Abortion: The Moral Perspective

Tom Shrader presents abortion as a moral issue rather than a political or medical one, drawing on Job 31, Jeremiah 1, Genesis 1, and the Sermon on the Mount to argue that human life is formed, known, and valued by God from conception. He walks through the most common reasons women cite for seeking abortions and responds to each with biblical assurance that God meets the needs of His people. The message closes with pastoral hope for those carrying guilt from past abortions, pointing them toward forgiveness in Christ and urging the congregation toward prayer, advocacy, and practical support.

“God does not use the singular personal pronoun — He says, let us make man in our image, plural — and we are made in the image of God.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: National Right to Life Sunday - 2001

Recorded: 2001 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 52 min

Themes: abortion, sanctity of life, forgiveness, hope, prayer, advocacy, human dignity, guilt, struggling with guilt, post-abortion healing, facing unplanned pregnancy, parent, grieving loss, searching for forgiveness, young adult, woman in crisis

Scripture: Job 31:13-15, Jeremiah 1:4-5, Genesis 1:26, Psalm 139:13, Psalm 37:25, Isaiah 45:9-12, Matthew 6:25-33, Psalm 68:5, 1 Timothy 1:15

Theological Themes: imago dei, image of god, personhood, biblical ethics, redemption, divine foreknowledge, pro-life, pastoral care

Full Transcript

Introduction: A Day That Lives in Infamy

This morning, I want to take time to do what has become something we do annually here: stop and talk about Right to Life. This is a day that we celebrate Right to Life Sunday. We have done it in a variety of ways over the last ten years — we have simply prayed about it, and we have taken time for a devotional about it. But today, we are going to take the service to really focus on this issue.

The majority of the time we talk about Right to Life, we talk about what is the preeminent issue, and that is the issue of abortion. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was pleading with Congress to declare war in World War II, he spoke of the attack at Pearl Harbor and said it is a day that will live in infamy. For us, January 22nd, 1973 is a day that will live in infamy. It was that day that the Supreme Court, for all practical purposes, declared war on the unborn.

Whenever you have war, you have casualties. As you look at American wars, you see a list of the casualties we have suffered. The Revolutionary War was relatively light. The Civil War extracted from us its highest toll. An interesting fact: the number killed in either Korea or Vietnam is roughly equal to the number of soldiers lost in the three-day battle at Gettysburg — and that gives you a sense of the blood shed at Gettysburg.

When we look at the war on the unborn, the casualty list is now at about 40 million babies killed. That is roughly the population of California, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona combined. It does not take long to figure out that when you have that many abortions, you have a profound effect on a generation.

The Staggering Statistics

U.S. News and World Report offers these staggering numbers. Forty-three percent of American women will have an abortion in their lifetime if current rates are sustained. That would mean that, for better or worse, abortion is as common a life experience for women as divorce — and we consider the divorce rate an epidemic. It is three times more common than breast cancer. It would mean that twice as many women have abortions as get college degrees.

U.S. News and World Report concludes that after a quarter of a century, abortions are safe and legal but not rare. They are playing off the words of former President Clinton, who said his desire was for abortion to be safe, legal, and rare.

Why We Address This as a Moral Issue

Whenever we talk about this issue, I know that all sorts of nerves get exposed, and I am sensitive to that. That is why I do not talk about this as a political issue, an economic issue, or even a medical issue. I want to talk about abortion as a moral issue. I believe we have in this church the authority, the right, and the responsibility to address moral issues, and this is a moral issue that dwarfs all others in our society.

I have three goals today. Number one is to inform. If you are 28 years of age or less, raise your hand. These young men and women have never known a time when abortion was not legal. It is commonplace to them. The second goal is to remind. Many of you know this, and as you come face-to-face with it you recognize the horror of it, but then sometimes it just moves away. The third goal is to challenge.

If abortion is that common in the world, and we know it is, I would guess it is roughly that common in the church. I asked some of the women in women's ministry to estimate for me what percentage of women between roughly 20 and 40 have had abortions. I received an average estimate of about 30 percent. I know that when we talk about this, we are talking about an issue that affects many of you women — and probably an equal number of men who have encouraged, pushed, or driven a girlfriend, wife, or lover to experience abortion, and who have subsequently had to deal with the trauma of it, just as the women have.

