The Churches View on Abortion

Abortion is a very controversial subject that has been continually argued over for the past few years and probably many years to come. The main controversy is should abortion be legalized? Abortion is the destruction of the fetus or unborn child while the child is still in the mothers womb. This can be done by almost anyone from the mother herself to back alley abortions and even to abortions by clinics set up especially for this purpose. There are two sides to this abortion topic the PRO-LIFE which is those who are against abortion and the PRO-CHOICE or those who believe it is the woman's right to choose if she wants to have an abortion. These two groups offer different solutions to problem. The pro-life solution is to have the child and basically live with it; they believe abortion is not an answer. The pro-choice solution is abortion because of reasons they feel are appropriate. Although our Catholic faith dictates that abortion is morally and ethically wrong, should it be legal for victims of rape or incest who have no other alternative? There is no real answer to this controversy, there are two sides to it though which have been arguing for many years over the subject.

The Bible says very little on abortion, and this silence difficult to understand, because abortion

was widely practiced during New Testament era in the Middle East. The Assyrians had a law

concerning self-induced abortions as far back as the 12th century BCE. Despite the Bible failing

to condemn the practice of abortion, it does place great emphasis on the value of life and on the

worth of the fetus. Luke 1:42."...Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy

womb." This statement by Elizabeth might imply that the pre-embryo that Mary was carrying is a

child. Otherwise, she would have said "blessed will be the fruit of thy womb". Luke 1:41 states "

...when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb...." Elizabeth's fetus

was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. This verse states that she was in her 6th month, at a time

when the fetus is probably viable. The verse might be intended to imply that a 6th month fetus

has some degree of awareness of its environment, is capable of living independently, and should

be considered as a "pre-born" human worthy of protection. It says nothing about a first trimester

fetus without a functioning brain, consciousness or nervous system. This passage might be used to

argue against the morality of a third-trimester abortion. One the other hand, the bible also can be

interpreted as saying that abortion is ok. The dominant argument for pro-life is that a fetus is

living, and therefore has a soul. Ezekiel 37:8-10 tells how Ezekiel was taken by the Lord to a

valley which contained many dry, human bones. As he was prophesying, the "bones came

together...tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in

them". That is, they looked like humans, but were in fact dead because they had no breath. He

prophesied and "breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet..." The

implication of this passage is that an apparently fully formed human is not a living person until it

breathes. This would seem to imply that a fetus is not alive until it takes its first breath, after birth

. One the whole, the Bible takes no dominant stance on abortion. A large percent of both pro and