Abortion – When does a fetus become human?
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” Jeremiah 1:5
I had led her to Christ on the streets of Sheridan, Wyoming. While later attending Bible College, though still unmarried, she became pregnant. Calling me on the phone for my counsel, she admitted she was considering an abortion. She told me that the nurse at the Doctor’s office had said that that which was in her womb was “just a bunch of cells and stuff.”
In 1973, a majority of the US Supreme Court ruled in the case of “Roe v. Wade” that an unborn human being is not a legal person and is thus the “property” of the owner (the mother) and she can legally have the child aborted with the OK of her doctor. (This is reminiscent of the century earlier “Dred Scott decision,” wherein the same court ruled that “Negroes” had no rights under the constitution but were rather the “property” of the slave owner to be used, sold, or even killed at the owner’s discretion! This decision was later proven wrong, as will one glad day “Roe vs. Wade.”)
Abortion is Murder in God’s eyes and in an evangelical Christian conservative’s eyes; and for good reason! Is a fetus really “just a bunch of cells and stuff”? And, what is that “stuff” the nurse referred to? I submit to you that that “stuff” is a human being and thus to abort it is murder!
When does a fetus become a human being?
When it is born and takes its first breath? God “breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). Breathing oxygen indeed has much to do with life. But, did you know that a fetus begins “breathing,” not at birth, but rather at the 12th week in the womb? Its little body “breathes” amniotic fluid in and out to exercise its lungs. Am I more human because I breathe atmosphere instead of amniotic fluid? Because there is only 5% water in the atmosphere and 90+% water in the womb, a fetus is not human? Is a fish less alive because it breathes water and not air? Ridiculous!
Technically, breathing is merely a method to get oxygen to our cells. From this perspective, a fetus, during the 2nd week after conception, develops an umbilical cord attached to its mother’s placenta and by that cord “breathes,” thus getting necessary oxygen and nutrients. If the ability to get oxygen to cells to ensure life were the basis of judging humanity, it could be reasonably argued that a fetus is human as early as 2 weeks!
At “viability”, when it can survive on its own outside its mother’s womb? It’s debated that abortion in the first or second trimester is not murder because until about the 6th month, a baby is not “viable”; that is, it cannot survive outside the mother’s womb without her support. Well, if we follow that line of reasoning, what about babies born at 9 months, who because of lung problems cannot survive without supplemental oxygen and other medical support? Are they any less human?
What about adults who cannot survive without respirators? Do they cease to become human once they can’t breathe on their own? Of course not! Furthermore, 6 months is no longer the threshold for life anyway. Thanks to modern medical technology, babies born at 5 months and even as early as 4 1/2 months can now survive “without their mother’s support.” Future medical advancements could soon make “viability” possible at 3 months, 3 weeks, or even 3 days! The “viability” argument has no merit because there’s no clearly definable scientific point when that viability is reached. And, think what the wrong point would mean? Murder!
When its fingerprints develop? The uniqueness of every human being’s fingerprints has long proven the individuality of each person. They are absolute “identifiers” of our personhood. I think it could at least be argued rationally that a fetus becomes a person when its fingerprints develop making it unique from every other fetus and future American. When is that milestone reached? A fetus has its own individual fingerprints at 10 weeks in the womb! Think about it!
I’ve seen true detective programs where prints were used to identify a “John Doe” murder victim. Then, prints were used from the crime scene to identify the murderer. Has God recorded the fingerprints in “the book of life” of the more than million babies slaughtered in their mother’s wombs in America since 1973? And, will the fingerprints of their “murderers” witness against them at the judgment?
Tomorrow we will consider 3 more possible milestones when it could be argued that the viability of a fetus begins. Meanwhile, you might want to make your own study of what the Bible says on the subject in the following verses: Psalm 139:15, 16; Jer. 1:5; II Ki. 17:17-18; Psalm 22:9, 10; 71:6; 106:36-40; 139:13-16; Deut. 30:19; Isa. 46:3, 4; 49:1, 5; Matt. 18:5-7, 14; Luke 1:4; Ex. 21:22-5; Isa. 1:23, 44:2; Ezek. 16:21; Rev. 12:4.
