choice because of their Christian faith, they want to put into practice their beliefs about the
value of human life.
Some of the discussion surrounding abortion depends on whether a foetus is thought to
be a person or not. Christians who think that abortion is murder believe that the foetus is a
person with the same rights and the same value to God as a child who has already been born.
However, others believe that the foetus is not yet a person, and so its life is not sacred. Roman
Catholics believe that life begins, and is sacred from the moment of contraception, as soon as
the woman's egg is fertilised by the man's sperm. Many Christians from different Churches
agree with this point of view but others believe that the foetus cannot really be described as a
human until later on in the pregnancy.
In the Bible, there is not very many teachings which directly relate to abortion,
because during the time when the Bible was written, abortion was not the common occurence
like it is today. The Bible doesn't use the word 'abortion' or deal with the issues directly, but
the Bible is used to support Christian views. Christians may refer to the book of Jeremiah when
discussing abortion or contraception. When Jeremiah is called by God to become a prophet
he's told: 'Before i formed you in the womb i knew you, before you were born i set you
apart; i appointed you as a prophet to the nations.' (Jeremiah 1:5) This teaching could
be used to argue that the Bible teaches that God knows and plans every individual person
before they are born.Therefore some Christians say that it is wrong to spoil this plan by
preventing the baby from being born, either through contraception or through having an
abortion. (Exodus 21:22-25) explains what shoud happen by law if someone causes a woman
to miscarry: '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.' But if there is serious injury, you are to
take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn,
wound for wound, bruise for bruise. This passage from the Bible suggests that the foetus is
considered to have the protection of the law, (Exodus 20:13) this passage describes God
telling his people to respect their father and mother, so that they may live a long time
in the land that he is giving them by not doing certain things such as Do not commit
murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not accuse anyone falsely and do not
desire another man's house, his wife, his slaves, his cattle, his donkeys, or anything
else that he owns. By do not commit murder it means not to take anyones life through either
murder or abortion. The Church of England combines strong opposition to abortion with a
recognition that there can be strictly limited conditions under which it may be morally
legitimate. For example, when the continuance of a pregnancy threatens the life of the mother,
abortion may be justified. The views on abortion by the Methodist Church are more based to
the fact of the mother's health such as the pregnancy is the result of rape or the health,
mental or physical. Christian's believe that human beings are created in God's image.
All human life should therefore be reverenced. The Methodist conference stated that
abortion is always an evil, to be avoided if at all possible by offering care to single mothers
during pregnancy, and the adoption of their children, if in the long run, the mother cannot
offer a home. Roman Catholics try to encourage women not to have abortions, but to have the
babies adopted if they really cannot cope with bringing them up. All of the different Church
denominations stress the need to provide the woman with plenty of counselling and support.
Different Churches have different views but they all stress the same thing in their own way.
They would not talk about a pregnancy of a few weeks as if this were already a child, and
they believed that sometimes abortion is necessary, although it should be taken seriously. The
United Reformed Church recognises that there is a wide range of views among its members,
but it suggests that there is a difference between a foetus that is almost ready to be born,
and the early stages of pregnancy.
Some Church fathers thought that abortion was allowable upto 40days after
conception, because it was believed that this was the time when the unborn child recieved its
ensoulment. There are many teachings that may be used to support abortion, some of the
discussion surrounding abortion depends on whether a foetus is thought to be a person or not.
Christians who believe abortion is murder believe the foetus is a person and is living within the
mother and many people say that the foetus is not yet a person so life is not sacred (they may
talk about the foetus as a 'potential person').
There are so many different views for individual people, but i myself believe that life
begins, and is sacred, from the moment of conception, as soon as the woman's egg is fertilised
by the man's sperm, on the very first day of pregnancy, I believe this because the man and
woman have both combined to make another human between them and once the egg is fertilised
that is the first day of pregnancy. Many Christians from different Churches agree with that it
doesn't matter if the life only consists of a group of cells, and couldn't be recognised as a
baby in the making; it is still a life, some Christians refer to it as the relationship between an
acorn and an oak tree; the acorn is a potential oak tree, but it is not an oak tree yet.The
Bible's command is to love one another and to have compassion for the weak, Jesus invites us
to live a full life so who are we to take it away from a human that is still in its developing
stages.
![Aii] What biblical and church teachings might be used in a discussion about abortion?](https://mbt-essays-prod-public.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/818214/listing/818214_1.jpg)