Maybe you are here today feeling loaded down by the guilt that associates with this. Maybe it has been years and years, and yet you have never come to grips with this issue. Today, we will give you some hope.

Encouraging Signs in the Culture

As we look at the culture, there are some encouraging signs. The divorce rate over the last 20 years is down almost 20 percent. The birth rate among unmarried teens is down almost 8 percent. Welfare rolls are down. Crime is down. And abortion is down.

That last fact may be the most encouraging of all. As of the last time it was polled, more college freshmen opposed rather than supported abortion. I sense the tide turning and the pendulum swinging back. That does not mean this battle is over. It simply means that after years and years, we are starting to see the error of our ways.

What the Bible Says: Formed, Known, and Valued in the Womb

For us, when we deal with moral issues in this church, it is very simple: what does the Bible have to say? When we look at the Bible, it tells us that people are formed, people are known, and people are valued while they are still in the womb.

Job writes in Job 31, "What will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to give an account? Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one who formed us both within our mothers?" Job said it was God who formed him, God who knit him together, as the psalmist also says.

Jeremiah said, "The word of the Lord came to me," and God said, "Before I formed you, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." God knows us and God forms us. The idea of "know" there is not merely awareness — there is a sense of intimacy and relationship on God's part toward Jeremiah while he was still in the womb.

Genesis 1 talks about creation —

Made in the Image of God

God speaks and says, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, let them rule over all the creatures." Notice that God does not use the singular personal pronoun there. He does not say, "I will make man in my image." He says, "Let us make man in our image" — plural. Although we believe in one God, He manifests Himself in three personalities: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We are made in the image of God. It was so encouraging this week to hear the President of the United States say that man is created in the image of God. When we talk about being made in the image of God, we do not mean that we are God. The idea is not that we are little gods who need to grow up and mature. It means that in man you find three characteristics that you do not find in the rest of creation.

The first is morality. There is a sense of due process. I was talking with a man who is not a believer, and he was describing how bad society is — this is wrong, and this is wrong, and this is wrong. My comment to him was, "How do you determine what's wrong? You don't believe the Bible is the Word of God. You're not a Christian." He said, "Well, there are certain things that you just know are wrong." That is what Paul calls a conscience. We have a sense of morality.

The second characteristic unique to man is personality. By personality, I mean emotions, knowledge, and reason. We can think. We do not merely respond to stimuli. There is something that links man to God in a unique way, and it is that sense of rational thought process.

The third characteristic is that we are spiritual. Someone has said man is incurably religious. In every culture, you will find man worshiping a transcendent God. God made man in His own image and formed us in an active way. God was there and orchestrated the moment of conception.

People Are Known and Valued by God in the Womb

Here is what we affirm from Scripture: people are formed, known, and valued by God in the womb. Just like that man who said to me, "You just know things are right or wrong," I think we instinctively know that what is in a woman's womb is not merely a fetus or a byproduct of conception — it is a person.

Katie Couric was interviewing someone not long ago and, as she would be prone to do, she was trying to be politically correct while discussing this issue. But three times during the interview she slipped up and said "baby" — not "fetus." Baby. How does she know that? She has had to know it. Janice Foreman sits right there during the 9:30 service, and during her last pregnancy, almost every Sunday she would come up and say, "The minute you start talking, the baby kicks me." Have you ever heard anybody say, "The fetus is really jumping today?"

When we stop thinking about agendas and simply move with what we instinctively know, we know that that baby is a human. There is a billboard — only a couple remain around the valley — and from a distance you can see it is a picture of a baby in the womb, a baby in the process of development. It is an anti-smoking billboard. Next to the image of the baby in the womb, you read these words: "Listen to the one person who can't ask you to stop smoking."