And remember, as today’s Jeremiah 1:5 devotional verse clearly teaches, God is the one who “forms children in the womb” and “knows them” as future persons on earth before they are even conceived! And, you too were once a fetus. Aren’t you glad your parents didn’t abort you?
“Open your mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.” Proverbs 31:9
If a fetus becomes a human being at conception or even during the first days or weeks of conception, abortion becomes a cause for which we should all, as our devotional verse says, “Open our mouth.” Abortion is “appointing” children to “destruction.” We began proving this yesterday, and continue today answering the question . . .
When Does a Fetus Become a Human Being?
When the brain begins functioning? A person is no longer considered dead just because he stops breathing. Brain wave activity is the current determinant of life. People are kept alive in commas for a decade or more by artificial respiration, as long as they have functioning brain waves and intravenous feeding. In California, if someone’s brain waves cease, after 24 hours, they are considered legally dead and can then be disconnected from artificial respirators.
If brain waves argue for a person’s life and right to exist, then that adds merit to the idea that a fetus should be considered a person with a right to exist at its first brain wave activity. And, surprise! Brain waves can be recorded at the 7th week of gestation! Long before millions of abortions take place, little babies start to think.
Does it make sense that we call a 7 year old child with a head injury dead because of the absence of brain waves, yet call a 7 week old baby in a mother’s womb with very real brain waves not yet alive? What loving, tender thoughts and emotions from the mind of aborted babies will one day be made known at the final judgment as a witness against those who snuffed them out?
When the heart starts beating? We’ve seen it so many times on TV. . . The patient’s monitor rings out the alarm! The oscilloscope records a flat line! Nurses and doctors rush in; administer drugs and frantically watch for a good sign. Time is running out. The atmosphere is deathly tense with desperate anticipation. “Clear!” shouts the physician as he prepares to “zap” the heart back to life with an electrical jolt. No response! He cries again, “Clear!” and the chest this time leaps from energy surging through the heart enabling it to begin beating once more. All rejoice and congratulate one another in the emergency room. Can you hear them shouting? “He’s alive! His heart is beating again!” Oh, life is precious, isn’t it?
But, wait! Let’s “observe” another scene . . . It’s the one within the mother’s womb where a tiny fetus grows. The creator God moves quietly, but very deliberately there. Hormones and genetic triggers signal that the moment has come at last. An energy source, created and “monitored” by God Himself, surges through the heart: Pump, pump-the little organ takes on a life of its own. Can you hear the angels shouting? “He’s alive! His heart is beating?”
If we judge ‘life’ by the beating of the heart in an emergency room, would it be unreasonable to judge life by the beating of a heart in the womb? And, when do you think a baby’s heart starts beating? No, not the 6th month, nor the 3rd. Not even the 2nd. The baby’s heart starts beating the 18th day after conception! Before a woman even knows she’s pregnant, the little child’s heart is beating joyfully, echoing the jubilant announcement throughout the universe, “I’m alive! I’m alive!” Who dares to quiet that heart?
At conception? As we have shown above, it can be scientifically argued that a fetus becomes “human” as early as the 2nd or 3rd week. Conservative Christians, however, believe life begins at conception. This can be and is debated. But, there is one thing that cannot be debated: Unless a fetus is miscarried (an act of God) or aborted (a disdainful act of man), that fetus will become a human!!! That this argument is true is proven because it is the same reasoning our nation uses to protect certain animals.
Protected species’ eggs (which contain fetuses) are legally not allowed to be “aborted.” For instance, if an M.D., vacationing in Yosemite, purposefully destroys the fetus of a bald eagle developing in its mother’s egg, his deed is punishable by a fine of $5,000 and a year in prison. Yet, when he goes back to work at the hospital, he can purposefully destroy human fetuses with full impunity!
