Abortion Is Abominable Baby Murder
Table of Contents
What Abortion Advocates Argue
Abortion is murder. Abortionists (which I will refer to as “baby killers” moving forward) deny this.
Baby killers have sown confusion to make people believe abortion is not murder.
But I will try to represent their position as fairly as I can.
Baby killers argue that a woman has a right to kill her baby if having the baby would inconvenience her.
They call this position “pro-choice”. Baby killers justify murder using this reasoning:
Firstly, baby killers argue that the unborn are not a person until they are born.
Secondly, baby killers argue that since the unborn are not persons, then they have no right to life.
(Sometimes baby killers argue that unborn babies do have rights, but that extenuating circumstances trump those rights).
Thus, it’s not wrong to terminate the life of unborn babies, since they aren’t people with the right to life.
So what kind of inconveniences do they argue justify murdering a baby?
They argue that women get abortions because of rape, incest, health problems of fetus or mother and other issues.
But what do the studies say about the real reasons women get abortions?
The studies say that women get abortions mostly because they are not ready for them or cannot afford them.
Less than 1% get abortions because of rape or incest.
And only 6-7% get an abortion because of health issues in the fetus or mother.
And that leaves the vast majority of women left, who again, get abortions because they just don’t want their babies.
Thus, since rape, incest, and health issues are rare reasons for abortion, these are bad arguments for murder.
Henceforth, the rest of this article will cover the question of whether the unborn are persons.
And then we will show Christian teaching that supports the condemnation of baby murder.
A Simple Argument On Why Abortion Is Murder
So the main premise of the baby killer argument for abortion is that the unborn are not actually persons.
But is that true? To this, we answer “no.” Unborn babies are actually humans with the right to life.
To start, let’s define “life.” We will define life by defining first what is not life.
What Is Not Life?
Firstly, life is not inorganic material. Secondly, life is not a dead organism. Both of these are obvious.
We also know that neither sperm nor egg are human life, even though they are organic matter.
So what is life then? We will next refute what the baby killers believe to discover the answer.
Refuting Misconceptions On The Definition Of Life
The baby killers may argue that life requires an organism to have consciousness or sentience.
Do plants, fungi, viruses, bacteria, protozoa and other microbes have consciousness or sentience?
No. But are they still living? Yes. Thus, we know that life doesn’t require consciousness or sentience.
The baby killers may then argue that life requires independence – the ability to live on one’s own.
This is preposterous because infants and toddlers are dependent on their parents to survive.
Does this mean that they aren’t alive because they are dependent? Of course not!
Therefore, we know that life doesn’t require independence.
The baby killers may then argue that life requires an organism to be able to move on their own.
Do trees, coral and barnacles move on their own? No. Do paralyzed people move on their own? No.
But are they still living? Yes. Thus, we know that life doesn’t require the ability to move on one’s own.
The baby killers may then argue that human life requires one to have fully developed organically.
In other words, one must have a fully developed brain, heart, and other organs to be human.
Are infants, toddlers, and prepubescent children fully developed? No.
What about people without all of their limbs or without certain organs? No.
Are the elderly more human than the undeveloped infants because they are further along? No.
Thus, you don’t have to fit a certain stage of development, nor does it need to be complete, to be human.
We have now shown that drawing arbitrary lines to define life doesn’t work. It just leads to absurdity.
So then when does human life begin?
We need to answer this question with an objective line – one that won’t lead to absurd conclusions elsewhere.
Human Life Begins On Conception
Since we know neither the egg nor sperm is life; and that life doesn’t need consciousness, sentience, independence, self-motion, nor full development; there is only one logical place life can begin: upon conception.
Upon conception, neither sperm nor egg exist anymore. What exists is something completely new.
This conceived zygote has all the necessary genetic information to start building this new person.
And left alone, and barring any unfortunate circumstances that would lead to miscarriage, that’s exactly what will happen.
This new human may not look like the familiar form of the human being.
But in the same sense, a baby doesn’t look like a middle-aged person, either, so this doesn’t matter.
This human is dependent on his mother for development, just like a small infant, which is also human.
Also, this human will develop consciousness, sentience, independence, and self-motion, if given a chance.
Thus, if you end this person’s chance, by murdering them, you are no different than one who murders a small child, before they can live their life.
Note: At this point, a secular reader may call me out and say that I am biased because as a Catholic I believe that all humans have immortal souls.
In both this section and the previous section, I didn’t use my belief in the immortal human soul in my argumentation.
Why? Because it is not necessary in order to define what human life is.
Based on reason alone, we were able to see how life has an objective beginning during conception.
