Human Rights

Human Rights  » Thoughts on Abortion

Thoughts on Abortion

HOW CAN ONE PREVENT AN ABORTION

1) Abstinence

2) If abstinence is not practical, use safe birth control

methods - Although there are many Christians who believe sex is

only for the purpose of procreation, I believe sex can also be

used as the deepest physical expression of love for your

partner, even if your goal at the moment is not to have

children. Therefore using safe birth control methods for this

purpose would be one way in preventing one to consider having an

abortion because of an unwanted pregnancy. And I also believe

that there is nothing in Scripture that prohibits one from using

such an approach.

3) Allowing pregnancies to come to term, and then putting the

unwanted children up for adoption, if still unwanted. The

following are thoughts on adoption:

1. Steven says: In the U. S. there are 5 requirements to be

eligible for adoption. They are: 1) You must be over 18 years of

age, 2) You must be a resident of your state for 5 years, 2) You

must be able to provide financially for the child, 4) You must

be able to provide a safe home for the child, and 5) You cannot

have been convicted of a felony. Notice! It no longer matters if

you're single, married, gay, over a certain age, or the same

race as the child. However, there are unspoken prejudices that

are practiced by social workers who do not agree with this

criteria. The laws may say they cannot discriminate, but they

find ways around it. Also there is much extortion by those

responsible for placing children up for adoption. I've

experienced this personally. I finally did find a place where I

could adopt at reasonable cost and with a limited waiting

period. It's called "Special Link" in South Carolina, and their

mission is to finds homes for those kids who are hard to place.

It took us just one month to adopt a child. What a blessing.

2. Janet says: There are plenty of couples who would love to

adopt children but can't because there aren't enough, due to

abortion. I've experience this with my teenage daughter who

wanted to put her baby up for adoption and found so many

applicants waiting to be considered by her, as she wanted to

engage in this process personally. However, I do think that the

adoption laws should be refined and more importance should be

put on love available instead of money. Kids don't need their

own room with a TV and VCR - they need parents to love and care

for them. I think the foster parenting system should be revamped

also and adoption laws changed to side with the child more than

birth parents. Too many people have children and abuse them, but

the gov't won't take them away from them permanently because

they gave birth to them. Big deal! My opinion is that birth

parents should be given a set amount of time to straighten out,

or the children should be put up for adoption. I have seen so

many kids moved from foster home to foster home because the

birth mother is fighting off drug addiction, alcoholism,

schizophrenia, etc. The mother never straightens out and the

children never find a home and grow up as messed up as their

mother.

3. Corbin says: I don't advocate abortion, but even with

abortion, I still see many unwanted kids out there.

4. Janet says: Corbin, I think you really have to define what

you mean by "unwanted". As I said before, there are children

whose birth parents don't want them, but that doesn't mean no

one wants them. Heck. If it were possible, I would take all of

them.

5. Sylvia says: I think that if the laws and restrictions on

adoptions were not so strict, then more people would adopt. The

system is only hurting the children, not helping them. A couple

has to wait a long time for the adoption to take place,

resulting in babies of today becoming young kids.

6. Janet says. One of the problems in adopting is that the

monetary restrictions are so tough that many loving people just

can't afford to adopt any child.

7. James says: Only a small percentage of those applying to

adopt actually are allowed to adopt. The social workers involved

are really implying that about 75% of the population are not fit

to be parents.

4) Be more loving with more open communication, and less

condemnation by surrounding relationships.

5) Gender Equality - If women were granted equal opportunities

in all areas of life, they would be thought of more as

individuals rather than as sex objects, therefore reducing the

possibilities of their having many unwanted pregnancies.

6) Mixed Nudity - If mixed nudity were less frowned upon,

curiosity about the nakedness of the woman's body would be less

of a reason for males to be sexually driven toward having sex

with women that could produce many unwanted pregnancies. I know

in my 3 year stint at a nudest camp I noticed that after a while

I never viewed anybody as being naked; I just saw them as

individuals.

QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE REALITY OF ABORTION

1st Internet Question: SHOULD ABORTIONS BE PERMITTED A) TO SAVE

THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER, B) RAPE, C) INCEST, D) DEFORMITY OF THE

FETUS, E) ECONOMIC REASONS, F) EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY, G) AFTER

HAVING AN IN-DEPTH COUNSELING SESSION OR SESSIONS, OR H) NO

LIMITATIONS? CHOOSE ONE OR MORE OF THE ABOVE EXCEPTIONS TO NO

ABORTIONS ALLOWED.

THE RESPONSES COME FROM 3 CHRISTIAN WEBSITES.

1) John says: I'm against all abortions, even to save the life

of the mother because the unborn child still has no say in the

decision, and the power of prayer is more decisive than a

medical opinion.

2) Corbin says: I personally would only choose abortions after

an in-depth counseling session or sessions to make sure that the

parties involved fully understand that an abortion was not the

only possible alternative for them. I'm generally not in favor

of abortions, but as a paradox it seems that in leaving the

option open for a woman to have an abortion, you will have fewer

and safer abortions. This is because legal options give you the

freedom to make a choice, and when you have this, you more often

are more relaxed to make the right choice. Without legal choice,

you more often become desparate and make the wrong choice. Also,

as more and more unwanted babies (by their more immediate

relationships) are being born, you're also paving the way for

more potential future conflict being created by the unwanted, as

well.

3) Jonathon says: I think Bill Clinton once said that abortion

should be legal, safe, and rare, and it is the latter we need to

work on - perhaps more concentration, not on trying to prevent

women in choosing abortion as a legal option, but on the

prevention of unwanted pregnancies.

4) Sarah says: Deciding who gets aborted and under what

circumstances is playing God. I am one of those unwanted babies

and so is my husband. How on earth could anyone have really

known 3 decades ago that it would have been for the best to

abort us. We have had AWESOME lives and contributed much to

society. We are both highly educated, responsible individuals.

We have both known from early childhood of our difficult

beginnings, and been greatly loved by our adoptive parents. Yes,

our moms had a rough 9 months carrying us and then I am sure, a

difficult time in giving us up. But in exchange for those

inconveniences, we have lead incredible lives.

5) James says: My cousin and his wife were expecting their

second child, but tests revealed that the fetus had some severe

deformities.. Most of the brain never developed, the

gastro-intestinal tract was external, rather than internal, and

the spine was severly deformed. The doctors assured them that

the child would never live more than a month, would never be

sentient, and might actually experience some pain. Also, the

cost to care for such a child for even a few days would be

astronomical. But rather than abort, they decided to have the

baby, and everything happened just as the doctors had said. The

deformities were awful, and it was obvious the baby was in pain.

It died in just about a month, and cost a bundle. It was a

horrible series of events to witness. I can't even imagine what

the parents might have felt. In that case, I honestly would have

favored an abortion. That's why I remain pro-choice. Every

situation is different, and ultimately, the choice is an

individual one.

6) Jennifer says: I have walked into planned parenthood clinics

to get birth control/pregnancies tests, etc, and it really

bothered me when you see young girls in there bragging about

this being their third abortion. It angers me because this is

immoral.

7) Shirley says: I'm in favor of women being allowed to choose,

though I'd prefer prevention where possible.

8) Jane says: I fully support an absolute ban on all abortions

for any reason. I think if Christians put their faith and trust

in God, there would be no need for abortions. If a woman does

find herself impregnated for any reason, however, and her life

is in danger as a result, she should still lay down her life for

the unborn, if necessary. "Whoever will save her life, will lose

it, and whoever will lose her life, will save it". A quote from

Jesus Christ.

9) David says: There is no place for an abortion in this society.

10) Grace says: What about a case where the child is already

dead in the womb, or a case where you have an esoteric pregnancy

where there's no chance the child will survive a birth

procedure, and in both cases, it could be life threatening to

the mother?

11) Frank says: I am pro-choice, not pro-abortion. We want

abortions to stop just as everyone else would. But I feel I

don't have the right to tell anyone else what choice they should

make.

12) Joan says: Frank, that argument doesn't go very far in life.

