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Sue Bohlin
Abortion is one of the most divisive and
controversial issues of our day. People generally have strong views about
abortion. It is not a social issue of mere preference, but an issue about life
and death.
Abortion draws out the clashes between two divergent world
views. The humanistic worldview says, "Man is the highest standard there is. You
don't answer to anyone, so do whatever you want." The Christian worldview says,
"We answer to God, and He has commanded us not to murder. We must always submit
our desires and preferences to the authority of His word."
Why is
abortion such a volatile issue?
I believe that the real
reason that we see such emotional, tenacious commitment to the availability of
abortion goes even deeper than the issue of abortion: people want sexual freedom
without consequences.
Our culture has a definite agenda supporting any
and all sexual expression. It's difficult to find a new movie, or a successful
TV show, or a popular song, that doesn't embrace this view of sex. When the
director of a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Dallas offered a school district a
presentation supporting abstinence till marriage, the district turned her down.
Their own presentation featured birth control devices, and they couldn't let her
talk about self-control one day if they were going to sell the kids on condoms
the next.
As a society, we are amazingly schizophrenic about this sort of
thing. My son, who was born in 1982, is a de facto member of what
they're calling the "Smokefree Class of 2000." No one bats an eye at this worthy
national goal of graduating an entire class of non-smokers, but people laugh
derisively at the thought of kids not having sex. Which is easier to get, a sex
partner or a cigarette?
Teenagers are becoming more and more open about
the fact that they are having sex, and this is a reflection of the sexual mores
they get in movies, on TV, and in music. The whole society is loosening up to
the point that people who have chosen to remain chaste are openly ridiculed on
Geraldo; the decision of Doogie Howser, a TV hero and role model for young
people, to lose his virginity is hailed as "responsible sex"; and a couple that
doesn't live together before the wedding is asked, "Why
not?"
Western civilization has been heading down this path for a long
time. With the rise of Humanism during the Renaissance, societies began turning
away from God's laws and God's ways. From the Enlightenment sprang a virtual
worship of nature. Once nature, not God, became the standard for morality,
people started believing that, since humans are a mere product of nature,
anything we do naturally is normal, and even good. Sex is natural, sex is
powerful, and so it eventually followed that sexual expression was seen as a
natural and normal part of all human existence in any circumstances, much on the
level of eating and sleeping.
It's no coincidence that the two most
heated issues of our day are abortion and homosexuality; underlying both is an
insistence on sexual freedom while thumbing one's nose at God and His
laws.
Given the sexually charged atmosphere in which we live, it is not
surprising that so many people are having sex outside of marriage and getting
pregnant. And so abortion is treated like an eraser; people see it as a way to
try to get rid of the consequences of their sexual activity. The fact is that
pregnancies do occur as a result of incest and rape. Some women get pregnant
because of someone else's sin. But does that make it right to kill the baby that
has been conceived?
Historically, hiding the evidence of sexual activity
was the main reason for abortions. One of the early church fathers, Clement of
Alexandria, maintained that "those who use abortifacient medicines to hide
their fornication cause not only the outright murder of the fetus, but of the
whole human race as well". (1)
Pro-choice advocates don't like the
use of the word "murder." They maintain that no one really knows when human life
begins, and they choose to believe that the idea of personhood at conception is
a religious tenet and therefore not valid. It is a human life that is
formed at conception. The zygote contains 46 chromosomes, half contributed by
each parent, in a unique configuration that has never existed before and never
will again. It is not plant life or animal life, nor is it mere tissue like a
tumor. From the moment of conception, the new life is genetically different from
his or her mother, and is not a part of her body like her tonsils or appendix.
This new human being is a separate individual living inside the
mother.
