What biblical and Church teachings might be used in a discussion about abortion?

        There are no clear scriptural statements to which the Roman Catholic Church can point on the issue of abortion but there is an understanding of what it means to be a human being and to take responsibility for our world. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that to kill an unborn child at any time in pregnancy is wrong. Whatever the reason’s for abortion the unborn child should be protected.

The Bible never mentions its view on Abortion but says a lot about the sanctity of life. The Baptist Union asks what stage in pregnancy can the child be expected to live away from the mothers womb? Or when there is human life in the womb. But a number of Baptists condemn abortion because they say if its not the taking of life then it’s the taking of potential life.

This quote comes from Isaiah 4915 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” This means how can a pregnant woman ever forget her baby and not love the baby she’s carried because life is precious and should be valued. God has chosen a certain child to come to the world and make a difference to the lives of many people and people might argue that abortion is wrong because it could kill an amazing inventor or scientist but that is a stupid thing to say because no one can tell the future so therefore in the same argument abortion could have stopped a terrorist coming into the world.

This quote comes from Jeremiah 15 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”. This implies that a baby is a gift from God because it says “I formed you in the womb”. So this also says that life in the womb should be protected and valued.

The Didache says ‘You shall not kill by abortion the fruit of the womb’ Saying fruit of the womb sounds like a gift to the womb.’ This means that it should be valued and protected.

Exodus "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” This means that the man should get fined for harming the foetus but if anything more happens for instance the woman is harmed then the man should have done to him whatever damage was done to her. This implies that the mother is more important than the foetus. Anglicans would use this quote to justify abortion if the mother is in danger from the foetus.

        Ecclesiastes 5 says ‘As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.’ I think this means as we do not know how life works or how babies are formed in the womb, we cannot understand the work of God and should not change it by abortion.

        Also the 10 commandments states “Thou shall not kill” and if there is potential life in the womb then abortion is going against this commandment which is why some Christians may be against the termination of a foetus before birth.

b) Explain how Christians might put their beliefs about abortion into action

Some Christians have very strong views about abortion and want to show that, but in Ireland a law is set against abortion because the majority of the country are Roman Catholic and are strongly against it. Some Christians in Ireland go against the law and try and give woman the opportunity for abortions so they go to the extreme of leaving stickers with information on them on public toilet doors. And most women have to fly to America or England to have an abortion because this is all they can do other than a back street abortion which is dangerous and life threatening.

        Other ways of putting their beliefs into action could be for Christians to do protest marches, and in some cases stealing information from clinics and trying to scare women off with it, but this is unusual. Other Christians have a clinic where people who want to have abortions can go and they will try and persuade them to have the child and tell them every other option and the mother will feel she has someone to talk to.

        In some cases people who are truly against abortion may stand outside a clinic in big groups and go to the extreme of showing horrific pictures and shouting abuse to women entering the clinic. Although this is very rare as it is against what God has taught them.

        Anglicans believe that people shouldn’t be judged so people of this religion may help mothers with their situation if their reason for wanting an abortion is reasonable such as the mother being in danger from carrying the foetus.

c) Abortion is never ‘Justified’

If a pregnancy is a cause of rape and the woman doesn’t feel comfortable carrying the rapist’s baby then I think abortion is necessary because the woman didn’t ask for it. However people may argue that she could have taken the morning after pill.

        Also if the mother or baby were in risk of danger throughout the pregnancy then abortion is the only option because there’s no other way out if having the baby will cause fatal problems.        

        If the mother feels that the baby will not be brought up in good social conditions then I don’t think that is a reason for abortion as she should have thought carefully about that before getting pregnant. However if the mother doesn’t feel able to bring up her child in a secure and stable loving home life then it may not be fair to bring that child into the world. People may argue this and say there are other options such as adoption but adoption isn’t always easy and in later life that child may feel unwanted and depressed.

        If the mother finds out during pregnancy that her baby will be severely handicapped then it is up to her to decide whether she can look after a child in this way. This isn’t implying that handicapped children don’t have the right to live but is making sure that the conditions are fit for the child to live.

        I don’t think that people can go strongly against abortion unless they have been in a situation where they may need one, because if they got raped then surely they wouldn’t want to give birth to the baby of a rapist?

        In a way abortion is a good thing to be legal because it prevents women from wanting back street abortions and risking her life. But if abortion was legal and easy it might encourage more women to have unprotected sex just because abortion is there and that would be making the risk of STD’s higher.

        Put yourself in a parents position when your daughter gets raped and falls pregnant due to this, that is when your conscience may make you go against your religion or morals and allows abortion.

        As I am not of any religion I cannot say my views on abortion from a religious side and I don’t think there can ever be a clear answer on abortion unless that person has been in a situation where they need one or could have had one. Abortion can never be justified as a form of contraception, but then it just depends on the circumstances. For example it could be a young girl who is pregnant in the middle of her GCSEs and her parents want her to have an abortion or a girl who was drunk and had been taken advantage of, in that case it would not be her fault.