Please, please, please stay on topic here guys... I think this is an important discussion for the Body of Christ as a whole along with society at large to have but the last thread addressing it got overrun with an off topic argument and closed... Please stay on topic...
Here are my basic beliefs on the subject of abortion:
Pro-Life
1. Abortion is murder. It is an affront not just to Christian teaching but to the very foundations of modern society. It takes the rule of law and due process and throws both out the window to allow adults, women like myself in particular, to kill their own offspring for even the most arbitrary of reasons. In most cases it's an evil and barbaric practice that in an ideal world should be criminalized outside of extreme circumstances. To clarify what I mean by "Extreme Circumstances" if there's a higher than 55% chance that the mother will die if she gives birth or carries to term, or if there is less than a 10% chance that the child will be born alive. Even at that point abortion is a necessary evil. It is never right, but there are situations in which it is still better than the alternative and any legal sanctions against it MUST provide exceptions to take those situations into account.
2. We do not live in that ideal world. Therefore whether we believe abortion to be right or wrong our time is better spent creating a world in which abortion is as unneeded and uncommon as possible. What will help that happen? Increased access to preventative birth-control, better and more widespread sex education, more resources for pregnant women regardless or age or background, and much needed reforms to the current adoption and foster-care systems.
3. Until the points outlined above in #2 are accomplished criminalizing abortion would solve very little and create more problems than it gets rid of.
4. I do not fly with the "quality of life" "sick kids shouldn't even be born" argument...
First of all, I want to make it clear that I am not writing this to convince anyone they should not support abortion.
Second, any discussion of abortion starts with the inevitable fact that every abortion kills a baby. This is not a christian concept. it was admitted to by two prominent abortionists who went on the record.
Third, this being the case, we should ask ourselves why an innocent baby that has done no wrong should be offered up on the altar of convenience for any reason and I say this because the majority of abortions are matters of convenience.
Whilst point two raises some interesting points, some need to be put right.
One. Better and more widespread sex education is a failure. I was on a committee that advised the government on sex education in schools. We said the evidence is that sex education will increase teen pregnancy. They ignored our advice and introduced it. Result. An increase in teen pregnancy. Response. More sex education. Result more teen pregnancies. Response. More sex education. Result. More teen pregnancies.
The government were too proud to admit they had got it wrong and as a result they messed up many teenage lives because of dogma.
Two. As for a baby having less than a 10% chance of living being a candidate for abortion, I would say no. Some friends of ours were told that their first baby had little or no hope of living and that they should abort. They refused and carried the baby to full term. The little girl lived for 13 hours and during that time the mother cradled her in her arms. When asked about the experience she said it was the most precious 13 hours that she had lived. It was their baby and she died knowing that she was loved and wanted and she never regretted bringing it into the world.
Three, having been involved in a Pregnancy Resource Centre, I think that you will find that they are opening up all over the country. The majority of them are church based or run. What this means is that no woman need go it alone in a pregnancy. As the number of these grow so there will be less need to abort a baby.
One final point. it is claimed by pro-abortionists that if abortion were to be made illegal, women would have to cope with the dangers of backyard abortions. This is scaremongering in the extreme and does not have an ounce of truth in it. What would happen is that abortionists would set up a clandestine operation and using the same methods that they already use, start all over again.
For those who want to know the truth, more women have been injured or died from legal abortion that they ever did before it was legalised.
Finally, criminalising abortion has had its benefits as there are now thousands of children walking the streets that would have been aborted. Texas in particular has passed laws that has made it impossible for abortion providers to operated like backyard abortionists so to date 81 have closed their business because they do not want to conform to good medical practice. That is a good thing as it means more women will not be traumatised by bad medical practice than has been the norm up till now.
