Question: "Why do people condemn abortion when a woman has rights, including the right to do with her body antying she wants?"

Answer: The reason why Christians and those who believe the Bible condemn abortion is that according to the Bible abortion is wrong. It is not just a question of a woman doing with her body anything that she wants. There is another person involved--the unborn child. The fetus is not just a mass of tissues which make up part of the woman's body--even adults can be described as a mass of tissues. From the moment of conception, the fetus is a separate being with its own unique genetic makeup. To destroy that helpless individual is murder, and in Proverbs 6.17 among the seven things that the Lord hates are listed, "A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood."

However, the real issue is not just abortion and whether or not a woman has the right to terminate the life of a child who is growing inside her womb. The real issue is whether we insist on running our own lives according to our own standards or whether we will let God run our lives instead. The fact is that God created us, and He knows what is best for us. In Genesis 1.27 we read, "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Now, we may make a declaration of independence from God's ideas of how we should live. However, in do soing, we say that we know better than God the Creator Himself does what is best for us and that we do not need God. And this is wrong.

Our bodies were created by God to be used for His glory. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6.19-20, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Our bodies are not ours to do with whatever we want. They belong to God because He created them. And we can be truly fulfilled as human beings only by doing His will. Therefore, according to the scriptures, a woman does not have the right to do with her body anything she wants.

Abortion is wrong because it is the taking of an innocent human life (if the life in the womb is not human, what is it--animal, vegetable, or mineral?), the rejection of the Creator's will, and the thwarting of God's plan for our bodies. Thus, Christians hat the sin of abortion, but they do not hate people who have abortions. They want to help keep women from getting abortions, not by force but, by offering them viable alternatives. And they want all who have sinned, including those who obtain an abortion, to repent and know that forgiveness is available. The great apostle Paul had been a murderer, but he learned "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1.15).

Also, the Jews on Pentecost had murdered Jesus Christ, but they were told, "...Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2.38). Sins such as promiscuity and abortion may leave some terrible scars in a woman's life that she may have to deal with for many years. But if she is willing to turn her life over to God and obey His will, she can obtain pardon through the blood of Christ, be made right with God, and have the hope of eternal life. Brotherly, Wayne S. Walker

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