What horrible devilish, Marxist, eugenics, Nazi-like reasoning has allowed for such heartless hypocrisy? Secular Humanists just can’t make the connection and thus they are the fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds” (Rom. 1:22, 23). Birds have been exalted to a higher level than babies created in God’s own image! America has truly gone to the birds! The Turkey should have been chosen as our national bird, not the bald eagle! We’ve become a nation of cold turkeys!
“Left” Secular Progressives just cannot see how we so called “right wing conservative Christians” can be so adamant about being pro-life and anti-abortion. One verse of scripture explains it: Jeremiah 1:5. God told Jeremiah, “I formed you in the womb.” Since God is the one who forms a baby in the womb it is never man’s place to stop that God-ordained process. Let us never compromise on this. Let us ever hold the banner of pro-life high. Let’s pray that Roe vs. Wade is overturned. And, let’s beg the mercies of God that He doesn’t destroy America for its great sin of infanticide. It’s not a choice: it’s a child-a child created by the hand of God inside the womb.
If you haven’t already been doing so, begin today (as Solomon exhorted in today’s devotional verse) “opening your mouth” in defense of these poor little souls who are “appointed unto destruction” by the hands of a doctor. “Open your mouth” in prayer and in helping others understand the value of human life.
Are there any good reasons for abortion?
“He will Save the children of the needy and shall break in pieces the oppressor.” Psalm 72:4
Born-again Christians are fighting to save the children, because God says He is fighting to “save the children.” Many who oppose Pro-Lifers want to remove every roadblock to abortion for any reason. Humanist Secularists especially love to tout extremely exceptional cases to excuse abortion. Though exceptions never dismiss the rule, today and tomorrow, let’s consider possible “exceptions” conceivably justifying abortion! Following are some of the . . .
4. Situations which argue to justify abortion.
1. When the mother’s life is endangered . . .
Granted, this is the only viable argument for abortion. But, in this case, it would be the equivalent of killing in self-defense. Killing in true self-defense is not a crime and never was. However, Dr. Everett Koop, erstwhile U.S. Surgeon General said, “Abortion as a necessity to save the life of the mother is so rare as to be almost non-existent. Modern medical advances, sonograms, C-Sections: all make having babies a relatively safe surgical procedure”.
Do you know anybody who had to “abort” their baby to save their life? Neither do I. This remote possibility, though arguably a valid excuse, should be categorized “justifiable homicide” and does not even deserve to be a part of the abortion debate.
2. When a woman is a rape victim . . .
I was sitting on an airplane next to an Obstetrician. She was probably in her 50’s. We were discussing the issue of abortion and rape. She said that in all her years as an obstetrician she had never once been asked to perform an abortion because of rape! Not once! This scenario is extremely rare.
But, even so, do the consequences of being raped, though deserving of great sympathy, nevertheless justify the taking of an innocent child’s life? If we discover a 2 year old child happened to have been the unplanned child of a victim of a rape, do we “euthanize” him? “Oh, by the way, you don’t deserve to live, because you are the seed of a rapist!” Absurd! I was an “accident” and an unplanned child. I sure don’t want to be removed from the earth because my parents didn’t plan for me.
Can we justify taking away an innocent’s joy of living on this planet, just to spare the mother “pain” or some measure of unhappiness? Furthermore, there are many who long for children and would love to adopt that baby. And, many mothers, regardless of the difficult of the pregnancy, when they see the face of that precious newborn child, fall in love with it, and joyfully choose to “forgive” it for being previously unwanted.
3. When an ultrasound shows that the child is deformed or has Down Syndrome . . .
Ask someone without an arm or a leg if they would like you to euthanize them to take them out of their misery. They’d doubtless scream for a cop. My Down Syndrome brother-in-law, Jeffrey, has a season ticket to Disneyland, is sweet and kind, loves Star Wars and ice cream. My wife overheard him sitting in the back seat (talking out loud to himself) say, “She’s my sister and I love her!”