Now, generally speaking — and that is why we use the word "generally," because there are exceptions — those who are adamantly anti-smoking tend to come from more liberal persuasions, which tend also to be pro-abortion. But see what happens when they are not advancing an agenda and simply want to make a point: the truth comes jumping out. They say, "Listen to the one person." It is a person. Listen to the one person.

The Argument That Convinced Judge Bork

Judge Bork was convinced that his position on abortion was wrong by his wife, and this was the argument that won him over. It is not a medical argument — it is a very simple one. She said, "You have this Uncle Bill you love very much. If the doctor came to you and said, 'Uncle Bill is in a coma. He's going to be in this coma for seven months. During that time there is no hope. He won't respond, he will lay there, he will not get better, he'll get worse, and at the end of seven months he is going to die — I've seen this and there is absolutely no exception' — what would you do?"

He said, "That would be very hard. I probably would cut the life support system." She said, "I agree, that would be hard. But imagine if the doctor came out and said, 'Uncle Bill is in there in a coma, and there won't be much to see in the next seven months — but seven months from now, I know because I've dealt with this, he's going to wake up. He's going to jump around. He'll be more jovial than ever.' What would you do?" He said, "That is pretty easy. I wouldn't do anything. I would continue nourishment and wait."

That is exactly what the baby in the womb needs — nourishment and time. There is no question that it is a person. There is no question that it is a human being.

The Real Reasons Behind Abortion

The president of Planned Parenthood, when interviewed, said this really isn't about life. She even conceded that life begins at conception. For her, it is about choice. But if we frame the issue that way, it becomes a matter of civil rights or law. This is not about civil rights or law — this is a moral issue that we have to deal with, and it is paramount that we begin to deal with it.

When you look at this, don't you find yourself asking why a mother would make this choice? Many of you in this room are mothers. You're holding your babies right now, and you ask, why would somebody do this? We don't have to wonder, because the statistics have been available for about fifteen years and they have not really changed from year to year.

Examining the Statistics

Seventy-six percent said the reason they had an abortion is because a baby would change their life. That number is staggering. How can that number not be one hundred percent? I laugh every time I look at that statistic. Can you imagine that one out of four pregnant women thinks a baby won't change their life? Maybe that is a deeper comment on where we are as a society.

Let me take the opportunity to remind you that when you have children, your arrangement with them is that your needs are put in submission to theirs. I remember when Haley was a little girl and I was getting ready to teach on parenting and needed some information. I thought I would get Haley's perspective, so I said, "Haley, what do you need — quality time or quantity time?" She said she didn't know what that meant, so I explained: quality time is time where we talk, we play, I read to you, we hang out together, while quantity time simply means a lot of time together. Here is what Haley said: "I need quantity time, I need quality time, and a lot of it." That is what a baby needs.

God's Promise to Meet Our Needs

Sixty-eight percent of these women said they had an abortion because they cannot afford a baby. My tongue-in-cheek answer is that if we all wait until we can afford babies, we are basically one generation away from extinction. But here is what we truly need to know — what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount:

"I tell you, don't worry about what your life is like, what you'll eat or what you'll drink or what you'll wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or reap or stow away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

He continues and asks whether you are thinking like a pagan rather than a Christian. He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and I will take care of all these other things." The psalmist writes in Psalm 37, "I was young and now I am old, and yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor their children begging bread." God always meets the needs of His people.

He may not meet them exactly the way we would like. We may want filet mignon and He may say grilled cheese. We may want a five-bedroom house and He may say studio apartment. We may think we need designer clothes, and He may say we are a Ross Dress for Less kind of person. But He always meets our need. Financial concern is not a legitimate reason to end a life.

Unstable Relationships and the Fatherless

Fifty-one percent said they were not in a stable relationship — interestingly, stable enough to become pregnant, but not stable enough to have a baby. God understands broken and difficult family situations. That is why the psalmist says that God is a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows.

We should also note that there is absolutely no correlation between a child being abused and whether that child was a wanted or unwanted pregnancy. The desire to have or keep a baby is in no way an indicator of the relationship that child will ultimately have with its parents. These, it seems to me, are no-brainers when it comes to the moral calculus.

