Can you be a convinced Christian and be in favor of abortion?

Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris calls herself a convinced Christian and she is in favor of abortion. In various articles and interviews, she indicates that these can go together. She argues that the government should not be involved in women’s ‘health’. I put it in quotation marks because an abortion obviously involves two lives and not just the woman’s health. One of her key points for this campaign is restoring so-called reproductive freedom. But the question is: ‘Can you be a convinced Christian and be in favor of abortion?’

Text: Mirjam Cappon-Oldengarm

There are Christians who find it difficult to take a stance on abortion. They find abortion understandable in certain situations or it is argued that God is a forgiving God after all. However, the fact that abortion is allowed in the Netherlands and in many other countries does not mean that it is justified, that it is good. What does the Bible say about unborn life?

God asks us, as you can read in Psalm 82:3, to do justice to the defenseless and orphans in our society and to stand up for the oppressed and weak. With figures of about 35,000 abortions per year in the Netherlands, you can say that unborn children fall under this target group; they are defenseless and they are oppressed. That’s 673 abortions per week and 134 abortions per working day. These are children; someone’s son or daughter. Abortion is allowed in the Netherlands up to twenty-four weeks, when the woman is already six months pregnant.

Clump of cells

But is it really life? So small, just after fertilization, you might think. Did you know, by the way, that at the moment of fertilization there is a small flash of light? Where there is light, there is life. Scientifically speaking, life begins at fertilization. Also, when we consult the Bible on this, we read the following in Psalm 139: ‘Your eyes saw my unformed substance.’ Where the world talks about a clump of cells, God saw you, even though you were still incredibly small. He saw a person. Jeremiah 1:4 states: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.’ Wow, so God had already thought of you before you were you and before your mother’s egg and your father’s sperm came together! Nowadays we can also have children without the union of man and woman: IVF. In IVF, a lot of unborn life is also lost. Embryos that remain frozen are discarded or even donated to science for research. This too is unborn life.  

Jesus Himself was that unborn life.

Luke 1:34 states: ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’

Jesus was that zygote, He was that embryo, that fetus, that unborn baby.

Jesus has gone before us in everything, in the whole of being human. God sacrificed His Son for us so that we might have life and have it abundantly, as written in John 10:10. But a thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. In abortion, a life is robbed that was meant to live.

Our body is called the temple of the Holy Spirit by the Bible.

Does killing a child fit in there? Of a new life, a next generation?  

Child sacrifices

In the Old Testament, God did not want the Israelites to mix with other nations. Why not? The people of Israel had to adhere to God’s laws. Surrounding nations, for example, practiced child sacrifices. Babies were sacrificed to the idol of fertility by burning the child on the altar. This was an abomination in God’s eyes. Just read Leviticus 20 and Psalm 106:35-38. In Exodus 21, it even states that God demands a life for a life, even when it concerns an unborn child. Proverbs 6:16 states that God hates the shedding of innocent blood. We all know that the Ten Commandments state that we shall not kill. God is therefore very clear in His word about the unborn child, about unborn life. Who are we then to have a different conviction about this?  

It is my prayer that Christians’ eyes will open about abortion and that they will want to know what the Bible says about the unborn child. That Christians dare to take a stand for unborn life and speak out about it. Also, that they allow themselves to be guided by God’s word and not by personal opinions or the media. Look at the fruits of someone’s life, does it correspond with what we read in His word? Matthew 7:16 ‘By their fruit you will recognize them.’  

Powerful Woman is committed to working on raising awareness about unborn life and abortion.

On Friday, October 4, Powerful Woman is organizing an interdenominational evening about abortion.

7:30 PM location: Gildeweg 29, 4383 NJ Vlissingen.