Would you want to be the one who deprived Jeffrey of his love of life? Who gave a mother or a Doctor the right to play God and decide who lives and dies? Hitler? Osama Ben Laden? Jack Kevorkian?
4. Cases of incest . . .
Granted, babies born as a result of incest have a somewhat higher incidence of birth defects. But, when I think about birth-defects, I think about one time at a county fair. I watched a father helping walk his crippled son on a child’s walk-through ride. I’ll never forget the laughing, smiling face of that little boy as his father tossed him about the ride bringing joy to the handicapped son he had willingly brought into the world: a child he loved every bit as much as you and I love our “normal” children.
But, what about the grief incest brings to the innocent girl involved? Well, if a thief came into her house at night and stole all her toys, clothes, and money, would that give her a right to break the law and rob a bank to replace all those stolen goods of hers? Of course not! And though innocence, tragically, may have been taken from her by rape or incest, this could nonetheless never justify her destroying the life within her. Two wrongs never make a right. Rape, incest, or the prospect of possible deformity never justifies murder. Adoption is a viable alternative! Let God decide!
Suppose you are a medical doctor. Parents come to your office and are seeking your counsel. The father has syphilis. The mother has tuberculosis. Their first baby was born blind. Their second, stillborn. Their third, deaf and dumb. Their fourth, blind. She’s now pregnant with their fifth child. They are asking for your medical opinion. In view of the above medical problems, should she have an abortion? If you said “yes,” you just killed Ludwig Van Beethoven, one of the world’s greatest composers; whose music still inspires the world centuries after his passing!
How dare any parent, doctor or politician presume to decide which future musicians live or die! How many future world heroes were deprived of their unique contribution to society because of abortion? Had we continued to outlaw abortion and allowed these children the privilege of fulfilling their destiny, I wonder if one of them might have discovered a cure for Cancer or Alzheimer’s by now? Or if one of them would one day become president-a president who would finally put an end to Muslim Terrorism, like Ronald Reagan, whose leadership literally helped hasten the demise of godless Russian communism and opened the Iron Curtain to the preaching of the gospel at last!
Today’s devotional verse tells us that God truly desires to “save the children of the needy.” People who would kill their own flesh and blood for convenience sake are “needy” indeed. They need to submit to the clear biblical teachings of their Lord. Those who abort their children, perform abortions and fight for abortion rights could unwittingly fall into the category of “oppressor” in Ps. 72:4. And, this Psalm warns that The Lord will “break in pieces the oppressor.” May God open the eyes of this nation to see that abortion is likely destroying our nation and bringing judgment upon many.
The Curse that Abortion Brings
Deut. 30:19: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live”.
I believe that America is experiencing the judgment of God because of its mass murder of children through abortion! As our devotional verse today states in Deut. 30:19: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.” To “choose life,” by choosing that our “seed may live,” is to choose “blessing” over “cursing”.
They are called; “Pro-choice,” these pro-abortion humanists, but they really should be called “Pro-curse!” Abortion is a choice, for sure, but it is a choice of “death.” Life is a blessing, and giving life to a child brings a blessing: a child to a family, another American to contribute to society, and the blessing of living on earth that the newborn will enjoy (Not to mention its potential as an eternal servant and worshipper of the Creator!).
Death is a curse, and killing a child brings a curse with it. In Worland, Wyoming, a woman came for prayer that had had five abortions. I had to cast demons out of her! She had brought a curse on herself. Women have died on the operating table having abortions, or have become sterile as a result, never again to have kids even when wanted! Depression, guilt, remorse, and demonic bondage are a further part of the “curse” of killing little children. Lost future generations who could bless our nation and our economy; children who will never get to visit their parent bringing them comfort in their old age: these are some of the curses of abortion.
But there are other intrinsic curses which result from abortions. You, who are older, (like me): haven’t we seen an increase in violence and murder in America since abortion was made legal in the early seventies? What vicious violent demons did we unleash on our nation by making a covenant with hell? “We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we are in agreement” (Isa. 28:15). When we make a covenantal law legalizing abortion, we are “agreeing” with hell.
