually teach about murder? Well, the Bible teaches us in the book of Genesis that all humans are valuable to God and God cares about life because we are created in the image of God. God highly values human life. In fact, we see that the first time in the Bible that man sins against man, it is a murder. Cain murders his brother Abel and the Lord severely punished Cain for his sin. But the Bible further indicates that God hates murder and disapproves of murder and that he values human life because in Genesis 9, 6, this is what we read. Whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. Now that verse clearly shows that the Lord is condemning the unlawful, unjust taking of a human life. It’s sinful in his eyes because he made man in his own image and he highly values human life.
We could go to many other verses in the Bible that prove that point, but those verses there should suffice to say that murder is not lawful in God’s eyes. Therefore, murder is unlawful. It is not right to murder another person. But if you want to be even more precise on this point and you want to go to the next step and show that abortion is murder, it should be very simple at this point.
If it’s true that the baby in the womb is a human life and then you receive a medical procedure which ends that human life, that is in fact murder. It is the unlawful ending of a human life. And the Bible actually does address abortion in a couple of places. So for instance, in Amos chapter 1, the Lord issues a series of indictments on the nations surrounding Israel and Judah. In his indictment against the Ammonites, he says in Amos 1.13, for three transgressions of the Ammonites and for four, I will not revoke the punishment because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead that they might enlarge their border. Now the Lord does go on to tell the Ammonites the punishment for their sin. It will be a swift judgment upon them, but don’t overlook what their sin was. The Bible specifically says that the sin of the Ammonites was that they were ripping open
pregnant women. In other words, they were inflicting abortions upon all the pregnant women in Gilead and the Lord condemns them for it. Furthermore, the Bible explicitly says in Exodus 21 verses 22 to 23 that the punishment for the one who causes the death of an unborn child is the same as for the one who commits
murder. So if a person caused the death of an unborn child while he was still in the womb, that person would be facing the same punishment as the one who committed murder. And that’s the Bible’s way of saying that they are equivalent, that to end the life of a baby in the womb is equivalent to murder. It is murder in the eyes of God. So abortion is unlawful in the eyes of God. It is sin according to God. And this is the standard to which every human will be held. Therefore every one of the propositions of our logical syllogism prove to be true, which means the conclusion logically must be true. Life begins at conception, the unlawful taking of human life is murder, murder is unlawful to God, abortion is murder, therefore abortion is sin. Now just because this is logically true does not mean that it’s universally accepted. As I said before, we live in a world today that really does not care that much about logic. There are some common rebuttals and responses at this point that we should probably address. For instance, some people raise the issue of rape and incest. They believe that abortion should be allowed in those cases. And according to the statistics involving reasons for abortion, rape accounts for about 1% of all abortions and incest accounts for half of 1% of all abortions. This means that rape and incest are extremely rare. According to the available data, the overwhelming reasons women have abortions is due to inconvenience. They didn’t mean to get pregnant, they’re not ready to have a child, having a child would drastically alter their life, they don’t want to be a single mother or they can’t afford a child. It’s really just the child would be an inconvenience and therefore I’m willing to murder another human so that I’m not inconvenienced. And we can address those in a moment, but for now we need to understand something very important folks, that the value of a child’s life is not in any way dependent on their circumstances. That is to say, every human life is valuable because they are made in the image of God. Their value does not lessen due to the reason for their conception. And let’s just be very clear, a human is not less valuable because they are the result of rape or incest. We also should just make the point that two wrongs don’t make a right. The rape or the incest, whatever calls the pregnancy in the first place, that was wrong. Yes, absolutely, and we should condemn that 100%. However, killing the child is compounding harm. It’s not doing away with the wrong that was done in the first place. Murder is not justified in those situations. Two wrongs do not make a right. The rape was wrong, but that doesn’t mean you go and kill the child. The incest was wrong, but that doesn’t mean that you go and kill the child. If the child is unwanted by the mother, there are plenty of people who would be more than happy to adopt their child. But if we do want to address the other reasons listed for abortion, we have to say that if a person does not want to become pregnant and they do not want to have a child, then they should take some precautions in their life to avoid that. Everyone knows that sex leads to a potential for pregnancy. So if a person is living a lifestyle in which they’re engaging in unsafe, unprotected sex,
they have to realize that they could easily become pregnant, or even if they are practicing safe sex, if you don’t want a child, don’t have sex. Your pleasure is not more important than human life. If you are going to engage in the act and it results in you becoming pregnant with a child, that child deserves to live. People in this country want to talk about rights, rights to this, I have rights, I have rights. The first right that we are entitled to in this country is the right to life. So you may want to live a lifestyle of engaging in all sorts of promiscuous sexual activities, or you want to have some sort of sexual gratification, but a child should not have to pay with his or her life because you don’t want to be inconvenienced and you want to keep living the lifestyle
that you’re currently living. If a child does result from those actions, that child should not have to pay the price
of their life for the sake of the mother’s actions. Just because a baby might disrupt a woman’s life or cause her inconvenience is no reason to literally murder an innocent human life. However, the most common argument raised in this conversation about abortion is the woman’s claim that it’s my body, my choice.
