The Bible says that a person becomes a living soul when he BREATHES the BREATH of life into his nostril (fetuses don’t breathe): Genesis 2:7.
Unfortunately, most of us tend to view the Bible with modern, English-speaking eyes. The Hebrew term used in Genesis 2:7 for breath is “ruach” which, coincidentally, it is also the word for “spirit.” So, what is being said here in the creation narrative, is that God not only infuses man with mortal life but spiritual life as well – not from the moment of physical birth but from the moment BEFORE that. Hence, even before a physical birth, God has already formed a new life of whom he already knows (Jer.1:5). Thus, to state that life only begins when a child physically breathes - from a biblical stand point - is nonsensical and takes away from the Creator the very act of creating perfectly; as CCC #2258 states plainly:
“Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being.”
Abortion is not murder. A fetus is not considered a human life: “When men have a fight and hurt a pregnant woman, so that she suffers a miscarriage, but no further injury, the guilty one shall be fined as much as the woman’s husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges. But if injury ensues, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot…” (Exodus 21:22-23)
This is actually one of the more often used pro-choice Bible quotes. A lot of pro-choicers whom attempt to justify abortion using this verse are missing one concrete fact: a miscarriage via men having a fight might be a related consequence of the brawl – it might even be construed as an accident. In other words, a woman who suffers a miscarriage because two men got into a fight didn’t wake up that morning wondering how she could abort her child. Whereas, going to Planned Parenthood willingly and deliberately, with the mindset that you are going to end the life inside of you, constitutes a participation with the evils of abortion per the Catholic Church as stated in CCC #2272: “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense.”
Simply put: an unintentional miscarriage that results from an act of violence demands humanly justice. A conscious, intentional, premeditated or planned destruction of human life is another demands Divine justice.
The Bible places no value on fetuses or infants less than one month old:“…for persons between the ages of one month and five years, the fixed sum shall be five silver shekels for a boy, and three for a girl..” — Leviticus 27:6
Wow, talk about taking a text wholly out of context! All one needs to do is read verse 2 of this chapter and it makes clear that what follows are the sums that one must pay to “buy out” a person who has vowed to dedicate themselves (or their children) to the service of the Lord. In other words, Chapter 27 of Leviticus describes what must be paid to the temple in order to get out of the commitment of service to the Lord, NOT what a human life is worth! As it’s shown in verse 8, even someone who cannot pay the sum, still has an opportunity to dissolve the oath:
“..if the one who took the vow is too poor to meet the fixed sum, the person must be set before the priest, who shall determine the sum for his ransom in keeping with the means of the one who made the vow.”
Fetuses and infants less than one month old are not considered persons: “Take a census of the Levites by ancestral houses and clans, registering every male of a month or more.” Moses, therefore, took their census in accordance with the command the LORD had given him. — Numbers 3:15-16
So, just because children under one month aren’t counted in the census, this means that they aren’t persons? Really? To attempt to arrive at that conclusion from two sentences is not only intellectually dishonest but a vain and cowardly way of looking at Holy Scripture. Nothing in these two verses hints or even remotely stipulates that position.
God sometimes approves of killing fetuses: Moses became angry with the officers of the army, the clan and company commanders, who were returning from combat. “So you have spared all the women!” he exclaimed… Slay, therefore, every male child and every woman who has had intercourse with a man. — Numbers 31:15-17
God sometimes approves of killing fetuses: Moses became angry with the officers of the army, the clan and company commanders, who were returning from combat. “So you have spared all the women!” he exclaimed… Slay, therefore, every male child and every woman who has had intercourse with a man. — Numbers 31:15-17
Oh no! Proof God wants us to kill babies! NOT. In Hadock’s 1849 Bible Commentary he states the following:
“Women and children, ordinarily speaking, were not to be killed in war, Deut. 20:14. But the great lord of life and death was pleased to order it otherwise in the present case, in detestation of the wickedness of this people, who by the counsel of Balaam, had sent their women amongst the Israelites on purpose to draw them from God.” He continues, “…[girls] under twelve would be thus reserved; and as their tender minds might yet receive the impressions of virtue, by a proper education, they might, one day, be married by some of the Hebrews. The boys were all slain, either because they might be inclined to resent the injury done to their relations, or because they were all consecrated to Beelphegor…”
As stated, women and children by custom where to be saved but, the justice leveled against the Midianites was that of God’s vengeance for the trespasses wrought against His people. Anyone who deems that this somehow show’s God to be “pro-choice” has completely missed the entire narrative of this story especially what the ultimate consequence of sin really is.
Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts…Yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. — Hosea 9:14-16
Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. — Hosea 13:16
Two pro-choice Bible passages or the prophetic messages from Hosea who was largely influenced by his own personal tragedies including that of his adulterous wife? Easily seen to anyone who bothers to read Hosea is that he compares Gomer, his wife an adulterous woman, as a symbolic representation of Isreal and, just as Hosea could not give up his wife forever even when she played the harlot, so Yahweh could not renounce Israel, who had been betrothed to him. God would chastise, but it would be the chastisement of the jealous lover, longing to bring back the beloved to the fresh and pure joy of their first love. So take your pick: you can either take two verses from a book that has NOTHING to do with abortion or, you can intelligently interpret the two verses within the proper context of the book and get a better grasp as to what God is saying through one of His prophets.
God sometimes kills newborn babies to punish their parents: But since you have utterly spurned the LORD by this deed, the child born to you must surely die— 2 Samuel 12:14
What we read about here is that due to King David’s sin and repentance, God found him worthy to live but – AS PUNISHMENT – his first born would die. Some may say this is cruel for God to do such a thing but, they misrepresent the Church’s teaching on sin. To begin with, when one sins, he incurs two things: 1) the guilt of sin and 2) the punishment of sin. We can truly repent in our hearts and be forgiven and thus the guilt of sin is lifted but, as proven in this passage and other ones in the bible, the punishment incurred by sin remains. Thus this isn’t proof that God wants dead babies, it’s proof that he punishes those who sin; ask yourself: in this passage who suffered the most? Was it David who was awaiting an heir to his throne or was it the little, innocent infant who would never know the evils of man and be born only to return to the peace and comfort of God? Easily seen here is that the first born of David, who instantly merited the inheritance of the eternal kingdom, is the victor of David’s sin and in no way does this verse demonstrate that God is either pro-choice or for abortion.
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