Why We are Pro-Life
Notes
Transcript
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution generally protected the right to have an abortion. This ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court in June of 2022, ending a 49 year federally protected right to abortion. The decision on abortion has been returned to the states and the issue continues to be hotly debated. Since the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, half the states in the country have either outlawed abortion or have set strict laws governing the gestational period in which one can have an abortion.
We as Christians are continually pushed into the margins of the public square on this issue and called to keep our religious opinions to ourselves, but we will see today that pro-life is not merely a Christian position.
The apostle Peter writes,
but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
If we do our jobs right, then we are regularly having gospel conversations with people out in the community. It is only a matter of time before the topic of abortion enters the conversation. You already have friends and family members who disagree with you. We are called to make a defense (that is give reasons) to those who ask us to give an account (explain why) for the hope that is in us (the gospel). Most of the time we think the hope that is in us is the gospel of Christ. While that is true, it is not just the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. It is answering why we stand on the authority of God’s Word and how that relates to issues life abortion.
The abortion issue has numerous other questions, but it centers around only one question: what is the unborn? Why does that matter? When we focus on that question first, it shapes the way we answer all other questions. What happens is we often get sidetracked addressing issues about a woman’s right to choose, privacy, and what to do about rape and incest and not focus on answering the key question.
We are going to focus on that question. What is the unborn? We are going to look at two reasons why everyone should agree that the unborn is a human life and must be protected.
The Biblical case for the pro-life position.
The Biblical case for the pro-life position.
The Bible teaches us that mankind is made in the image of God. Genesis 1:26-27 says,
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
When God created the earth, he spoke things into existence. The birds, the fish, and the animals roaming the land are all created but God, but none of them are made in the image of God. This sets mankind apart from every other creature on the face of the earth. We bear the image of God, giving us inherent value and worth. God made us.
We see this even clearer in other places. I know how DNA and reproduction works, but the Bible teaches your mom and dad didn’t make you. You are a combination of their DNA, but your mom and dad didn’t make you. God Made you.
King David writes in Psalm 139:13-16,
For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
David attributes his development not to his mother, but God. The picture that is given is God is putting a baby together like one knits a sweater. Stitch by stitch, piece by piece, God takes an active role in the development of a baby in the womb.
Again, we see this in the book of Jeremiah when God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you;
I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Notice the same language is being used. God formed Jeremiah. God had a plan for Jeremiah.
We even have a New Testament example in the apostle Paul in the book of Galatians.
But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased
to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.
The point we need to see here is that the development and birth of a child is not merely a biological process. God plays an active role in reproduction. The spiritual and the physical work in tandem to form a human child.
Now, the objection you are probably going to run into is that someone does not believe the Bible, believe in God, or believes the Bible affirms abortion rather than condemns it. Thankfully for us, there is another reason to hold the pro-life position that even nonbelievers can grab hold of.
The scientific case for the pro-life position.
The scientific case for the pro-life position.
Remember, the key question is, “What is the unborn?” If we can answer this question, then it will shape the way we answer every other question regarding the abortion debate. The person you are talking to may not accept the Bible as authoritative, but they may appeal to science. So I want to outline the scientific case for the pro-life position.
We all know that 100% of pregnancies that make it to term result in a human baby. Never in human existence has a human ever given birth to something non-human. Never has a pregnancy generated something non-human. Every person who has ever been born is in fact human.
At the moment of conception, the unborn becomes what is called a zygote. Cell divisions begin taking place rapidly. The unborn already has a full set of unique DNA. Within days, the zygote is implanted. At that moment, a mother has two unique sets of DNA flowing through her bloodstream.
Four weeks after conception, the zygote has graduated from zygote to embryo, and has a head, tail, and beating heart. By week 10, the embryo has graduated to fetus, and has limbs, eyes, brain sections, and vertebrae. By week 20, the halfway mark, you can visibly see organs in an ultrasound. I have seen both my daughters’ hearts beating, their developing brains, and their spinal cords through the miracle of sonograms. At conception, gender is assigned. At week ten, you can discover it through genetic testing. At week twenty, you can visibly determine it through ultrasound.
When Roe vs. Wade was decided 49 years ago, ultrasound was in its infancy. Much of what we know scientifically had not been discovered yet. Technological advancements are being made every day and thirty years from now we will know even more. All our scientific evidence shows that at conception, a new life has formed. It is distinct from its mother. It will develop into a human being, and it is alive.
Scientifically, the unborn is human. It took two humans to create it, and somewhere around 90% of all pregnancies result in birth.
But what about a woman’s right to choose? What about her own privacy? What about rape and incest? What about financial hardship? While those may be concerns, it sidetracks from the key question: what is the unborn?
If the unborn is not a human being, then no justification for abortion is necessary. If the unborn is a human being, no justification for killing it is adequate.
What is our duty as Christians in the abortion debate?
We must adopt a pro-life stance as the only biblical option.
We must engage in the work of destroying strongholds of untrue truth claims.
We must speak up for those with no voice.
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Unborn babies are made in the image of God. They have intrinsic value and worth. We must speak up for them because they cannot speak for themselves.