Pro-choice Biblical foundation

I am prochoice in regard to abortion because I think the prolife position when taken to its logical conclusion has dangerous tendencies, and I think the Bible and Jewish/Christian theology offer substantial reasons to support the pro-choice position.


1. Birth Control: If a prolife person is consistent in his arguments, the result will be that birth control is prohibited. The Roman Catholic position on abortion says as much and is very consistent. Many forms of birth control terminate a zygote before or after implantation. Therefore, that which conception has produced is killed. That's abortion. I do not want the prolife movement to outlaw birth control; I don't think that would be responsible legislation. But that's where it logically ends up.


2. Executions: Again, a prolife person who is consistent in her thinking would have the State convict mothers, nurses, doctors, and maybe husbands of murder when an abortion took place since prolife folks teach that abortion is murder. Mothers and doctors, etc, would have to be executed for premeditated murder. If they really mean what they say, that would have to be their recommendation. I'm against executing mothers and doctors, etc, after an abortion is performed. A few people have taken the pro-life position to its logical conclusion and have actually killed doctors.


3. Jesus: Our Lord said absolutely nothing about abortion. If we would pay more attention to the things Jesus thought were important—the things he talked about a lot—we would be better off. Jesus was very concerned about how money and possessions entrap us in materialistic idolatry, but we don't see evangelicals protesting excessive capitalism or greed. Jesus began to hack away at the patriarchal arrangements of society and religious establishments. But evangelicals and the Catholic Church support patriarchal hierarchies. Let's talk about what Jesus talked about. He never once spoke about abortion.


4. Bible: The Holy Scriptures say absolutely nothing about abortion. They talk a lot about peace and justice and kindness and prayer and humility; but say absolutely nothing about abortion.


5. Not Equal: The closest the Bible comes to discussing abortion is a passage about a miscarriage. Exodus 21 brings up the case of a woman being injured and miscarrying in the midst of a fight between two men. The passage says that a negotiable payment must be made to the women's husband for the death of the fetus. But if the woman dies, the man who hit her must die too (a life for a life). So, the penalty for killing the woman is higher than the penalty for killing the fetus. Therefore, the woman and the fetus are not regarded as being of equal value. The woman is of higher value than the fetus.


6. Breath: The second creation story in the Bible (in Genesis 2) offers a metaphor that is helpful. The story says that God made Adam from the soil (the human from the humus) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a 'living soul.' It is when God gives the mud-pie-creature breath that it becomes a human being. Of course 'breath' also means 'spirit.' So, God gives the 'thing' spirit and it becomes human. That, I think, is the central metaphor in Scripture that defines a human life. The metaphor of "breath" gives us a theological and Biblical basis for saying that a fetus becomes a human being when it is born and begins to breathe on its own. A fetus' humanity, then, begins at birth, not at conception. Which means that abortion is not homicide, but feticide.


7. Birth: The Bible also gives us clues about when a person becomes a person by its terminology. The terminology of 'birth' is used consistently throughout the Bible. Israel becomes a nation when God gives birth to her. Jesus said that a spiritual status is created when one is born again (not 'conceived again'). A major Christian holy day is Christmas—the celebration of the birth of Jesus; we don't celebrate his conception. We say that the Church was born on Pentecost (not conceived on Pentecost). Birth is the way Scripture marks the beginning of spiritual life. When does human life begin? At birth. We celebrate our childrens' birthdays, not conception days. The Jewish rabbis taught that a person becomes a person when they come out of the womb. Jesus did not contradict that teaching. And even though we sometimes speak of the unborn 'child,' we speak in terms of 'what will be' in an anticipatory manner. The fetus will become a child when it is born. 'Born again' Christians need to stop and think about why they are not 'conceived again' Christians. It is because the Bible uses the terminology of birth to describe the status of spiritual/human being.

   

8. Choice: God has made us as responsible agents of the moral life. Being made in God's image means that we represent God on earth. We were made to "play God," that is, to make decisions on his behalf. The decision of whether to bring life into the world is up to us. I affirm any couple's decision to bring into the world a handicapped child, or even one that will inevitably die in a short time. That is up to the woman and man. People sometimes make incredibly courageous decisions to give birth to extremely deformed children. I celebrate their courage and compassion. But other people decide to abort a fetus rather than bring it into the world under those kinds of circumstances. I celebrate their courage and wisdom also. The pro-choice position takes seriously the stewardship of moral decision-making that God has given to humankind.


Summary

The pro-choice position is well-grounded in Scriptural language and emphasis. Christian theology has never held a consistently pro-life position. Jewish and Christian thought has given the church a foundation on which to build an understanding of human personhood which is potential in the womb and actual at birth. To understand the death of a fetus as 'homicide' leads to extreme positions related to capital punishment and birth control which reasonable people intuitively reject. The Bible says nothing about abortion, but it gives us the theological metaphors to apply to the development of human personhood. A pro-choice position is not pro-abortion. We wish abortions would decrease to point zero if possible. Every abortion is a tragedy, just as every war is tragic. God knows us before we are born and before we are conceived. We are wonderfully made.


It doesn't seem to be an accident that the strongest pro-life movements come from within church traditions in which women are subjected to men.