My Body, My Choice

No, it's not.

"You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19b-20)

Christians, regardless of our political positions, we absolutely cannot agree with the pro-abortion contention that a woman has a right to do whatever she pleases with her body regardless of who is offended or injured as a result. Not before God, she doesn't. Neither do you and I.

While this passage is situated in an admonition against sexual immorality, the fundamental principle in these verses is unquestionably applicable to the abortion question. Again, in no way can we build a public policy from this verse (nor, I would argue, do we have the right to base policy decisions primarily on Scripture). But it is important, as a first step toward reconciliation within the Body of Christ, that we concur as Christians on this issue. We must not and will not condone abortion within our churches, and we must not and will not support it in the public square.

I have said this before, and I will repeat it as often as necessary until the day I die, that regardless of whether we can prove that life does or does not begin at conception (and this is indeed impossible to empirically prove), the burden of proof is not on us. By merit of the U.S. Constitution, the principle of due process governs this situation: innocent until proven guilty, or in this case, fully human until proven otherwise.

If you are pro-choice, or are undecided on this issue, ask yourself this: What if you're wrong, and life really does begin at conception? What if God gives the fertilized embryo a soul at conception? Surely this is not beyond the capacity of our God, who knows us even before we are knit together in our mother's womb. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you," says the prophet Jeremiah (1:5). What if you are wrong and we are murdering millions of innocent babies every year in America? How can you be absolutely sure that fertilized embryos are not human beings? Do they not have 46 chromosomes? Is this not what makes an organism fundamentally human, it's DNA?

What if you're wrong?

The burden of proof is on you to objectively and irrefutably prove otherwise. No atrocity will have been committed by criminalizing abortion, even if we should find out in heaven that unborn babies were never given souls. Inconvenience, certainly. Emotional trauma, without a doubt (though equal if not greater trauma eventually results for those who have abortions). But heinous atrocity? Far from it. On the other hand, if we do find out in heaven that they were given souls, then we are indeed guilty of an unfathomable, genocidal atrocity, the like of which has no match in the history of the earth. (Click here to see pictures of aborted children. WARNING: They're graphic.)

Those of you who, like myself, are inflamed with indignation at the sight of injustice must recognize that this is the most pressing matter of justice in America today. The most helpless, voiceless, and innocent of all human beings are being slaughtered by the millions every year. Millions. The combined deaths of all the wars in the history of the human race pale in comparison to the number of children who have been murdered in America in the last 30 years. Iraq? You've got to be kidding me. Terrible--but less than one one-millionth of an atrocity than the scourge of abortion.

Get real, friends, and get united, in love for all mankind, especially the most vulnerable, whom Jesus called "the least of these".

-Out.

[For more pictures of unborn babies at various stages of development, click here]