Why do you think abortion is murder?
Because the Bible says so!
Where?
In Jeremiah 1:5!
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
Knowing they will soon be alive doesn't mean that they are fully alive and sentient now
In the Bible the moment of birth is recognized as the start of life
This is seen in a great deal of symbolism in Christian beliefs of rebirth
Also verses like Genesis 16:11 see being pregnant (current tense), and bearing a son (future tense) as two different things
It suggests that while she is already pregnant, she does not yet have a son
That could be interpreted other ways
Yes, all of Scripture has been interpreted in different ways
Well the Bible says "You shall not murder!"
No loopholes?
Well except for war and punishment of course
So not every life is sacred?
That's twisting things up! God can decide who lives and dies
But at the very least, we know kids are innocent and should be protected!
So killing kids is wrong?
Yes! What moral standard wouldn't agree with that?
So Psalms 137:9 is awkward, huh?
"Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us. He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks."
That's taken out of context!
How about 2 Kings 2:23-24 where God killed two boys for word crimes?
Or Hosea 13:16 where justice is "their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open"?
Or the many places where God either commits mass murder or demands it of his followers, including kids and babies? 1 Samuel 15:3, Exodus 12:29-30, Joshua 6:21, Isaiah 13:16, Deuteronomy 20:16-17, Numbers 31:17-18, 2 Kings 15:16,
This is all Old Testament stuff!
Ah, this old dodge
1. God is unchanging.
2. The New Testament fulfilled the old, but didn't do away with it.
3. It condenns none of the genocide.
4. 1 Timothy 3:16-17 when written, was referring to the Old Testament, and says it's "profitable for instruction in righteousness"
It's still wrong!
Unless the woman cheated of course, right?
No, it's still wrong!
That's rather un-Biblical
Hosea 9:14 "Give them, O LORD–what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts."
Numbers 5:11-21 describes the "test" for women who are pregnant and accused of cheating. The threat of this test was that if she was "guilty" she'd have an abortion
It was just a way to get women to confess. It wouldn't have actually caused on abortion!
Taking dirt off the the ground where animals have been killed and forcing someone to drink it would risk the life of both the woman and her fetus in Bronze Age conditions
Even if the intent was symbolic, it is still based in a belief that an abortion would have been the just and desirable result
If not, it wouldn't have been used
You can read the above Scriptures and find ways to deny their plain meaning. Pastors and theologians have spent centuries trying to do so
But the Bible can be interpreted any way you want it to be
In the last 50 years, it has been co-opted into making abortions a fake moral, religious, and political issue
But people used it to build a religious political force that gave themselves great power
There is also an issue of who gets to decide these issues
If you'd like to look at abortion and it's impact on human rights, this conversation might be useful
If the ethics of abortion are important to you, this conversation might be helpful