Jesus on Abortion

What would Jesus say about the high rate of abortion in the United States? How does it fit with a Biblical perspective?

"The greatest man to be born on earth, the Son of God, came as an unplanned and inconvenient child who’s parents probably lived in poverty."

Given that America has just had a change in the presidency, much has been said about what policies will revive a country that seems to be in decline. Donald Trump and other political leaders are held as either America’s last hope or it’s demise. The prosperity of the country is viewed as a product of policies and legislation, and rarely are other factors considered.

In contrast to this prevalent “political messiah” complex of our day, the Bible clearly states the essential factor upon which all nations rise and fall: obedience to God’s commandments. This principle permeates the entire history of the Jews in the Old Testament, and it was explained clearly by Moses as the Israelites prepared to establish their civilization: 

If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth….But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: …thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee. (Deuteronomy 28:1, 15, 29)

According to Moses, prosperity is not a matter of politics; it is entirely dependent on obedience to God’s commandments. To clarify the issue further, he explained that if his people are disobedient to God, “no man” will save them. Moses was speaking from firsthand experience here; he had been the leader of the Israelites for the past 40 years. He was one of the greatest leaders of all time. But his leadership was not enough to bring success to his people; the Israelites never entered the promised land during his lifetime. In spite of all Moses’s efforts, the wickedness of those he led disqualified them from that blessing. God only allowed the Israelites into the promised land after a disobedient generation died and was replaced by a righteous one. What is the message here for our time? Even if we had a leader equal to Moses as president of the United States, that alone would not save this country. The only thing that can bring prosperity is if the people as a whole qualify for God’s blessings by honoring his commandments.

If America will prosper only through righteousness, what sins are we guilty of as a nation? This is a difficult question to answer because it is hard to see sins for what they are in the midst of a culture that condones them. That is why the atrocities of past generations seem so obvious to us, and no comparative evils seem to be present in our day. If we look back on America’s past, there are two great crimes against humanity that stand out: the conquest of the Native Americans, and slavery. These national sins seem unthinkable to us now, but in the culture and circumstances in which they occurred, they seemed justifiable and even necessary. Is there an equivalent atrocity in our generation that we rationalize? There is: it is the widespread practice of abortion.

What justification is there for considering abortion an atrocity? Before considering the moral issues of abortion, it is enlightening to first consider it’s enormous impact on America’s population. It is estimated that at least 900,000 abortions are performed in the United States every year. In order to gain some perspective on that number, let’s compare it to some other figures. First, consider the effect of America’s wars on the population. The war in which the most American citizens died was the Civil War, and the death toll was about 620,000. So the effect of abortion on America’s population each year is greater than impact made by the entire civil war! It is equally telling to compare the abortion rate to the leading causes of death in the United States. The number one cause of death in this country is heart disease which kills about 600,000 each year. That means that if we could eradicate all heart disease, it would have less of an effect on America’s population than abortion.

Since abortion is so widespread and plays such a large role in shaping America’s population, the next question to consider is the motives that are behind it. Why are so many expectant mothers choosing to have abortions? Motives are revealing because they are one of the simplest keys to determining if a behavior is right or wrong. According to polls, there are two major factors motivating abortion: the first is that the potential mother doesn’t feel ready for a baby, and the second is that she does not feel financially capable of providing for a child. 

The first motive, not feeling prepared, encompasses many situations. The expectant mother might be too young, she might be single, she might feel she is done having kids, or she might just have other plans for her life. As different as these situation are, the common theme is that the happiness of the perspective mother is the primary consideration. When decisions are made on the basis of personal happiness, the name for that philosophy is hedonism. Hedonism is the belief that ones’s own fulfillment, through the gratification of desires, is the ultimate good that can be achieved. This philosophy is so ubiquitous that it hard to recognize; we can’t see the forest for the trees. It is commonplace to hear of people making life-changing decisions because they felt “unhappy” or “unfulfilled” and needed to “find themselves” by following their own dreams. The idea of sacrificing one’s own plans or desires for a greater good has diminished. Rather than surrendering some of our desires for a greater good, our desirers have become the greatest good.

Now to address the second major motive for abortion: being unable to provide for a child financially. If financial considerations are the basis for the decision to abort, what motive is the mother acting on? Think for a minute about what factors are influencing the mother’s decision: What standard of living will she and the child have? Will they be in poverty? Will the child be denied opportunities in life because of limited means? Will the child be able to receive a good education?… These are, of course, important considerations, but they are not the most important because they are all material. They have to do only with one aspect of life and don’t address the transcendent issues of right and wrong, responsibility, and love. They fail to recognize that life has value that is independent of anything that money can provide. If a decision to abort is made with finances as the major motivating factor, then it is a manifestation of materialism. This philosophy gives primary consideration to physical possessions or comforts over spiritual and moral principles.

