In the discussion around abortion, I have heard this argument made a number of times, which says that as a man, I have no way of understanding what a pregnant woman goes through and thus should have no say on the legality or morality of a woman's choice regarding abortion.
I totally agree that I can never fully understand what a pregnant woman undergoes (and, no matter what modern science might engineer, I never want to). However, to say that I am unable to have an opinion on the morality and legality of an action due to the nature of my genitalia is ridiculous, sexist and totally untrue. As it happens, I don't have an opinion but I have moral precepts that The Holy Spirit has embedded in me through reading His Word in The Bible. And God makes clear that He knows us even before He forms us in our mother's wombs. (Jeremiah 1:5) He also hates the shedding of innocent blood. (See Proverbs 6:16-19)
What's funny to me is the inconsistency I hear with this idea. Some people who don't claim to be Christians will sometimes bring Bible verses to my attention where God authorizes the killing of people, including babies and thus they make the claim that it must be okay Biblically. I then explain that those verses are being read out of context and that those verses are generally either part of God's judgement of sin and/or part of imprecatory prayers. Of course, as 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, people without Christ will not understand The Bible because it's spiritually discerned. So I explain that you need to know Jesus as Saviour and Lord to really understand His Scriptures. (And you can do that by putting faith in His death and Resurrection that pays for all sins and following Him.)
So the irony here is that while I'm being told that I can't judge to say what a woman should or shouldn't do regarding abortion because of being a man- and this position supported by Bible verses taken out-of-context- non-Christian people who tell me this can't understand and judge to tell me what the Scriptures say because of not being a Christian.
As it turns out, you do need the Holy Spirit to understand The Bible, but you don't have to have the Holy Spirit in you to know that murder is wrong. (See Ecclesiastes 3:11 and Romans 1-2)
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Having here addressed one of the common objections to men even speaking on the topic of abortion, I want to further address some other radical claims that have been made in recent years regarding abortion and sexual responsibility in a post from a Mormon mother that famously went viral online. It offers many interesting ideas, some of which I agree with and others I disagree with as well.
Even the terminology used can be off-putting at times. People in favour of abortions as a legal right often speak of the reproductive rights of mothers. I find it interesting to use the term "reproductive rights" because pro-life people are not trying to take those away by any means. Rather, they want mothers to utilize those rights and reproduce rather than kill the baby forming inside them. That said, here is my analysis and response to the aforementioned viral post.
There are a lot of points made on this thread but I'll try to briefly address the main ones that stick out to me. First of all, I totally agree with her that sex outside of marriage is one of the main reasons for unwanted pregnancies! I totally agree that sex should be reserved for marriage and that would eliminate the vast majority of abortions.
Sadly, many choose not to do this and wind up having a baby form due to their sexual activity. The male and female are not married and have no intention of getting married or being parents- and thus, the baby is killed via abortion. The parents might choose to get married and still have an abortion. The parents might just live together and never get married and still choose an abortion. It could be a baby formed through an adulterous relationship and thus abortion might again be employed.
The scenarios could continue but that covers a lot of them.
And there are times when a married couple has a baby form and abortion is chosen because the child is inconvenient for them.
All of those are horrible options that basically amount to abortion as post-conception birth control and it does equate to murder.
The other scenario mentioned, which statistically happens far fewer times as the reason for abortion, is rape.
I agree that the rapist must bear responsibility for this crime and while it may sound harsh, I think either jail and/or castration could be the response to help stop that.
(Though for the latter option, the courts obviously better be as near undeniably sure as possible.)
Rape is a horrible, evil crime- but even then, it still takes 2 people to make a baby. And unwanted pregnancies are not always because of rape.
Scientifically speaking at least along with morally speaking, it's untrue to say unwanted pregnancies are 100% the fault of men. (Though yes, I would concede that the blame should fall squarely on the rapist and the rapist is 100% at fault for rape. I don't care if the woman was stark naked with a "Rape Me" sign on her back, the rapist is 100% responsible for his crime. (And to be clear, women are rapists at times too- I have known men who have been sexually abused by their ex-wives- and in such cases, the rapist there is 100% at fault for her crime.))
To get back to cases of consensual sex, there are numerous pregnancies that occur that are unwanted by either the man or the woman though both wanted the coitus.
With sex comes responsibility. It is like a car in some ways. You can get a licence to drive but you must accept the responsibilities that come with it. A car is not a toy. Sex is not a toy either. Sex is a beautiful expression of love between a husband and his wife- that is who it's reserved for and when it's kept in that context, it's a beautiful thing. Outside of that context, it's an ugly mess. And both the man and woman are responsible for their own actions and thus both men and women are 100% responsible for unwanted pregnancies.
The very rare cases where abortion is performed to save the life of a mother are usually performed in a manner where emergency work is being done to save the mother's life and not purposefully kill the baby. That is sometimes an unfortunate byproduct, but not the desired result. Ideally, doctors should do all they can to preserve all life, both mothers and babies.
I can agree with comprehensive sex education in schools because I know not everyone will choose to employ abstinence until marriage. (Abstinence until marriage is the morally correct route that I would prefer but I know not everyone is a Christian and even Christians sometimes fail too.) Thus, it's good to have this education- that's not a bad thing.
Rape is a horrible, evil act- no one should rape anyone. Rapists should be caught and imprisoned. (As I mentioned earlier, castration is another possible solution.)
And to be clear, I don't think abortion should be done in the case of rape because two wrongs don't make a right. It's still wrong to kill a baby. Don't punish the baby for the father's crime. It's worth noting that, as Matthew 1 relates, Jesus' own genealogy on Earth included people born of rape and incest and adulterous relationships. This doesn't make any of those things right but it does mean God redeems even those horrible deeds when we let Him. And God also forgives us of those horrible deeds when we truly repent.
Sex should be reserved for marriage. That will eliminate the vast majority of abortions that happen.
The focus should be put on both men and women because both are responsible. The baby formed has his or her own body and is not part of the mother's body. It's not the mother's choice- it's always The Father's. (Yes, note the capital letter- God the Father is the One who decides who lives and dies alone.)
Men and women don't have the right to murder and we don't have the right to decide to end a baby's life- that's still murder. And when we do that, we make ourselves our own god- and that's what it all comes down to in the end. It mainly comes down to us doing what's convenient for us and trying to escape consequences. But we can't escape consequences. We must take responsibility for our actions. (And this includes making sure, as best as we can, that we're prepared to handle a baby's birth. But guess what? No one is really totally prepared to handle a baby's birth- yet a man and his wife have babies anyway and they sacrifice to provide for them because that's their responsibility as well as their pride and joy.)
And in all this, remember that God is always willing still to forgive us of premarital sex and adultery and incest and rape- when we come to Him in true repentance. Jesus died and rose to pay for all those sins.
And we must trust Him to help us through in dealing with this unexpected pregnancy and parenthood. And the option of adoption is a wonderful one to employ as well as there are so many infertile married couples- as well as those who are fertile- who would love to adopt these children instead. These babies have a right to live and we have no right to stop them.
Amen!
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting- glad you found it edifying. :-)
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