The Bible doesn't specifically address the subject of abortion,
probably since it is covered in the commandment, "You shall not murder"
(Ex. 20:13). But it does give us insight into God's view of the unborn. In the
Old Testament, the Hebrew word for the unborn (yeled) is the same word
used for young children. The Hebrew language did not have or need a separate
word for pre-born babies. All children were children regardless of whether they
lived inside or outside the womb. In the New Testament, the same word is used to
describe the unborn John the Baptist and the already-born baby Jesus. The
process of birth just doesn't make any difference concerning a baby's worth or
status in the Bible.
We are given some wonderful insights into God's
intimate involvement in the development and life of the pre-born infant in 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.â€
All people,
regardless of the circumstances of their conception, or whether they are healthy
or handicapped, have been personally knit together by God's fingers. He has
planned out all the days of the unborn child's life before one of them has
happened.
Sometimes you will hear a pro-choice argument that says the
Bible does not put the same value on the life of the unborn as on infants,
citing an Old Testament passage on personal injury law. Exodus 21:22-25 gives
two penalties if fighting men hit a pregnant woman. The first penalty was a
fine, and some people conclude from this that an unborn baby doesn't have the
same value as a born child. But that penalty was for a situation where nothing
serious happened. If there was serious injury, the offender was
severely punished with the same injury he inflicted. If the mother or baby died,
the offender was to be put to death. This actually shows very eloquently how
valuable God considers both the mother and her unborn baby.
After having an abortion, many women feel a sense of
relief at having avoided the stress and responsibility of pregnancy and a baby,
but abortions eventually cause serious emotional damage in millions of
women.
The American Psychiatric Association has identified abortion as
one of the stressor events that can trigger post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD). Many of us associate PTSD with Vietnam Veterans suffering from the
effects of the war; but post-abortion syndrome is a form of PTSD that affects
women who have had abortions.
The death of a child is one of the biggest
stress points a person can experience in life. Post-abortion syndrome is the
emotional stress of not grieving, not letting ourselves feel the pain and
suffering that is part of a loss. To be emotionally healthy, we all have to
grieve through our losses; but what do you do when society tells you there's
nothing to grieve about? If a woman does not recognize her need to grieve for
her baby, or if she does not allow it to occur, that emotional pain is going to
go somewhere. Frequently, following a woman's abortion, she goes into
what one CPC counselor described as "self-destruct mode": getting pregnant
again, having an affair, punishing herself, and generally showing all the
variations that severe depression can take.
Depending on how stressed a
woman is, post-abortion syndrome can show up within weeks or months of the
abortion, or she can have a delayed reaction to it, typically seven to eight
years later. Women experiencing post-abortion syndrome generally feel a
confusing and overwhelming sense of guilt. One study reported that 92 percent of
women who have had an abortion feel guilt.(2) One woman who is now involved in a
post-abortion healing group reports that after her abortion, the memory haunted
her. She heard this little voice in her head: "Abortion, abortion; you're a
terrible, awful person."(3) For many women, the guilt and shame is expressed
through a deep anger--at the doctors and abortion counselors for hurting her and
her baby, at her husband, boyfriend, or parents for pressuring her into an
abortion, and at herself for getting pregnant and having the
abortion.
Many women dealing with the effects of abortion spend a great
deal of emotional energy denying the death and denying that what they did was
wrong. A woman uses denial to keep herself from coming face to face with the
fact that her child was killed and she allowed it to happen. One young woman
pleaded with my sister not to leave her alone the day she had an abortion. This
hurting teen tried to keep her feelings at bay as she spent the afternoon
telling dead baby jokes.
Abortion is not an eraser to rub out a mistake
or an inconvenience. It has more than one victim; women as well as their babies
are victims of abortions. It is essential that a woman grieve for her baby and
face her role in the baby's death; in fact, women who allow themselves to grieve
and understand their need to grieve are not likely to experience post-abortion
syndrome. But even more essential is that women who have had abortions accept
that there really has been a death, that abortion is sin, and that the Lord
Jesus Christ's death covered every wrong they have ever done. No
sin--not even abortion--is greater than the power of His blood, and He offers
total forgiveness and cleansing to everyone who will come to Him in
faith.