When the Baby Has Health Problems

Where it gets a little tougher is the thirteen percent who said they had an abortion because of a problem with the health of the baby. We need to spend a moment here, because when these women were questioned further, many disclosed that the problem with the baby was actually a minor one. God addresses this directly. Isaiah 45 says:

"Woe to him who quarrels with the maker. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'? Woe to him who says to the father, 'What have you begotten?' or to the mother, 'What have you brought to birth?' This is what the Lord says, the Holy One of Israel, its maker: concerning the things to come, do you question me about my children or give me orders about the work of my hands? It is I who made the earth and created mankind."

God hits this issue straight on. He says, "Who made the deaf? Who made the blind? Who made the mute? I did. I created these." While you and I may see certain conditions as imperfections and wonder why, God says that the clay has no right to ask the potter what He was doing.

The Value of Every Human Life

It is very important that we understand this when we face the genuinely difficult situations where a mother and father must come face to face with the reality that they may have a baby who does not meet what medicine or society considers a perfect standard. We need to understand that this is human life nonetheless.

Consider the story of Dick and Judy Hoyt. Their son Ricky was their first child, and that day in January 1962 was devastating. Ricky Hoyt was born a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. Doctors told Dick and Judy to send him to an institution, saying he would be a vegetable for life.

The Value of Every Person

Do you realize that, first and foremost, I am a person with a brain and intelligence? The doctors said to forget Rick, put him away, put him in an institution — he's going to be nothing but a vegetable for the rest of his life. But his father refused to accept that verdict. When Rick wrote on his computer, "Dad, when I'm running, it feels like I'm not even handicapped," they knew right then and there that they had found something Rick could enjoy just like everybody else. That is something to cherish in any family.

Did you hear what Rick said? He said, "First and foremost, I want people to take the time and make the effort to understand that I'm a person with a brain and intelligence." That is precisely the point we must carry into this conversation about abortion. The doctors today are saying to kill that baby — that is their recommendation. But a person is a person, regardless of physical or mental capacity.

Jill Greer's Story

We dealt with this here at the church in several instances. A couple of years ago, I had Jill Greer come and speak. She talked about going into the doctor for a routine ultrasound at 20 weeks, and the joy that was there — and then the nurse looked closer and closer, went out, got the doctors, and came back in to tell her there was a problem with the baby: spina bifida and further complications.

The doctor said, and I quote, "We need a therapeutic termination of this pregnancy." He said they needed to hurry up and run some other tests because they were right against the legal limit of 20 weeks. She talked to us about the horror she faced at that moment, and the fear — wondering if she was capable of handling the challenge. Would life ever be normal again? What would it mean for the other kids? Would she and Kurt ever simply go on a date again and be able to leave their baby at home?

What she shared is that she never asked why, but she asked, "Why not us?" She talked about all that God had given her, and how she now had the opportunity — the privilege — to take care of this little baby. And she said a couple of interesting things. She said, "Here's what I knew: I knew I couldn't kill this baby." She understood what we are saying today. You cannot look at a baby and say that because there is a physical deficiency or a mental challenge, you have the right to take that human life. It is still human life.

Robbing Ourselves of Seeing God Work

Then Jill said, "If we took this baby, we knew it wouldn't please God." And she said they knew one more thing: if they took this baby away, they would never have the opportunity to see God work. It is in those times when we are pushed to the limit and do not know if we can handle what is before us — when we move away from that challenge — that we rob ourselves of the joy of seeing God work in our lives in ways we never dreamed possible.

The Question of Rape and Incest

One percent — and it seems like we always come back to this number — one percent of women surveyed said they terminated the pregnancy because of rape or incest. To me, the question there is: how can you take a human life, an innocent life, because the sperm donor was irresponsible?

The last time I taught on this in the marketplace, I finished and it was very emotional — it was emotional for the men in the room. When I finished, a man came right up to me and said, "You know my wife, don't you?" I said I did. He said, "She's pretty incredible." I said I would certainly agree with that. And then he said, "What nobody knows is that she is the product of an incestual relationship."