Satan is a murderer (John 8:44, 10:10) and so tried to kill Moses in Egypt by killing all the little male children. Later, He tried to kill Jesus by killing all the young children in the Bethlehem area. Satan is still trying to kill future Christian leaders by killing all the little babies he possibly can while they are still in the womb. By America legalizing satanically inspired murder by abortion, we have given place (Eph. 4:26, 27) to murderous demons in every other facet of our society.
The Canaanites worshiped the heathen god “Moloch” by burning their children to death in hopes that Moloch would bless them financially. In America today (often for financial considerations), many are aborting their children; whose tiny bodies will likely then be incinerated in fire. In God’s eyes this is idolatry, as real as in Canaan. And, it surely engenders us to the same judgment:
“They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and shed innocent blood . . . Whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood . . . Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people . . . And He gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them.” (Psalms 105:37-41).
When Islamic Terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, destroying 2,700 lives, both Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (proven elder statesmen in the body of Christ with high-visibility through television) rose up to warn that this tragedy happened, “because of America’s sin.” Liberal theologians, the media and politicians angrily retorted, “How dare you suggest such a thing!”
America just doesn’t get it! They think when we talk about the “judgment of God”; we mean God is mad; so He’s throwing thunderbolts at us. The judgment of God is best understood as the turning of His back on his people. The world is already judged (John 12:31), so without God’s blessing, awful things begin to happen (something many backsliders have discovered to their sorrow).
The judgment of God means that He can no longer bless us (Prov. 10:22) because we have brought a curse upon ourselves. The judgment of God means that He can no longer protect us, but rather (and reluctantly), He must withdraw the favor He’s given us with our enemies (Prov. 16:7).
God’s laws are given to bless and protect us. But when we sin and break His laws, we unleash curses, demons, worse sins, and set in motion laws of sowing and reaping (James 6:7, 8) which are as certain as the law of gravity. The greater the sin; the greater the curse. Murder is a great sin! And, abortion IS murder.
Paul warned that in the last days, “Men shall be lovers of their own selves . . . without natural affection.” (II Tim. 3:2, 3- King James Version). America’s preoccupation with self-love has developed into a mind-set that sees abortion, not as murder, but as a form of “birth-control” and a “woman’s right to her body”. This is unnatural affection. It has brought a curse upon our land. I believe God is judging us now by letting us reap what we have sown in violence, gang deaths, child abuse, murder, suicide, and most recently, terrorist attacks.
Conservative Christians are deeply concerned about the unfolding Obama care bill because of its desire to provide birth-control for everyone. It is feared that the “Morning After Pill” will be mass produced and provided to everyone under this new medical bill, under the guise of a form of birth control. And the “Morning After Pill” controls birth by forcing the earliest means of abortion!
What will it take for America to come to its senses? Surely only a revival of heart-felt, life-transforming, zeal-producing religion! Let us beg God for forgiveness for America’s sins. Let us pray that the church will become the church again: salt and light in a dark world. And, let us resolve to never accept or allow ourselves to be “conformed to this world.” Rather, let us be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:1, 2).
“Children are the heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is His reward.” (Psalm 127:3)
The one thing that forever polarizes Pro-lifers and those who are Pro-Choice is the fact that Pro-Lifers use the Word of God as the final arbiter of the controversy and Pro-Abortionists use “reason” (rooted in the pseudo-science of evolution and eugenics; which also fueled Nazi Germany’s gas chambers) and liberal-feminist’s championed “women’s rights.”
The Word has a lot to say on this subject too. Let’s consider some Scriptures which relate to abortion . . .
Ps. 127:3: “Children are the heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is His reward.” That which is within the womb is called a “heritage,” “fruit,” and a “reward.” It isn’t “reproductive rights” or a “financial consideration”: something to be treated like an unwanted tumor. God hates abortion, because according to . . .
Prov. 6:16-19: God hates “hands that shed innocent blood”.
