A Liberal Looks at the Bible and Pro-Choice

If you are a fundamentalist Christian then you believe that the Bible is written by God, that men, moved by the Holy Spirit, put down on paper the words God wanted on paper, and therefore, every word of the Bible comes from God, that the Bible is the Word of God. People that hold such beliefs tend to use the Bible as a reference guide. If you have a question, and you want to please God, you look in the reference book, and follow the directions.

When it comes to abortion, the Bible says nothing directly. This sort of thing happens all the time. There were no airplanes at the time of biblical composition, so can you ride on a plane? There was no electricity, so is it OK for believers to flip on a light?

Most of us don't worry so much about these issues because they don't bother us and we can assume that they don't bother God. I say most of us, because the Amish don't find tractors in the Bible and so they use animals of labor and a drag plow, but most of us only turn to the Biblical Reference Book when we are afraid some issue might be displeasing to God.

Actually, most of those turning to the Bible already have an opinion and they are looking for "proof-text" to support their opinion. This is done with topics like gay marriage, the death penalty, and abortion. But if you have no clear text to prove the position you want to take, then what do you do?

There is actually an area of study and scholarship dedicated to how to interpret the Bible, called Hermeneutics. The word Hermeneutics was created out of a Greek mythological reference to Hermes, the messenger of the gods. It seems like an odd place for Christian theologians to get a word, but it does fit. Hermeneutics is the study of how one can interpret the messages of God in a manner that insures you will have the proper interpretation.

One Hermeneutic rule is that when you can't find a directly applicable passage you find similar, related passages that can be compared. Here is how a Hermeneutic thinker might approach the subject of abortion: If the Bible says nothing about abortion, does it say anything about unborn babies, accidental miscarriages, and that sort of thing? The answer is yes.

Let's consider one common passage often applied to this abortion subject: Exodus 21:22-25 (Today's New International Version)

22 "If people are fighting and a pregnant woman is hit and gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

I have to say this passage is not a great fit for the topic of abortion. For one reason, the passage is not really clear. Another Hermeneutic rule is to consider a passage within its context, and not to consider a sentence or phrase in isolation. For example, in the Genesis story, the serpent tells Eve that if she eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil she would not die. If you take that part in isolation the passage would be saying something that, in context, turns out to be a lie. It was not true. The context of the Exodus passage is a long discussion of how punishments are applied. Throughout the chapter the writer is listing situations, and then listing the type of punishments to be applied to those infractions.

In Exodus 21:22-25 the infraction has to do with what should happen if two guys are fighting and a pregnant woman is injured. What some think the passage says is that if the woman is injured, the inadvertent assailant must be punished in a manner that is equal to the crime. The perpetrator is to receive the very same wound he caused the woman: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc. If the woman dies, then the punishment is suppose to be a life for a life and the man who caused the woman's death is to die. This is sometimes referred to as the lex talionis [or the life for life principle] On the other hand, if the woman miscarries then the perpetrators are suppose to be fined whatever the husband demands.

There remains some wiggle room in the interpretation because the passage is a translation, and some will argue that the Hebrew word for miscarry might not be properly translated. Perhaps it is not miscarrying, but premature delivery being addressed by the passage.

The passage might imply that the Bible, and therefore God, values the life of an already born person over the life of a not yet born person. You just have to use the word might here because the passage is not about abortion, it is being applied to a concept, and we may have it right, and we may not have it right. All we can say is it is at least possible that God values people after birth a little more than people before birth.

I am a former fundamentalist, but I am one no longer. I don't view the Bible as a reference book, and I am not searching for outer reassurances that God and I are OK with one another. God may value a born person a little more than an unborn person, but regardless of God's position on this, I do value a born person a little more than one not yet born. The closer a person gets to birth the more value I place on that person. But there is never a point when I have feel the unborn have zero value. The value is there, and it starts at conception. The loss of life, including the life of an unborn person is still a tragic thing. I am pro-choice, and I am not an advocate of abortion. Maybe this sounds crazy to you, but I would say that MOST pro-choice activists do not like abortion, or want more abortions to take place.

Consider another biblical passage: Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 NIV

1 There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build. . .

At least for me, I always see abortion as killing. I don't like it, but, as in the Ecclesiastes passage, there are times when there is a time for death, and for killing. If there are times when killing and death occur it is never a good thing. However, I grew up when abortion was illegal. On TV shows like Doctor Kildare and Ben Casey they had shows where young women, pregnant and facing great stress and difficulty sought out illegal abortions and died. The loss of life, and the complications experienced by survivors of illegal abortions drove millions of Americans to advocate for legal abortion.

The advocacy for abortion in those pre-Roe days grew out of a generally accepted notion that the life of a young woman was worth just a little more than the life of some fetal tissue. The motive of those early abortion supporters was to make abortion safe, legal and, at least for many of us, rare. I support the right of a woman to choose whether or not to bear a child. I would prefer that we spend money and PR to advocate for and provide sex education and access to contraception. I know that the fundamentalists draw away from contraception and sex ed because they fear it is going to encourage young people to have sex.

I think hormones encourage young people to have sex. I think there is an evolutionary urge in the brains of humans to perpetuate our species via reproduction. Having had sex before, I remember that it is somewhat pleasant, and something, once experienced is not only enjoyed, but it is something you would love to re-experience. People have sex. People will continue to have sex even when there are negative consequences.

Hell, the male cat has barbs on its penis and when it mates it causes physical pain to the females, and yet, when in heat, the female cat can't wait to be mounted.

I want abortion to be rarely used, and a last resort, but I just don't want desperate young women to risk and lose their life to abort a pregnancy. If God is love, then I believe God would not want to deny desperate people a safe choice. The key here is the word desperate. When you are desperate you do what you have to do, take incredible risks and nothing is going to stop you if you are desperate enough.