Steve and Tessie Sawyer will never forget Halloween
1990. Tessie was four months pregnant, and her doctor had suggested, "Tess,
you're 35 years old; let's do a neurological test on the baby. It's just a
simple blood test." Sure, that was fine with Tessie...until the day before
Halloween, when the test results came back.
The alpha-fetoprotein test
indicated that her blood count was extremely low. Normal was 450, and hers was
120. This test has three parts, and the part that came back so abnormal tested
for Down's Syndrome. Neither Steve nor Tessie were the least bit prepared for
the staggering news that something might be terribly wrong with their
baby.
This baby was a surprise to the Sawyers, who already had two
very active little boys and weren't anticipating any more. But, being
believers, they knew that God's sense of humor and timing is something to be
reckoned with.
Later, they did another alpha-fetoprotein test. Hoping
against hope, they waited in anguish for the results to come back to Dallas from
the lab in Santa Fe. But the second results were just as abnormal as the first.
The doctor informed Steve and Tessie of their option to abort the baby, since
there was an almost certain indication that he would be handicapped. But that
was never an option for them. The doctors wanted to do amniocentesis on Tess,
but they refused that, too.
At this point, the Sawyers' friends had two
different perspectives. Their church friends were wonderfully supportive, both
emotionally and in prayer; their unchurched friends questioned them: "Why don't
you have an amnio?" Steve and Tessie were delighted, in the midst of their fear,
to be able to share their faith that God was the One in control: "It doesn't
matter what the test results would be. We're not aborting this baby. There's a
risk of miscarriage or early labor with amniocentesis, and five months' peace of
mind in exchange for our baby's life just isn't worth it."
At seven
months, the doctor did a special, extensive sonogram to measure the baby's
femur. Down's Syndrome babies have longer than normal extremities, but the
doctor couldn't see anything unusual about the baby's bones. And he couldn't see
the baby's face, either. The waiting, and not knowing, went on two more
months.
Tessie had a scheduled C-section. As she was being prepped for
surgery, it hit her that in a matter of moments, their lives could be changed
forever. That kind of fear feels like a cold, hard iceball in your stomach. But
Steve and Tessie were trusting God no matter what happened, believing in His
love for them and for their baby, believing that He was still in
control.
The doctor delivered Lucas Clay Sawyer and turned him over. "He
looks perfectly normal," he pronounced cautiously. But sometimes Down's Syndrome
takes a while to show up, and for the next 24 hours they ran a lot of tests on
Luke. And I'm glad to say that today he is absolutely, positively, the
healthiest, most robust, smartest little kid you've ever seen.
All the
world's conventional wisdom advised Steve and Tessie, "Your baby is probably not
normal. You should seriously consider abortion." But are they glad they didn't!!
We need to hear that test results are sometimes wrong. No one knows why the
Sawyers' alpha-fetoprotein test came back with such dismal numbers on such a
healthy baby. How many other healthy babies are being aborted after the parents
get misleading or just plain wrong test results?
The Sawyers had a very happy ending to their story,
but sometimes the tests do tell the truth and babies really are sick or
handicapped. There's no doubt about it - raising a handicapped child is painful
and hard. Is it ever okay to abort a child whose life will be less than
perfect?
We need to ask ourselves, does the child deserve to die because
of his handicap or illness? Life is hard, both for the handicapped person and
for her parents. But it is significant that no organization of parents of
mentally retarded children has ever endorsed abortion.
