Dear COA Family,
Recently, the US elections have brought the issue of abortion to the forefront.
According to Time magazine, Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee has consistently
supported abortion rights throughout her career and has been seen as the stronger
reproductive rights advocate compared to Joe Biden. As a Senator, she co-sponsored
legislation that would ban states from imposing restrictions on abortion rights, and
voted against a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
As Vice President, she condemned the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs Wade
and became the White House’s leading voice on reproductive health rights.
Earlier this year, Harris visited a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Minnesota, believed to be
the first time a sitting U.S. Vice President visited an abortion provider.
Republican nominee Donald Trump’s view on abortion is more mixed. While he would not
support a national abortion ban if elected President, he would also not advocate for abortion
rights. Instead, he would leave the decision to “the individual states and their individual cultures
and their unique political sensibilities”, according to his running mate JD Vance. He has also
appointed conservative Supreme Court judges who would uphold the rights of the unborn child.
So, what is our Christian view on abortion?
God in his word declares clearly: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:12). This includes the prohibition
against taking away any form of human life, whether young or old, others or self. Abortion, which is
the taking away of life in the womb, would fall under this commandment too. (Of course, there is the
other matter of the death penalty, which revolves around the principles of justice and human
flourishing, which is itself an entirely different subject altogether.)
Yet some would argue: When does life begin? Doesn’t life only start at birth?
For Christians, life does not begin at birth but before that. Psalm 139:13 says: “For you created my inmost
being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
While this verse seems to suggest that life is already present in the womb, King David, by the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, went even further: “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days
ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (v15-16).
Notice that he declared that he was put together by God in the secret place – the depths of the earth – even
before being conceived, and that God had already ordained (pre-recorded) all the days of his life even before
they happened.
The apostle Paul also says the same thing in his letter to the Ephesians: “For he chose us in him before the
creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight… we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus
to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (1:4 and 2:10).
In other words, theologically, our life does not even begin at conception but in the mind of God! He had already
thought out our lives in his mind and prepared good works for us to accomplish according to his good will and
purpose for our lives before he created the world. What a wonderful thought!
(Of course, that does not mean that we are mere robots that exist to fulfil the Master’s commands. We are
created in the image of God with the capacity for free choices in life, and are therefore also responsible for
the consequences of our choices. God does not dictate his will for us.)
What all this tells us is that a human life is so precious and sacred that it should never be taken away by
human decision or will. Life begins in God and ends in God. Abortion is a violation of God’s command and
an ending of his good creation together with all of his good thoughts and will for that person.
May this truth of God guide our thoughts and decisions in all that we do; yet may our actions and responses
towards others be guided by God’s wisdom, mercy and grace as well.
God Bless,
Revd Ian