There actually is some evidence, but obviously not in the first trimester, and I'm dubious about even the second:
Fetal Psychology
Hi hedrick,
All of this assumes that we know the heart of God in the matter. I believe that the heart of God in the matter of sexual relations altogether is that it is only for the man and woman who are in a committed life long relationship with one another. I believe that is God's heart in the matter because if people would abide by that one use of sexual relations, the occurrence of abortion would likely fall into the 100's possibly for medical reasons.
However,
WE ARE SINNERS!!!!!!! We are prone to always misuse what God has given us for our good. Sexual relations are now about as common as going out to get a cup of coffee together and when we misuse something that God has given us, then problems ensue. In the days of old in Israel, a woman had to prove that she was a virgin on her wedding night. However, they were sinners too, and I'm sure that practice created some problems for them also. But, the point is that the Jews, God's people, have always held virginity until marriage in very high regard.
If a man had relations with a virgin, that was not his wife, then he was expected to marry her. The reason being that once the woman was defiled, it was going to be very hard for her to find a marriage partner who would be expecting a virgin as a bride. Not impossible, of course, but harder and likely not going to get a 'good' man for a husband. Look at the account of Mary and Joseph. It took an angel of God to convince Joseph that he shouldn't just kick his 'obviously non-virgin' betrothed to the curb. I say obviously non-virgin because in those days, you just couldn't get pregnant without having had sexual relations with a man. But an angel of God visited Joseph and convinced him that in this one singular case, that wasn't true and that Mary was still a virgin.
So, I think historically, for God's people, the sanctity of the sexual union was always to have been within a marriage of a man and a woman. All other situations need not apply! So, basically what we're speaking of here is whether or not we're going to allow the lost world to go in the way that the lost world is wont to go. Making laws that are godly to address the lives of the godless, has never worked and I'm confident that it won't work here either.
We, as born again beleivers, should leave the laws that lost man wants to make up to lost man. We, the born again believers however, should neither desire an abortion nor have put ourselves in a place where the discussion of having an abortion would even come up. But,
WE'RE ALL SINNERS!!!!!! We think as believers that we're doing God's will in all of this, but there have been occasions that God hasn't been particularly caring of life in general. After all, the flood killed a lot of lost people. There's no evidence that God was particularly upset about that. The angel of death that He sent to Egypt killed a lot of lost people. Those who trusted God were supposed to have put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and lentils and their first born were unaffected. However, for those who lost their lives, God doesn't seem to have been particularly moved by such loss. At one point in the Scriptures God brings up the issue of parents sacrificing their children to pagan gods. Did God command Israel to go out into all the nations and stop them from doing this thing? No. God told His people to stop doing such things.
So, I think there is evidence that God may see this issue differently for His people, than He does the lost. If the lost want to do wicked things then we let them. There is no commandment to us to stop the lost from doing anything that the lost do. The commandment is merely to attempt to teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe that if we do that, then the problem, for the believer, takes care of itself. The lost world is already lost and the only hope any one of them has is that one of us will take the time to share the love of God, that He has shown through the sacrifice of His Son, to them.
I'm in agreement to let the world make the laws that they desire to make and leave them alone about it. However, the believer is asked to live by a different law and, therefore, should.
God bless,
In Christ, ted