On Abortion

I am writing to urge you to support House Bill 36 which is the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. It will soon be coming up for a vote in the Senate, as it has recently passed in the House. It protects unborn babies from being killed after twenty weeks has passed in their development except in circumstances such as rape or incest. This is a step in the right direction, as is a bill in Texas which requires all abortion clinic doctors to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital 30 miles or closer to the clinic, as this article states. This is just such an example of a bill to support.

               Sometimes issues can be easily detached from the reality of what they are, such as, I believe, is the case with abortion. The idea that it is every woman’s right to do what she wants to with her body has some truth in it, within certain bounds. One such restriction is that she (or any individual, male or female) cannot hurt others or infringe on their God-given rights while pursuing their own happiness. I believe that there are more restrictions than this, governed by conscience and the Bible, but this alone presents a problem for abortion. To hold that killing a baby is permissible, that baby cannot be an individual with any rights, and thereby not human.

               It is true that the unborn fetus is a mass of cells, but is not every living thing, including myself and every other living thing, just that? What separates humans from every other living thing is the fact that we are more than the sum of our biological parts. Furthermore, to say that the beginning of our humanity, our differentiation from simple chemicals only begins after birth makes logical nonsense. If a baby is a human an hour after birth, does it follow that it was inhuman a minute before? It simply does not. Following it back to conception using the same reasoning, I believe that at its first moment, the baby is an individual, and one which has rights, one of which is to live.     

               Recently, in Georgia, a woman was recently arrested and initially charged with malice murder and possession of a dangerous drug, which was the cause of her abortion as she prematurely gave birth to a baby boy who died soon after delivery. Read more here. Most importantly, regardless of the precise legal ins and outs, it would be a huge and costly mistake to rejoice in this woman’s incarceration while paying no attention to loving her and helping her. The heart of the issue of Abortion is not the law. It is the spirit of the law which rests in lies of sin which seek to hurt both Christians and non-Christians alike. No law will do any good if we do not realize that the only difference between us and abortion supporters is that God changed us. Pray and work that God may change them!