So whether you believe in a human soul or not makes no difference in this particular argument.
In addition, the fact that the definition of murder is unjust killing of human life leads us to a rather obvious conclusion:
Abortion is murder.
The Bible On Abortion
Life begins in the womb of our mother:
You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13-16
I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know.
My bones are not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.
God says:
Thou shalt not kill.
Exodus 20:13
And condemns killing unborn children:
If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child, and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman’s husband shall require, and as arbiters shall award.
Exodus 21:22
If you fail to speak out against abortion:
Did you fail to rescue those who were being dragged off to death, those tottering, those near death,
Proverbs 24:11-12
because you said, “We didn’t know about it”? Surely, the Searcher of hearts knows and will repay all according to their deeds.
For those who call abortion “good” because it “protects reproductive rights”:
Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
Isaias (Isaiah) 5:20
God urges all of us to choose life:
I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live.
Deuteronomy 30:19
If we choose abortion and don’t repent, Our Lord will tell us upon our death:
Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:41
The Early Church On Abortion
The following are quotes from Early Church documents regarding abortion.
The Didache
The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder… You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child.
Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]
The Letter of Barnabas
Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born.
Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]
The Apocalypse of Peter
And near that place I saw another strait place . . . and there sat women. . . . And over against them many children who were born to them out of due time sat crying. And there came forth from them rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes. And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion.
The Apocalypse of Peter 25 [A.D. 137]
Athenagoras
What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers? . . . [W]hen we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it.
A Plea for the Christians 35 [A.D. 177]
Tertullian
In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed.
Apology 9:8 [A.D. 197]
Among surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery.
There is also [another instrument in the shape of] a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: They give it, from its infanticide function, the name of embruosphaktes, [meaning] “the slayer of the infant,” which of course was alive. . . .
[The doctors who performed abortions] all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and [they] pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive.
The Soul 25 [A.D. 210]
Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does.
ibid., 27
The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex. 21:22–24].
ibid., 37
Minucius Felix
There are some [pagan] women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your [false] gods. . . . To us [Christians] it is not lawful either to see or hear of homicide.
Octavius 30 [A.D. 226]
St. Hippolytus of Rome
Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!
Refutation of All Heresies [A.D. 228]
Council of Ancyra
Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees.
Canon 21 [A.D. 314]
St. Basil the Great
Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years’ penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not.
First Canonical Letter, canon 2 [A.D. 374]
[T]he man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it dies upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees.
ibid., canon 8
St. John Chrysostom
Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication. . . . Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?—where there are many efforts at abortion?—where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter?
Homilies on Romans 24 [A.D. 391]
St. Jerome
I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother. . . . Some go so far as to take potions, that they may ensure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.
Letters 22:13 [A.D. 396]
The Apostolic Constitutions
Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. . . . [I]f it be slain, [it] shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed.
Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 [A.D. 400]
The Catholic Magisterium On Abortion
The Popes have consistently spoke out against abortion throughout the 2 millennia.
Pope Pius XI said in 1930:
But another very grave crime is to be noted, Venerable Brethren, which regards the taking of the life of the offspring hidden in the mother’s womb… There are those, moreover, who ask that the public authorities provide aid for these death-dealing operations, a thing, which, sad to say, everyone knows is of very frequent occurrence in some places.
…Whether inflicted upon the mother or upon the child, it is against the precept of God and the law of nature: “Thou shalt not kill:”[50] The life of each is equally sacred, and no one has the power, not even the public authority, to destroy it. It is of no use to appeal to the right of taking away life for here it is a question of the innocent, whereas that right has regard only to the guilty; nor is there here question of defense by bloodshed against an unjust aggressor (for who would call an innocent child an unjust aggressor?)
CASTI CONNUBII
Moreover, the Code of Canon Law 1398 says:
A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.
Code of Canon Law
Also, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law…
2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Thus, it is clear that the Catholic Church condemns abortion.
Alternatives To Abortion
There are alternatives to abortion.
Firstly, if you don’t want to accidentally have children, then abstain from sexual activity.
Rape and incest make up less than 1% of abortions, so sexual abstinence would greatly reduce the 99%.
If you still have an unwanted pregnancy, there is a very noble alternative to abortion – adoption.
There are many good people in the world who want kids but cannot have them.
Find a Catholic adoption agency, and have them help you find a suitable couple to adopt your child.
Practicing Catholics see children as a blessing, so they will love and raise your children as their own.
At the very least, you would be doing the right thing for your child, instead of committing the evil of murder.
And God will bless you for doing good. So please, join the fight against abortion!
Choose life, and choose God!