The shedding of innocent blood is murder. There is no one more innocent than a fetus! No unborn child ever committed a crime, much less one worthy of death!
Ps. 139:13-18: “For you have formed my inward parts: you have covered me in my mother’s womb. . . My substance was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret and intricately formed. . . Your eyes saw my substance, yet being unformed and in your book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them.”
Notice it says, “You have formed my inward parts.” God formed that baby: not a rapist or a feminist. Once conceived, it is no longer subject to “Planned Parenthood” counseling, but is subject to the laws of God, its Creator. A human fetus is not “a bunch of cells and stuff,” but is the handiwork of God who “formed (our) inward parts” and it has a predetermined identity: “All my members were written” could surely be referring to what scientists call its “genetic code.”
Luke 1:41: When John the Baptist was still unborn, he “leaped” in his mother’s womb as Mary came near.
Mary’s baby, Jesus, was at that time still but a fetus. Even an unborn prophet had more sense than today’s educated abortionists! He rejoiced at the great destiny of that little fetus. We’d be wise to rejoice also at the destiny and potential of every fetus.
Luke 1:43: John’s mother asked, “Why is this, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
Elizabeth called that fetus her “Lord.” Other fetuses too might be called mothers, fathers, doctors or lawyers. They’re just yet unborn.
Luke 1:15, 16: (Speaking of John the Baptist) “He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”
If the Holy Spirit determined that even an unborn child was worthy of His presence and power, who could ever presume to snuff out any potential vessel of His glory?
Jer. 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you . . . And ordained you a prophet to the nations”.
God knew Jeremiah before he was even conceived!!! That doesn’t, of course, mean that Jeremiah or any of us had a “pre-existence.” Rather, it means that God, in His foreknowledge, views his future plan and relationship with the unborn so intimately that it is the equivalent of “knowing” one, like a friend, in the present. I wouldn’t want to kill any of God’s friends, would you?
Can you imagine the sorrow of a Heavenly Father who loves each one of His creations so dearly when, by the millions, His personally “known” children and eternal “friends” are snatched away from their carefully planned the earthly service? Notice further that God “ordained (Jeremiah) a prophet to the nations” before he was even born. How many other prophets, statesmen, inventors, or musicians had God ordained to bless a nation, but that blessing was stamped out through abortion?
Isa. 49:5: “The Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant”.
An unborn child has a providential future service to his God and to his world. A future parent should never even consider “which abortion clinic?” but rather “which college?”
Job 3:19: speaks of miscarried or stillborn “infants which never saw light.”
Stillborn fetuses and babies are infants, human beings in every sense, just ones who simply “never saw light” on earth. But, hallelujah, the Word adds: “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest”. No Doctor is at work in the next world “troubling” infants. “There” (in heaven) deceased fetuses are “at rest” in His light.
Matt. 18:10: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I tell you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”.
Little children are personally appointed angels but not to protect them from all harm (Apparently even angels can’t protect an unborn child from a determined murderous mother and Doctor!). Still, you can be sure; their angels give an accurate report to the Heavenly Father when someone “despises” one of these helpless innocents! Would you want an angel informing God that you had murdered one of His “little ones?”
Matt. 19:13-15: “Permit little children, and forbid them not to come to me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven”.
When one takes the life of a fetus, he violates Jesus’ command by “forbidding” that child from coming to Christ during his lifetime: a serious offense indeed! Furthermore, when Jesus said “of such is the kingdom of heaven,” He was revealing that heaven is filled with “little children” (miscarried, stillborn, or aborted at birth): rejected of men, but accepted and loved of the Father. Innocent children are gladly allowed entrance into heaven but where do their murderers end up (?
If you have vacillated in the past on your view of abortion, make a decision today to let your opinion on the matter be determined solely by what God’s Word says. You will be judged by the Word of God, and the Word is unequivocal on the matter of abortion. So, henceforth be a “doer of the Word” (James 1:22) and take your stand against abortion!