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You may not think we have a choice in telling people what to do,

but take into consideration that we have laws and rules

everywhere we go in life. If telling someone they can't murder

someone else isn't a good stance to take, I don't know what is.

13) Frank says: You're right, Vicki, but the ultimate answer is

to find ways to prevent people from ever getting into a

situation where they would even consider the option of having an

abortion.

14) Corbin says: Sometimes I feel Pro-Choicers are more

concerned with the quality of life, whereas Pro-Lifers

(so-called) are more concerned with the quantity of life.

A 2nd Internet question that I asked on the web sites was

whether one should believe in bombing abortion clinics and/or

killing abortion activists. Most suggested that two wrongs don't

make a right, while one lone individual agreed with this

supposition, and stated many believe in capital punishment for

murderers.

3rd Internet Question: WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN, AND WHAT IS LIFE?

1) Jim says: Life begins at conception. And that's a scientific

fact.

2) Steven says: Of course, if one believes in reincarnation,

than the ramifications of this question are fairly pointless.

And what about belief in the immortal soul - if the soul is

immortal, then this life is, again, fleeting.

3) Jonathon says: Oh WOW, you do go for the easy questions,

don't you! I dont' think there is a straightforward answer to

this. Life at conception is potential not actual, in the sense

of being able to survive independently.

4) Sarah says: I believe life begins at conception. What

animates living things. It is sustained by breathing. When a

child is in the mother's womb, its life is sustained by the

oxygen (obtained by her breathing) in her blood. When it is born

it is sustained by its own breathing.

5) James says: On a personal level I have always considered it

no earlier than that the fetus could survive outside the womb.

Perhaps what worries me most about the idea of making a person a

legal person is how it affects the rights of the mother as a

human being. For instance , if the mother miscarries, and the

fetus is legally a person, then won't every mother who

miscarries have to be investigated and tried for reckless

endangerment, manslaughter, or even murder. It's this nightmare

that really worries me.

6) Andrew says: Someone once said "Life is nothing but a slither

of light in between two immensities of darkness". But I believe

that life really begins when we are able to live independently

in God's creation.

7) James says: Life actually begins when God can see your

substance. But life as known by the individual does not really

begin until there is a consciousness of things around you and

you truly begin to relate to living.

THERE'S ONE WEBSITE WHICH SUGGESTS THAT ABORTION IS NOT

ANTI-BIBLICAL

The author suggests that Scripture should not be read out of

context to prove a point, and that there is no place in the

Bible that points to the fact that the fetus is a human being.,

only a potential human being.

1) Psalm 139:13-16 indicates that God is very much involved in

our creation, but not that the fetus is actually a human being.

2) Jeremiah 1:4-10 indicates that God knew Jeremiah before he

was even conceived suggesting that if you consider the fetus as

a human being, it must have been a human being before conception.

3) Jeremiah 1:4-10, & Luke 1:39-41 indicates that these verses

only relate to Jeremiah & John the Baptist.

4) Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 suggests it might be better to abort than

to cause one to live a miserable life.

5) Numbers 3:15 A census was taken of those who were only over 1

month old indicating that fetuses were not considered human

beings in Biblical times.

WITH THIS LATTER INFORMATION ON BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION, WHEN DO

YOU THINK THE SOUL WOULD CONNECT WITH THE BODY? WOULD IT BE WHEN

THE BODY RECEIVES A CONSCIENCE? IF THIS WERE TRUE, WOULD THIS

ALTAR YOUR POSITION ON SOME ABORTIONS? WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The names of the commentarians, except for myself, have been

changed to protect the privacy of the Internet contributors, but

their comments are accurate.

About the author:

Corbin Melvin Wright was born in New York City in 1931, grew up

on Long Island, graduated from Roanoke College in Virginia with

a BA in Political Science, and from New York Theological

Seminary with a Masters in Religious Education. He worked as an

accountant in NYC for 21 yrs. and as an English teacher and

Christian counselor in Argentina for 23 years. He was married

twice, widowed once, & has no children, E-mail address

(corbinwr@yahoo.com).