The Christian Perspective on Abortion

You may argue why do we bring in the Christian perspective? Because Christianity’s worldview is more comprehensive and more wholesome than any other contemporary view, culture or ideology. The Church carries man’s soul and man’s conscience backed up by an experience of 2 millenia, spread in all cultures and rooted in the love of Christ, the Word of God. Christ’s mission was to restore life – eternal life - to humanity. This eternal life does not exclude the present earthly life but extends it and envelops it with love - for life on earth which God created is sacred. Christ’s mission is not about mere life but abundance of life. “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” This is how Jesus expresses His mission for His sheep (John 10:10). Christianity, unlike Gnosticism and Buddhism, does not reject the earthly life but sanctifies it. Biblical Perspective “From the beginning of Christianity, the Bible was a primary pillar of any culture of life and an antidote to every culture of death in which Christians have found themselves.” Observes William Kurz S.J. “Christianity began (as had its parent Judaism before it) as a religion that confessed the intrinsic dignity of each and every human life. It made this counter-cultural confession in the midst of a pagan culture that routinely exposed its newborns and relished watching gladiators battle to the death.”(1) It is true that no scriptural texts directly address the issue of abortion. However, there is a recurring theme in Scriptures that shows the importance of life and creation and that the human person is particularly valuable. “God created man in His own image” (Genesis 1:27), and so sacred is human life that God ordered the first parents to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). God is the One “Who gives life to all things” (1 Timothy 6:13) Because of man’s unique status among all material creatures, the species of man enjoys a unique moral and legal protection from God who created it. Only with regard to man does God enjoin an absolute prohibition against shedding innocent human blood. Genesis 9:6 explicitly grounds this absolute prohibition in man’s status as being “in the image of God”: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image”(2). It is evident that the taking away of innocent life is considered a radical violation of the other that demands God’s justice (see the story of Abel and Cain in Genesis 4). Even though, since ancient times, killing in time of war or for self-defense is permitted, Scriptures forbid the taking away of innocent life. As Kurz explains, Scripture also provides a complementary insight into the dignity and value that God places on human life. It comes from the almost universal way in which the Old Testament regarded (even many) children and a large family as a blessing and infertility as a curse. The New Testament will introduce an important apparent exemption from this universal desire for many offspring in its exalted estimate of celibacy and virginity for the sake of the Kingdom, especially in imitation of Jesus and Paul. Nevertheless, even in the New Testament an abundance of human offspring remains the typical aspiration and sterility remains the “classic” curse (except for those who voluntarily “make themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven,” Matt. 19:12); one can readily see this attitude toward the sterility of Elizabeth in Luke 1:7, 13, and especially 25.(3) God asserts life and blesses the womb (Genesis 49:25). He has power to close and to open the womb. Sarah’s story is one known example (Genesis 16-21), and Rebekah , Isaac’s wife, is granted a son through Isaac’s prayer (Genesis 25:21). John the Baptist was conceived by the power of God, and was said to have leaped in joy in his mother’s womb upon hearing Mary’s words (Luke 1:44). Jesus Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:35). The Psalmist reminds us of God’s wondrous creative act in the womb “For You formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13); Another consideration related to abortion in Scripture is the biblical conviction that God has a plan and vocation or mission for humans, even before they are born. The classic passage that illustrates this is Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”(4) The Psalmist cries out “The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother He named my name” (Psalm 139:16). Tradition’s Perspective The Didache, one of the oldest documents in the 2nd century states “Do not murder..Do not murder a child by abortion, nor kill it at birth”(5) St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215 ca) wrote “Those who use abortifacient medicines to hide their fornication cause not only the outright murder of the fetus, but of the whole human race as well”(6). In the earliest Christian literature, there are five prominent themes about the unborn: the unborn are God’s creation, human beings; abortion is murder; those who abort fall under God’s judgment; the Christian perspective of the unborn is part of the Christian ethic of love and nonviolence; the right of the unborn child to life!