The Question of Abortion

I have made it no secret that I have been struggling with doubt in relation to the question of abortion. I have now resolved that doubt. 

Allow me to make a definitive statement, the only good number for the number of abortions per year is ZERO. Unfortunately, there are instances where an abortion may be justified or necessary. Don’t ask me to articulate what those instances are. I freely admit that I’m not smart enough to identify them and, I’m a hell of a lot smarter than 98.3% of politicians, so they aren’t smart enough to identify them either. 

So who can identify them? Only the people involved on a case by case basis. I don’t trust generalities here at all. It is no one else’s business so I cannot, under any circumstances, support any arbitrary restrictions upon abortion access regardless of how reasonable they might sound. Nor can I support measures designed to intimidate someone from making one decision or the other such as forcing pregnant women to have an ultrasound before having an abortion performed. 

So what about the “abortion is murder business?” Well, by definition abortion is not murder because murder is illicit killing and abortion is not illegal. What about the sixth commandment which says “Thou shalt not kill?” Well, actually the sixth commandment doesn’t say that. The King James Version has the wrong translation and this has been corrected in the New King James Version to “You shall not murder.” The updated translation is actually correct. “Kill” applies to all killing regardless of whether it is legal, illegal, justified or unjustified. You can “kill” in self defense. You cannot “murder” in self defense because “murder,” by definition, applies only to illegal and unjustified killing. The Hebrew word equivalent to the English “kill” is “harag.” The word used in Exodus 20:13 is “ratsach,” which refers to criminal acts of killing and is properly rendered “murder” in English. So, guess what, the bible doesn’t actually condemn “killing,” but only “criminal killing” or murder. 

Please don’t tell me I’m picking nits here. This is a lot more than a nit. The other biblical passage said to be related to abortion, and often quoted by anti-abortion folks, is Exodus 21:22-25 which states: “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. “ 

he problem with using this as a prohibition for abortion is that the woman involved did not determine that the abortion was justified or necessary. In fact, the choice has been removed from her by an act of violence. It’s not nearly the same thing. 

Abortions have been practiced for thousands of years and for various reasons. It’s hard to believe that midwives in Judea 3,000 years ago weren’t armed with the same herbal remedies for an unwanted pregnancy as their Ancient Greek counterparts. 

I’m not defending abortion in general. I am saying that I understand that sometimes it may be justified, and the only person that can decide if it is justified, is the woman involved. I am also saying that who she consults with before reaching a conclusion, is also her decision so I also must reject attempts to play upon her emotions as a type of intimidation. 

How do you insure that she understands the implications of her decision? Unfortunately, I don’t believe you can. Like war, this is something that cannot be completely understood without experiencing it. So, I guess I’ve sort of come full circle back to where I was to begin with. Except, perhaps, now I better understand why I’m there.