Abortion: To Be or Not to Be

Abortion is such an important issue in the forthcoming Presidential election this column is being rerun. It will doubtlessly be a significant factor in the vote.

In a defense of abortion some resort to when life begins. In a lighter vein three persons were discussing the issue. One said it begins at conception, one at birth, and the third said life begins when the last child goes off to college and the dog dies.

“Webster’s Encyclopedia of Dictionaries” defined abort(ion) as meaning “to fail to come to fruition.” Consider some persons who would not have come to fruition if their mothers had followed through with their initial desire to abort them: Aristotle, Art Linkletter, Faith Hill, Priscilla Presley, President Gerald Ford, President Bill Clinton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan, Steve Jobs, Dave Thomas, Edgar Allen Poe, George Washington Carver, Nelson Mandela, Nat King Cole, John Lennon, John Hancock, Leo Tolstoy, Tim Tebow, Eric Dickerson, Dante Culpepper, Tim McGraw, and Jim Palmer.

What potential talent has been lost due to an abortion!

The Bible defines the impropriety of abortion. The Greek word “brephos” defines life in Scripture. A Greek dictionary defines it as “an unborn child, or a newborn child, a baby, or an infant.” Thus, the preborn is considered a person as is the new born.

The Bible character, doctor Luke, used the Greek word brephos to describe the unborn John the Baptist in his mother’s womb. The Greek word is defined as “a breathing nursing infant.”

Luke later used brephos to describe Jesus at His birth (Luke 2: 12 & 16). He used brephos for an unborn and the same word for an infant at birth.

Modern science gives insight. A preborn is a living nursing infant. It oxygenates (“breaths”) through the umbilical coming from the placenta.

There is some evidence that a baby in the uterus does do what is considered “breath” or properly makes respirations. However, the only thing going in and out is the amniotic fluid. In this way the oxygen goes in the infant. The central nervous system begins in the pre-birth stage also. This is a common factor with the young infant.

The person going through open heart surgery called  cardiopulmonary bypass illustrates this. The lungs are artificially ventilated during the surgery to prevent them from collapsing. The patient gets oxygen through the blood in a manner like the unborn infant.

Jeremiah (20: 17) states a relevant issue: “…that my mother might have been my grave….” Had she not allowed him to fully develop before birth she would have been his grave.

We have inverted so many of our values. You can be fined $5,000 and get jail for one year if you destroy an eagle’s egg. How about the egg (ovary) of a human? This indicates our society values a bird as being worth more than a child.

Just 1% of women obtain an abortion because they became pregnant through rape, and less than 0.5% do so because of incest, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The other 98% are for convenience.

The Old Testament character Micah (6:7) asked a pertinent question: “Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.”

Oh, add Ludwig Van Beethoven and Arthur Rubinstein to the list of those whose mother’s considered an abortion.