by Lauren Hearne, leader of Missouri Teen Eagles

Life is a precious thing to have and to hold; it is the foundation for any understanding of the world around us. God Himself is life and death is his antithesis. John 1:3-5 offers a clear understanding of this relationship: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” The world is alive, vibrant, and full of knowledge; from mankind, to animals, to plants, there is life. As humans, we have been created in the imago Dei — the Image of God — and have been appointed as supreme beings over the rest of creation: to tend to it and to learn more about God from it. God values life and because we were made in His likeness, we should protect and praise it too. The godly valuing of life has been lost in today’s culture. This loss has manifested itself in the discussion of women’s rights, which is dominated by the phrase “my body, my choice”.

From radical feminism rose the justification for abortion. Pro-abortion advocates argue that abortion is the woman’s right to exercise total dominion over her body; they argue that the fetus is part of the woman’s body, and therefore solely the woman’s choice. Supporters argue for the necessity of abortion, saying that women need the chance to compete equally in the economic and social spheres of life as men, and the unwanted responsibility or economic struggle of a child prevents them. In Gonzales vs. Carhart (2007), Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that undue restrictions on abortion infringe upon “a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.” Their other anti-life arguments are: the fetus is not a life, it cannot feel pain, and abortion is humane for it is the termination of unwanted or deformed life.

Abortion is murder and the murder of innocent beings is wrong, both in Biblical law and civil law. Motherhood begins at fertilization because that is the instant in which the child’s DNA is formed. This unique genetic identity remains unchanged throughout the fetus’s life and adulthood, and is then scientific validation of the unborn’s right to life. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who discovered the chromosome abnormality that causes Down syndrome, stated that “To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion . . . The human nature of the human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence.”

The Scriptures clearly condemn abortion, for Exodus 20:17 states, “You shall not murder.” The U.S. Constitution exhorts citizens to protect life, and the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act identifies the killing of a pregnant woman as the murder of two, stating that an unborn child is a “member of the species homo sapiens.” Likewise, the Hippocratic Oath promises to use the practice of medicine for the preservation of life alone, and emphases the “sanctity of life;” only in modern bioethics has the viewing of life become utilitarian, placing greater emphasis on the quality of life rather than the life itself.

Because a pregnant mother carries a second life inside her, her body is no longer hers alone. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” The popular pro-choice slogan, “my body, my choice,” has no place in light of this truth, for God is the giver and taker of life, not man. The mother has a duty to care for her body as the temporary home of her child’s life and spirit.

When one begins to deny others life, they deny God. Psalm 139 says, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made . . . My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.” Throughout every generation there has always been a great war against life, which has manifested itself in one form or another; from the slaughtering of Christians during the first few centuries A.D., to the Jewish holocaust during World War II, and now to the murdering of the unborn; this human self-destruction needs to be called what it is and ended. Genesis 1:27 tells us that “God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Why then does our nation rage against its own life? As Christians we have been called by God and set apart by Him to worship His holy name and be good stewards of the life and world He created. Abortion flies in the face of this calling and our purpose as God’s children — we must work to end this evil.