Identifying these motives for abortion still leaves us with a problem: what about those expectant parents who are incapable of caring for a child or providing the necessities of life? The answer is that these situations aren’t just a choice between keeping the child or having an abortion. There is a third option that is often overlooked: adoption. But if the babies who are aborted were given up for adoption instead, would it be possible to find homes for them all? Well, there are 60 million married couples in the US, so if one in every sixty couples adopted a child each year, all the babies who are aborted could be given a home instead. And that is the most extreme example, because many of the expectant mothers who abort are capable of keeping the child. But, the next question is, are there enough couples that would actually be willing to adopt? This is an important question, because it is a good indicator of the values of our society. If our society favors abortion over adoption, than the motives must be the same as those discussed earlier: hedonism or materialism.

So, if hedonism and materialism are the predominant philosophies in our culture, is there anything wrong with that? What is the problem with being motivated by a desire for one’s own happiness or financial well being? It is true that finances and personal happiness are important; these factors should be considered in every decision that we make. But if these considerations become the most important, to the point where our own interests trump the interests of others, then the door is opened for all kinds of immoral behavior. The stronger members of society will feel justified in taking advantage of the weak in order to pursue their own fulfillment or monetary gain. It’s easy enough to see that these motives have lead to all the past atrocities of the human race including military conquest, imperialism, and slavery. All of these are examples of the strong violating the rights of the weak in order to fulfill their own ambitions. Can you see how abortion continues this trend? The adults in our society are benefiting at the expense of the unborn. The strong are preying on the weak. It is no surprise that hedonism and materialism are so pervasive in our time and throughout history; they are part of human nature. It is the primal instinct of survival of the fittest.

If these two mindsets, hedonism and materialism, are so widespread and problematic, what is the solution? What is the alternative to these philosophies? The answer is that God has shown man a better way. That way is submission to the higher moral code that God has given. God’s laws recognize the equal rights and intrinsic worth or every human soul. Nowhere is this godly mindset more clear than in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Jesus succinctly addressed the problems of seeking one’s own way or worldly possessions. In just a few sentences, he dismissed both hedonism and materialism:

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26)

In addition, he vehemently opposed the natural outcome of these self-seeking philosophies, which is the strong taking advantage of the weak. Throughout his ministry, he focused his attention on the weak and vulnerable members of his society: the outcasts, the poor, the disabled, women, and children. He frequently stood up for those who were “the least” in the estimation of others and asserted their value. Consider his statement on the heavenly reward that is given to those who assist the disadvantaged:

Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me…. Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:34-36, 40)

As in our day, those in Jesus’s time were prone to make the mistake of thinking that a person’s value was based upon their abilities, accomplishments, or possessions. Jesus refuted this materialistic view of individual worth by using a child as an example:

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1-4)

Jesus showed through this example that a child is not worth less then an adult because of his dependance and vulnerability. In fact, a child may be worth more than an adult in God’s eyes because of his humility. Jesus was turning the conventional idea of human worth on it’s head by setting up a child as an example to adults! His lesson on the worth of children wasn’t finished, however, and his next words were even more revealing:

And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. (Matthew 18:5)

These words fit right in context with Jesus’s teachings about ministering to the poor and needy: to feed the hungry is to feed him, to clothe the naked is to clothe him, and to receive a child is to receive him. It follows that our willingness to receive a child is an indicator of our willingness to receive Jesus. The prevalence of abortion in our society is, at its core, an unwillingness to receive children. And by closing our hearts on these unborn, we also shut out our God and forfeit his blessings.

One of the greatest lessons on receiving children is taught in the events of Jesus’s life through the story of his own birth. The greatest man to be born on earth, the Son of God, came as an unplanned and inconvenient child who’s parents probably lived in poverty. By bearing him, his mother’s reputation was at risk. In fact, she could have been put to death for being pregnant and unmarried. The circumstances of Jesus’s birth were the worst imaginable: he was born while his parents were journeying far from home. There was no shelter available, no medical support, no extended family in attendance, not even a crib to lay him in. And yet, all of these unfortunate circumstances were no accident; the Father could have sent his Son to earth in any manner he wished. The events of Christ’s birth were divinely appointed in order to send a message to the world. That message is the same one that Jesus spent his life teaching: that a man’s worth is not determined by his possessions, status, or achievements. That the unwanted, inconvenient, and despised are nonetheless precious to God. And that the greatest blessings come into our lives in unexpected and unplanned ways.

America is rife with controversy over the issue of abortion, but the greater controversy behind this issue may be too subtle for us to notice. It is the conflict between opposing philosophies that influence the abortion issue to one side or the other. Will we hearken to the hedonism and materialism of our age, or will we choose a higher road shown to us by the Savior of the world? As he said “no man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). In your mind’s eye, can you see the Messiah standing with the “least” among us? He is calling to us, saying “Will you receive these? The weak, the insignificant, the inconvenient, the unplanned? Will you receive one such child in my name? Will you receive me?”