Some people
honestly believe that it's better to abort a handicapped child than to let him
experience the difficult life ahead. Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General
of the United States, has performed thousands of pediatric surgeries on
handicapped children. He remarks that disability and unhappiness do not
necessarily go together. Some of the unhappiest children he has known had full
mental and physical faculties, and some of the happiest youngsters have borne
very difficult burdens.(4)
Life is a lot harder for people with
disabilities, but I can tell you personally that there is a precious side to it
as well. I have lived most of my life with a physical handicap, but it hasn't
stopped me from experiencing a fierce joy from living life to the fullest of the
abilities I do have. I can honestly rejoice in my broken body because
it is that very brokenness and weakness that makes it easier for others to see
the power and glory of my Lord in me, because His power is perfected in
weakness.
Often, parents abort children with defects because they don't
want to face the certain suffering and pain that comes with caring for a
handicapped individual. By aborting the child, they believe they are aborting
the trouble. But as we discussed earlier, there is no way to avoid the
consequences of abortion: the need to grieve, the guilt, the anger, the
depression.
What if a baby is going to die anyway? Anencephalic babies,
babies born without brains, have no hope of living any length of time. I think
we need to look at the larger picture, one that includes God and His purposes
for our lives. When a tragedy like this occurs, we can know that it is only
happening because He has a reason behind it. God's will for us is not that we
live easy lives, but that we be changed into the image of Jesus. He wants us to
be holy, not comfortable. The pain of difficult circumstances is often His
chosen method to grow godliness in us and in the lives of those touched by the
tragedy of a child's handicap. When it is a matter of life and death, as
abortion is, it is not our place to avoid the pain.
My husband and I know
what it is to bury a baby who only lived nine days. We saw God use this
situation to draw people to Himself and to teach and strengthen and bless so
many people beyond our immediate family. Despite the tremendous pain of that
time, now that I have seen how God used it to glorify Himself, I would go
through it again.
Not all abortions are performed as a matter of
convenience. Some are performed in very hard cases, such as a handicapped child
or as the result of rape or incest. But again, we need to back off and look at
things from an eternal perspective. God is the One who gives life, and only He
has the right to take it away. Every person, born or unborn, is a precious soul
made by God, in His image. Every life is an entrustment from God we need to
celebrate and protect.
Notes
1. Paedogus
2:10, 96, 1
2. Ann Speckhard, "The Psycho-Social Aspects of Stress
Following Abortion," doctoral thesis submitted to the University of
Minnesota.
3. Nancy Michels, Helping Women Recover From Abortion
(Minneapolis: Bethany, 1988), 76.
4. C. Everett Koop, "The Slide to
Auschwitz," cited in Ronald Reagan, Abortion and the Conscience of the
Nation (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984), 45-46.
For Further
Reading
Alcorn, Randy. Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice
Arguments, Portland: Multnomah, 1992.
Garton, Jean. Who Broke
the Baby? Minneapolis: Bethany, 1988.
Michels, Nancy. Helping
Women Recover From Abortion. Minneapolis: Bethany, 1988.
Schaeffer,
Francis and C. Everett Koop, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?
Westchester, Ill.: Crossway, 1983.
Young, Curt. The Least of
These. Chicago: Moody, 1984.
© 1992 Probe
Ministries.
This document is the sole
property of Probe Ministries. It may not be altered or edited in any way.
Permission is granted to use in digital or printed form so long as it is
circulated without charge, and in its entirety. This document may not be
repackaged in any form for sale or resale. All reproductions of this document
must contain the copyright notice (i.e., Copyright 2008 Probe Ministries) and
this Copyright/Limitations notice.
About the Author – Sue Bohlin
is an associate speaker with Probe Ministries. She attended the University of
Illinois, and has been a Bible teacher and conference speaker for over 30 years.
She serves as a Mentor Mom and speaker for MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers), and
on the board, and as a small group leader, of Living Hope Ministries, a
Christ-centered outreach to those dealing with unwanted homosexuality. Sue is on
the Bible.org Women leadership team and is a regular contributor to
TheTapestryBlog.com. She is also a professional calligrapher and the webmistress
for Probe Ministries; but most importantly, she is the wife of Dr. Ray Bohlin
and the mother of their two grown sons.
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