We’ve all heard that before, right? I mean, that’s the most common argument in this conversation. It’s my body, my choice. However, that is a terrible argument that we would not apply to literally any other situation in life.
Listen to me, I want you to hear me say this. No one has the right to do whatever they want with their body. For instance, if a man’s walking down the street and he decides he wants to punch a lady in the face and she calls the cop on him, will the cop let the man off the hook because he says, well, it’s my body, my choice? No, of course not. And he shouldn’t be let off the hook. That’s assault. Yes, it was his body. And yes, he did make a choice to do something with his body, but his actions, his choices ended up harming another person. I mean, it’s the exact same thing with rape. Should we allow rape? After all, what is rape except for one person doing what they want with their body at the expense of another? Can a man who rapes another say, well, it was my body, my choice. I just did what I want with my body. No, of course not. None of us are willing to allow rape. We all know it’s wrong. So you see how this argument of my body, my choice begins to fall apart whenever we apply it to literally any other situation in life. Nobody gets to do whatever they want with their bodies, especially if it causes harm to another person. Furthermore, it’s not the woman’s body. Yes, she is carrying the baby, but the baby is an entirely different human being as we have seen scientifically. The woman may be the one undergoing the procedure, but the one who suffers is the child inside her. She has subjected her body to a procedure to kill another human inside her. And I’ve heard some bad arguments about this, right? I’ve heard some pro-choice advocates say something like, well, the child inside me is dependent on me and my body for survival. And so it is my body and I can do what I want. But again, let’s address that argument and take it to its logical conclusion. If that’s the case, when does a woman lose the right to kill her child? Is it when the child is no longer dependent on her for survival? Because listen, I’ve got a three-year-old and a one-year-old at home, both of whom are completely dependent on me and my wife for survival. If they were left alone without us, they would die. That means they are entirely dependent on us and our bodies for survival. Does my wife have the right to kill our children? I mean, at what point should I stop being worried about leaving her alone with the kids? Just because they are dependent on another for survival does not mean we have the right to kill them or make some sort of choice that’s going to endanger them or lead to harm. And furthermore, as we’re talking about all these rebuttals and things like this, there’s an important point that often gets overlooked in the conversation about abortion that we need to make very clear. It takes two to make a child. The man has just as much right to the child as the mother. Children are the product of 50% of the man and 50% of the woman, meaning men have just as much right to the child as the mother does. So she should not have some exclusive right to determine whether or not the child lives or dies. That is wrong. And again, as we’re addressing all these things, here’s what I do want to say to you, and this is incredibly important. If you have had an abortion, I want you to understand something. That is not an unforgivable sin. Yes, it was a sin in the eyes of God, but the good news is that Jesus forgives us of all of our sins. The Bible says that if you will repent of your sins, if you will confess that to Jesus, if you will repent of that sin, you will be forgiven. So I want you to hear me say this.
I am very hard on abortion because it is a sin in the eyes of God. It is despicable in the eyes of God. God hates abortion. But I want you to hear me say this. You are not unforgivable or unsavable just because you have had an abortion. There is grace and mercy and salvation in Jesus. So let’s just wrap up the episode with a few thoughts. First, life does begin at conception. That is scientifically beyond doubt. Second, abortion is murder.
And according to the Bible, murder is a sin. So abortion is sin. Again, we are not talking about the medical procedure necessary to remove a human that has already died in the womb. We are talking about the intentional ending of a human life in the womb. Abortion is a sin. And you may not like that. You may still try to disagree with me or say that you still believe that it is fine. But the question is, is that because of what you say and how you feel or is that based on what you find in Scripture? Because I promise you, you will never find anything in Scripture that allows for abortion. It is murder and it is sin in the eyes of God. There are no good reasons to get an abortion. Most of the reasons for abortion are selfish in nature. Some come from legitimate health concerns, but the overwhelming majority have only to do with personal preferences. The other thing I want you to remember is that no person gets to do whatever they want with their bodies, especially if those actions cause harm to another human. And fifth, if you’re considering having an abortion, I want you to consider giving your child up for adoption instead. There are plenty of loving parents who would love to adopt your child. I have friends personally who are on adoption waiting lists right now, waiting to find a
child that they can adopt in parents. So there are people out there who want to love and care for your child, even if you feel like you’re not able to. And finally, for those who have had an abortion, I just want you to remember that there is hope and forgiveness in Jesus. So turn to him and receive his cleansing and forgiveness today. Thanks for the question. I hope that you have found this answer helpful and I look forward to answering more in the future.