Catholic Church says never, they believe that abortion is murder and that it is never justified Pope John Paul II has called it one of the “abominable crimes”. The Church of England says maybe, they believe that in some cases abortion is justified. The Methodist church says mainly yes. They believe that the mother should be allowed to get an abortion if the baby is going to be born handicapped or born into large families, poverty or bad housing. The Methodists believe that the quality of life can override the concept of the sanctity of life. The sanctity of life is something that both Jewish and Christian religions believe in and it says that human beings alone out of all of God’s creation are like God and that they share something of God’s nature and therefore they are holy and must be treated with the greatest respect. Quality of life is a belief that a person’s quality of life can be used to determine such things as abortion or euthanasia. For example it may be decided that a severely disabled baby in the womb will have such a poor quality of life that it is allowed to be aborted. Often money comes into the quality of life where if you are rich you are believed to have a good quality of live. Problems with this are that doctors can never be sure if a baby is going to be disabled or not and sometimes disabled people live normal and or happy lives.
In 1 Corinthians 3: 16-17 it says, “surely you know that you are god’s temple, where the spirit of God dwells. Anyone who destroys God’s temple will himself be destroyed by God because the temple of God is holy; and that temple you are.” This is saying that if you kill someone, God will kill you but this raises the question is the foetus a living thing because if it isn’t, then you are not killing it. Looking at the bible again, in Luke 1:44 it says, “I tell you when your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy.” Which is saying that the foetus has feelings and therefore is alive. If Christians accept the bible’s teachings that life begins at conception then they cannot accept abortion and they must take it for murder.
Section B
Abortion in Britain was not available ‘on demand’. Until 1967, all abortions were illegal unless the mother’s life was in danger. If a woman wanted an abortion she would either have to go to a private clinic to carry out the illegal operation, but if she didn’t have enough money she would have to go to back-street clinics and let the operation be carried out by unqualified people. After visits to these back-street clinics, many women suffered permanent ill health as a result and some died. In 1967 it was decided that to stop these illnesses and deaths happening, abortion had to be made legal so the 1967 abortion act came into effect. This act has caused great controversy and many organisations have appeared who are against abortion, such as S.P.U.C. or the society for the protection of the unborn child. These organisations believe that abortions are never justified and that we should follow God’s and the bible’s teachings. These organisations often publish leaflets to teach others about the problems of abortion. In 1984 an Oxford undergraduate got pregnant but she wanted to abort but the father of the baby didn’t want it to be killed and with the help from the Oxford University division of S.P.U.C. took the case to court with the focus on the father’s rights. David Alton who was a Roman Catholic M.P also supported the father due to his Catholic belief in the sanctity of life and he eventually became the child’s Godparent. The girl won the case and the appeal that was made by the father. After the trials the girl eventually decided to have the baby. The baby was raised by the father who once the baby was old enough, returned to his studies. The father followed the Christian teachings and tried everything he could to stop the baby being killed. Another example of this is in Glasgow, a 12-year-old girl got pregnant but she didn’t want an abortion, she believed in the sanctity of the life of the baby the church that she went to supported her financially and helped with things like clothes.
Societies such as S.P.U.C who are the society for the protection of the unborn child try to promote things such as fostering and adoption by giving out leaflets organising campaigns and protests and produce videos S.P.U.C. believe that before making a decision, you should ask your priest/vicar, the bible, your conscience and that you should pray. Many believe that it is hard to give up the baby after the emotions of childbirth but Carol adopted her baby and she has never looked back. When Carol was 19, she went on holiday and was raped. When she later found out that she was pregnant she found it very hard to tell anyone. She eventually told her mother who told her not to get an abortion. She becomes a friend with a man, who had a wife and kids, she saw how happy they were together and decided that adoption is the right choice. Once she had the baby, she gave the baby “all the love of a lifetime in 8 days” and then let her be adopted. 10 years later, she says that she has no regrets.
Section C
Depending on your religious beliefs, abortion is either fully justified, never justified or sometimes justified.
Some people believe that it is okay to have an abortion if you were raped or if the baby is going to be born with a disease. These are views that you might hear from Methodists.
Some people believe that there is never a reason to abort and the can use the story of the 12 year old girl from Glasgow and the story of Carol to back their views up. These are views that you might hear from Roman Catholics.
I believe that abortion can be justified but only in extreme cases.
