Abortion Dehumanizing the Young

Andi Lynch
Christian Ethics

Abortion is one of the most talked about topics of today. When

most people talk about abortion they either step carefully around the
issues or dive in head first and why is that? I believe its because with
abortion you have to make decisions about when a person becomes a
person, and if it is ok to take a life, or in other words decide if you want
to be god.

Abortion according to definition is the deliberate

termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the

first 28 weeks of pregnancy; Notice that in this definition the writers
of the dictionary are careful in saying what is terminated. According to
this definition pro-abortionists say a human pregnancy or fetus but
on the other side anti-abortionists would say that you are terminating a
baby. Its this distinct thinking that makes abortion such a heated topic,
at what stage in pregnancy is the baby a person and thus gets its
rights?
Pro-abortionists have a much more ego-centered way of thinking
than anti-abortionists. First of all one of the reasons for getting ride of
an unborn child is power. Men are not able to get pregnant and dont
have to live with the consequences of having a child if they dont wish
to. They have the power to choose if they would like to claim
ownership of the child or not, also men do not physically carry the child
to pregnancy and thus are not tied down. So if men have a choice of
claiming a baby or not why cant women get this choice too? Women,
because of abortions can be more sexually active and they dont have

to worry about an unwanted pregnancy because abortions take that

unwanted consequence of having sex taken away.
Pro-abortionists also love to bring up the hard cases in
defending abortion. Some of the hard cases include rape, a health
problem, or if the pregnancy would put the life of the mother in danger.
While none of these circumstances are good, they do happen and they
must be considered when determining whether abortion is the right
thing to do. With the hard case of rape, pro-abortionists argue that it is
fine for the baby to be terminated simply because the mother was
impregnated not by her own choosing. With this argument you are
fixing a sin with another sin, the father of the child had committed the
sin of rape and in response the mother wants to fix it with the murder
of the child. As with abortion being the answer to fixing the mothers
health then you are stilling murdering a child and breaking the 5th
commandment Thou shall not murder. God has a plan for everyone,
we do not know this plan but we must trust in Him.
Another reason pro-abortionists like to use is that abortion better
for the baby. If the baby is not perfect it is right and moral to kill it
before it is born so the child does not have to suffer the rest of its life.
For example, if you were to have a kid with down syndrome some
doctors would tell the parents that their kid would suffer greatly. In
order to not have the child suffer it would be right and merciful to
simply abort the baby and to try having a new one some other time.

With this argument pro-abortionists are thinking of humans in terms of

breeding. Who says that someone is not perfect? Only God is the true
author of perfection, and God knits each and every one of us together
as it says in the bible in Psalm 139:13 For thou didst form my inward
parts: Thou didst cover me in my mother's womb. God again has a
plan for everyone though we humans do not understand it, it does not
mean that we get to take matters into our own hands and commit
murder.
Lastly pro-abortionists mislabel what they are getting rid of.
Abortionists dont like to use the nouns person or baby because
then abortions are killing or murdering people. Instead of using the
noun person or baby they use nouns like fetus and human
pregnancy in order to give the idea that they are not destroying a life
but instead they are getting ride of a blob or an unwanted tumor. The
reason that they get away with this is because the baby in the early
stages doesnt really look human yet. After 40 days the baby has
developed a heartbeat and normally a little after that does the mom
discovers, that she is pregnant. However calling something by a
different name is not going to change what it really is. Most antiabortionists call fetuss potential life or a baby even though it does not
look like one at the moment.
For Christian anti-abortionists power is not the issue instead the
issue is the potential life. Instead of being focused on power they

focus on the incredible gift that God has given us to have children. It is
no longer about just them anymore when a pregnancy is involved, now
they have a child to think of too. So instead of trying to be like a
dominating man who has the power to have sex with no worries of the
consequences, you have to focus on the new life that is being created.
This struggle for power is really ridiculous because it isnt in our natural
motherly role to be the powerful one; instead it is our gift to be able to
carry children. So instead of thinking of the baby as a burden you see
it as it really is, a gift from God. Anti-abortionists dont try to be there
own god instead they let the real God be in control and have Him
develop the child and let the child live.
For the hard cases such as the sad subject of rape abortionists
say that its ok to get ride of the baby because having the baby will be
a horrible reminder to the mother of the horrible act that had been
committed against her. It is argued that in these tragic cases the
great value of the mental health of a woman who becomes pregnant as
a result of rape or incest can best be safe-guarded by abortion. It is
also said that a pregnancy caused by rape or incest is the result of a
grave injustice and that the victim should no be obliged to carry the
fetus to viability. This would keep reminding her for nine months of the
violence committed against her and would just increase her mental
anguish. It is reasoned that the value of the womans mental health is
greater than the value of the fetus. In addition, it is maintained that

the fetus is an aggressor against the womans integrity and personal

life. It is only just and morally defensive to repel an aggressor even by
killing him if that is the only way to defend personal and human values.
It is concluded, then, that abortion is justified in these cases.
(Beckwith 105) Basically what this is saying is that we should kill the
baby because it is hurting the mother mentally, and that the mother is
legally able to kill the baby because she needs to protect herself from
more mental anguish. Thinking this way is very selfish because you
are not focusing on the rights of the child, instead you are focusing on
yourself. The child did not get to choose how he would be created and
it is not his fault that he was created in a way that hurt the mother,
and he should not be punished and killed for his parents mistakes.
The point that pro-abortionists like to tell you is that abortions
are much safer than childbirth. While this is not proven to be true the
abortionists also like to glaze over the other horrible side effects that
having an abortion can do to a person. Some of these include
infections, punctures to internal organs, having your reproductive
system permanently damaged, depression for the rest of your life, and
another one called death. Abortions are disrupting what your body
does naturally and because of that there are some repercussions. The
more studies that they do on the long term affect of abortion the more
scientists are realizing that it hurts the woman physically, mentally,
and spiritually. Also having an abortion can hurt your chances of

becoming pregnant and carrying a child long-term in the future. There

are many different types of abortions and all of them come with
different risks. With some abortions you can have a piece of the child
accidentally get stuck inside the uterus Another common complication
results from failure to extract all the products of conception. If a limb
or skull is left in the uterus, or if a portion of the placenta remains
intact, severe infection may result, causing severe cramping and
bleeding. With vacuum abortions you run the risk of accidentally
having some of your intestines sucked up with the entire uterus. With
saline abortions you run the risk of having the deadly saline solution
(which is used to kill the child) accidentally get into your own blood
stream causing complications that may result in your own death.
Another technique is called chemical prostaglandin in which this
chemical induces intense contractions of the uterus and causes forced
labor. Usually the child dies during the trauma of premature labor, but
frequently it does not.
In my opinion the topic of abortion is how selfish you are. You
can be pro-abortion, be very selfish and self-centered, and make
yourself into your own god. Or on the other side you can realize the
truth and that you now have another human being to take care of and
that through out all life God is in control. People who are for abortion
dont like to think of the life inside them as a baby but instead they try
to dehumanize it by calling it by different names like a fetus or a blob.

"Bible Gateway." BibleGateway. Copyright 1901 by Public

Domain, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.

<http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=k
nit>.

Baker, Robert C., and Roland Cap. Ehlke. Natural Law: A

Lutheran Reappraisal. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub.
House, 2011. Print.

Beckwith, Francis. Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case

against Abortion Choice. New York: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.

Cozic, Charles P., and Stacey L. Tipp. Abortion: Opposing

Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1991. Print.

Rae, Scott B. Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics. Grand

Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House, 2000. Print.