There have been close to 68 million abortions since abortion was made legal in 1973.
Guttmacher Institute’s website shows the following statistics for abortion in the United States:
- Half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and about four in 10 of these end in abortion.
- About half of American women will have an unintended pregnancy, and nearly 3 in 10 will have an abortion, by age 45.
- The overall U.S. unintended pregnancy rate increased slightly between 1994 and 2008, but unintended pregnancy increased 55% among poor women, while decreasing 24% among higher-income women.
- Overall, the abortion rate decreased 8% between 2000 and 2008, but abortion increased 18% among poor women, while decreasing 28% among higher-income women.
- Some 1.06 million abortions were performed in 2011, down from 1.21 million abortions in 2008, a decline of 13%.
- The number of U.S. abortion providers declined 4% between 2008 (1,793) and 2011 (1,720). The number of clinics providing abortion services declined 1%, from 851 to 839. Eighty-nine percent of all U.S. counties lacked an abortion clinic in 2011; 38% of women live in those counties.
- Nine in 10 abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
- A broad cross section of U.S. women have abortions:
- 58% are in their 20s;
- 61% have one or more children;
- 56% are unmarried and not cohabiting;
- 69% are economically disadvantaged; and
- 73% report a religious affiliation.
There are many arguments for and against abortion today, but what does the Bible say about abortion and the conception of a baby?
David’s son was born with some affliction. This son was the result of his affair with Bathsheba. David went on a seven-day fast seeking God for His will. The child died on the seventh day of the fast. David said, “But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (II Samuel 12:23)
David knew when the eternal spirit of the child left the body, that he could not bring him back, but when he, David, died, then he would go to him.
What about the infant who dies in the womb?
Conception happens when the egg is fertilized by the sperm. At the moment of conception, the genetics and sex are set, with the baby receiving 23 chromosomes from each parent to form a unique human being weighing a fraction of a gram. 18 days from conception, the heart begins to beat with baby’s own blood. At 28 days, the baby has eyes, ears, and a tongue. Within three weeks, the baby’s first nerve cells are formed. At 42 days, the skeleton is formed and brain waves can be detected. At 45 days, there are buds of milk teeth, taste buds, fingers, and toes. At 45 days, muscle groups are present, eyelids, and internal organs. At 52 days, spontaneous movement begins, like hiccuping, frowning, squinting, furrowing the brow, pursing the lips, moving individual arms and legs, turning the head, touching his/her face, breathing (without air), stretching, opening the mouth, yawning, and sucking. At 9 weeks, unique finger prints appear. At 12 weeks, sex can be visually determined. The baby is 3” long at 12 weeks, weighing 2 ounces.
94% of women regret their decision to abort. I have prayed with those women who have wished they never aborted their child. They struggle with guilt, shame, and low self-esteem, as they constantly wrestle with their thoughts and emotions about doing the right thing or not. When a woman miscarries or aborts a child, they lose part of themselves.
God names us while we are in the womb
There are many scriptures which speak of children in the womb, and show that God knows us before conception and birth.
God told Abraham the name of his son would be Isaac, before the conception. (Genesis 17:9) Nine months before the birth of Samson, God called him a Nazarite. John the Baptist was pre-named by God, as well as Jesus. (Luke 1:13, Matthew 1:21)
Isaac, Samson, John the Baptist, Jesus, and others, were named before their conception by God, who also revealed their destinies. Josiah and Cyrus were named by God hundreds of years before their births. (I Kings 13:2, Isaiah 44:28)
Ecclesiastes 11:5 speaks of the spirit and bones growing together in the womb, and Hebrews 10:5 speaks of a body that was being prepared for Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God gives the breath of life to the soul to make man a living soul. Without the breath of God’s Spirit, there is no living soul. Solomon understood, by divine revelation, that God’s Spirit enters the bones of the baby in the womb.
If you look at these scriptures, in light of the above stats on abortion, and the growth from conception to a birth, you can’t help but see that God has given life at the moment the sperm unites with the egg, and that there is just a multiplicity of cell growth from there to birth, with a heartbeat in as little as 18 days.
David said, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16)
Miscarriage or Stillborn
Job 3:11-19 speaks of an untimely birth, or a stillborn baby. The infant has a spirit, and the spirit can depart out of the womb. God breathed into Adam His breath, and Adam became a living soul. We are composed of body, soul, and spirit. We cannot be a living soul without the breath of the Spirit of God giving us life via our human spirits. Our human spirits are a gift from God to enable us to live for eternity without these bodies.
If the infant has a spirit, then that spirit came from God; and if that spirit can leave the womb, then that spirit returns to God.
What we need to realize is that death does not mean we cease to exist. We continue to live, as a living soul and spirit, in paradise or hell.
Moses was dead for 1500 years when Christ summoned him to appear with Him and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. The body of Moses had decayed and gone back to dust, but his spirit and soul continued to live, and continues to live today, with God in Paradise. God is able to bring those dust particles back together to form a glorified body, like unto the glorified body of Christ after His Resurrection. This is the promise that He gives to those who believe in Him, and who are looking for Him when He returns in the Rapture. (I Thessalonians 4:13-18 & I Corinthians 15:50-54)
Years ago a man had a heart attack, went to a hospital, died. In his out-of-body experience, he was walking toward a bright light in a fog, when he saw his departed father talking with another man. They embraced and talked for a while about things the son needed to accomplish yet on earth, then his father and this other man started to walk away. The son started to follow. The father turned around and said, “You can’t come yet. You need to go back and finish your work.” Again the father started to walk away, he paused, turned back toward his son and said, “Your son is very proud of you.”
This man, after returning to his body, was puzzled with the experience and especially with the words about his son, as he never had a son.
Then he remembered that when he was married ten years ago, that his wife had a miscarriage. His dad was talking about his miscarried son.
Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, was pregnant with twins. Genesis 25:22 says, “the children struggled within her”. The Word of God calls them children, while they were in the womb.
Mary informed Elizabeth that she had been visited by an angel, and was impregnated to carry the Messiah. Elizabeth called Mary “the mother of my Lord”, before Christ was ever born. Mother is a title given to someone with a child. Elizabeth felt the baby in her own womb move in her womb. Elizabeth was pregnant carrying John the Baptist. “The babe leaped in my womb.”
The Greek word for babe is ‘brephos’, and can refer to an unborn child, a newborn child, or an older infant. You are pregnant because a baby is in your womb. A child, in or out of the womb, is a living soul. John the Baptist was even filled with the Holy Ghost while in his mother’s womb. (Luke 1:15)
We need to pray for all mothers and fathers, that they will learn to respect the living soul that God has entrusted them with, that they will value the eternal life of that soul, and that they will seek God for wisdom in how to properly care for it and raise it to be a blessing to the Creator of all life.
We need to ask God to forgive our country, and those who insist on aborting babies. May God have mercy on America for killing innocent helpless children in the womb, and bringing untold grief to the mothers. How God’s heart must grieve over abortion.
Children (aborted, miscarried, and dying at a young age) all go straight to Jesus
Jesus said the very Kingdom of God has to be entered into like a little child. (Matthew 18:13)
There are many stories of those who have had near death experiences, who have seen their aborted or miscarried child, or a child who died at a young age, in heaven with the angels, loved ones, and with Christ. The good news is that Christ has His angels around each living soul, even when it is a fetus in the womb; and when man sabotages His creation in process, His angels carry that child straight into the arms of Christ.
But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” (Matthew 19:14)