(7) Despite the scarcity of historical documents dealing with abortion, partly because abortion was not as rampant as today, a number of Church Fathers expressed the Biblical notion. St. Basil, in the 4th century, wrote “But the man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it die upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion.”(8) St. Jerome commented on taking drugs to procure abortion “Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.”(9) St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) one of the greatest theologians believed that contraception, abortion, and infanticide are violations of the law of procreation.(10) In his homilies on the Epistle to Romans, St. John Chrysostom (347-407 AD), questions “Why sow where the ground makes its care to destroy the fruit? Where there are many efforts at abortion?.. Why then do you abuse the gift of God and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder..?”(11) St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest theologian in the Middle Ages also opposed abortion. The regional Council of Elvira (c. 305 AD) imposed a life-long excommunication for those who committed abortion. The Council of Ancyra (314 AD) made the penance less severe when it reduced it to ten years (canon 21).(12) From a pastoral concern, since the fourth century and partcularly during the Middle Ages, the Church established homes and orphanages to shelter abandoned children. “Although the effect of such institutions on popular attitudes and practices cannot be measured precisely, undoubtedly the existence of foundling homes had some deterring effect on the practice of abortion and encouraged women and couples to give birth rather than to abort. These homes also influenced attitudes toward the value of children, both born and unborn.”(13) “From tradition comes the assurance that God creates each human soul directly because the soul (as spiritual and immortal) cannot be the end result of merely the biological act of the parents. Although Catholic tradition has not been uniform about saying when God creates the human soul, there has been a consensus that this certainly must happen relatively early in the pregnancy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “every spiritual soul is created immediately by God,” but in this text immediately could conceivably refer to the direct creation of the spiritual soul by God (that is, the term immediate could mean “not mediated” by secondary causes) rather than be the consequence of the parents’ action. According to the Catechism’s explanation: “it [the spiritual soul] is not ‘produced’ by the parents” (CCC § 366). The summary in § 382 seems to imply further that God’s creation of the human soul is both without secondary causality and temporally immediate: “The doctrine of the faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul is created immediately by God.””(14) Christianity affirms a culture of life as opposed to the culture of death manifested in abortion. With the Resurrection of Christ, life extends to a fuller life - an eternal life. The experience of the Church is rooted in Christ's redemption. With this in mind, we pray that God will have mercy upon us, will help us in the darkness of temptation and will protect all mothers and children, the born and the unborn to be born, because we are, after all, children - His children. Notes: 1. William S. Kurz, S.J., “Catholic Appropriation of Biblical Perspectives Regarding Abortion (Life and Learning XII)”, See site for University Faculty for Life http://www.uffl.org 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. Didache 2,2. Cf. The Apostolic Fathers, ed. By Jack Sparks. See also The Right to Life - The Eastern Orthodox Christian Perspective on Abortion by Dr. Dumitru Macaila, published by Regina Orthodox Press, 2001. 6. Clement of Alexandria, The Pedagogue 2:10.96.1, as quoted in The Right to Life - The Eastern Orthodox Christian Perspective on Abortion by Dr. Dumitru Macaila 7. Michael J. Gorman, “Historical Perspectives”, quoted in Dumitru Macaila, p. 16. See also the latter reference p. 20. 8. St. Basil the Great, “Letters”, Canon 8, in “The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church..” ed. By Henry R. Percival – quoted in Dumitru Macaila, p. 46 9. St. Jerome, “Letter to Eustochium,”, 22:13-14, quoted in Dumitru Macaila, p. 48 10. St. Augustine, “De nuptiis et concupiscentia I” 15-17 as quoted in Michael J. Gorman p.133 and Dumitru Macaila, p. 50 11. St. John Chrysostom, “Homilies on Romans”, 24 12. “The Council of Ancyra,” Canon 21, in Henry R. Percival, Dumitru Macaila 13. Michael J. Gorman, pp 135-136. 14. William S. Kurz, S.J., “Catholic Appropriation of Biblical Perspectives Regarding Abortion (Life and Learning XII)” Attachments: if (document.getElementById("idAttachmentsTable").rows.length == 0) document.getElementById("idAttachmentsRow").style.display='none';