Right behind him was another man. He turned me away from the others — which generally tells me someone wants to share something very personal. He took out his wallet and said, "You're always talking about how cute your kids are. You want to see a cute kid?" And he showed me a picture of this child.

When Evil Becomes a Story of Grace

I encountered a man who had been fishing with his little girl. He had gone a bit further down to do some fly fishing, and when he came back, she had fishing line all over her. I had to say that she was a cute little girl. He told me that nobody knew this, but they had been on vacation when his wife was raped, and that child was the product of that rape. Can we get it into our minds that although man means it for evil, God will use it for good? Can we begin to embrace that and say that even in these hard instances, God's grace is sufficient for us?

This Issue Touches Many of You

I know that this issue touches many of you. A *US News and World Report* article ended with this paragraph: Women are willing to discuss the issue of abortion, but they rarely talk about their abortions. The reluctance to talk stems not only from fear of others' reproach, but from the fact that many women haven't completely made peace with their decision.

Maybe you are here today and you find yourself in that situation. Maybe you are a Christian and in your distant past, or perhaps not so distant past, there is the issue of abortion. Maybe you have come to grips with it and you can be used by God to talk to other women, and maybe you haven't. Maybe it is still there, lingering, stifling your relationship with the Lord, perhaps even robbing you of your joy. Will you come and let us help you?

Maybe you are a woman who has had an abortion and you are feeling extraordinarily guilty, but you are not a Christian. We are here to tell you there is hope. There is a place where that guilt can go away, where you can experience forgiveness.

There Is Forgiveness

Here is what I have to be honest with you about. We cannot gloss over the fact that abortion is a sin. I am not going to stand up here and pretend in any way that this is anything other than taking an innocent life, and it is wrong. But at the same time, I am here to tell you there is hope. It is not the unpardonable sin. God offers forgiveness. You acknowledge that sin, and He will cleanse you.

Do not let Satan hold you in bondage to this, continually throwing it back at you and saying, "Remember what you were." Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15: "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for this very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ may display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life."

If you are wrestling with that issue, will you come and contact the women in women's ministry here at the church and let them help you, let them talk with you? And men, if you are wrestling with this issue — and we are hearing from people at places like Crisis Pregnancy Centers that there is an extraordinarily high number of men now realizing they must deal with the guilt of this sin in their own lives — come and let Jim and the men in men's ministry help you.

How You Can Be Involved

There are many things you can do. Pray — pray for those in positions of leadership in government who have within their jurisdiction the power and authority to once again declare this murder illegal. Be involved and volunteer your resources. So often what we hear is that these girls simply need a place to land, or these babies need a place to stay. Consider accepting some inconvenience in your life so that God could use you in this way.

Sharpen your involvement. When you hear this topic on the radio, do not be afraid to call in and voice your view, or write a letter to the editor. Be creative. Go and buy some good books on this issue and give them to the library or to the school. And do not for a second assume that because you are sitting with a group of Christians, they all agree that abortion is wrong.

I was in a small group Bible study with eight men when this issue came up for discussion. In the course of that discussion, we realized that four of the eight were either pro-choice or had never thought seriously about the issue. Talk about this issue. Study this issue — not from the culture's perspective, but from God's perspective. What does He say?

A Message of Hope

This is not a message of hopelessness this morning. It is a message that says this is a reality, and so we need to deal with it — but there is hope. In a world that understands all the problems but has no answers, we have answers, because we go to the place where answers are found: God's Word.

Let me pray for you as we close. God, thank You that we can come to You and find grace and mercy, that we can experience peace in our lives. God, I pray for the men and women here today who have had to wrestle with this extraordinary issue. I pray that You would let them experience Your cleansing power and the refreshing joy of being restored in right relationship with You. For those who are carrying a burden, believing there is no way they could ever find relief, God, help them see that there is relief, there is forgiveness, in a personal relationship with You. Move their hearts, move their minds, stir them to action. Make them come and ask, "How can I know Christ? How can I be forgiven?" Let them know that there is help, and that there are people waiting to help them. We pray it to You this morning. In Christ's name, amen.