Abortion​—Who Is Right?

TWO top specialists tell you that your baby has a mere 0.1-percent chance of survival. If it is born alive, it will have serious abnormalities and could die within a few days. What will you do? Take that chance? Or have an abortion?

An unlikely situation, you may feel. But it can happen, and did happen, in London, England. Happily, the hospital backed the parents’ decision to continue the pregnancy. “At no stage were we told we should have an abortion,” the father explained. They now have a baby son, born without any unusual physical defects whatever.

“We are obviously delighted,” said one of the medical consultants, adding: “The difficulty is that nothing in biology is 100 per cent.” True, but a doctor’s (or a parent’s) misjudgment is only one aspect of today’s abortion dilemma.

Conflicting Factors

The medical and ethical issues for and against abortion are charged with emotion. Pressure groups from both sides raise sincere voices to be heard and understood, and the debate is often bitter. Who is right?

The parents mentioned earlier obviously made the correct decision. But what if the doctors had been accurate in their diagnosis? Under those circumstances, would it have been right for the mother to have an abortion?

If you find that question difficult, or impossible, to answer, you are not alone. There are, however, guiding principles to help, as we shall see. But first consider the worldwide enormity of the abortion problem.

Abortion​—A World Divided

HOW many abortions​—legal and illegal—​are performed worldwide every year? The book Abortion says that the number may be “at least equal to the number of adult deaths”​—about 45 million. But the International Planned Parent Federation has estimated the number to be as high as 55 million!

The U.S.S.R. was the first country to legalize the practice, in the year 1920. A recent unconfirmed report listed about five million a year. According to health ministry officials in China, abortions there approach nine million​—a third of the number of pregnancies. Japan has over two million, and the United States reports over one and a half million. Britain has close to a quarter million.

In Roman Catholic Spain and Ireland abortion is not legalized. Yet women by the tens of thousands still manage to have abortions every year. How? There are, of course, clinics that operate illegally. But the ploy many women use is simply to travel to a country where the practice is legal, Britain being a favorite choice.

Obviously, not all these abortions are performed because babies may be born with some defect, either physical or mental, or because pregnancies are a result of rape or incest. British figures indicate that barely 2 percent of abortions are on these counts. Why, then, are there so many? There are two basic reasons.

The Basic Issues

Population control in ancient times was not a problem. Tribes and nations welcomed numerical increase, and women seldom had reason to limit the size of their families. Any abortions were usually illegal and a consequence of adultery or fornication.

In contrast, today a policy of abortion may be government sponsored. By this means the birthrate can be kept in check in countries where there is danger of a population explosion.

Although such a danger does not exist in many Western nations, the number of abortions is still rising. Why? “If we believe in women’s freedom,” stresses a spokeswoman of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights in New York City, “we have to believe that women have the right to make their own moral choices.”

But once a woman has conceived, does she have an incontestable right to choose to reject the role of mother, to abort her baby? Is such a course acceptable? This is the focal point of today’s debate for and against abortion. What is the answer?

So much hinges on definitions. What is life? When does it begin? Does an unborn child have any legal rights?

When Does Life Begin?

When the male sperm unites its 23 chromosomes with a like number in the female ovum, a new human life is conceived. From this time of conception, the sex and other personal details are immutably established. The only change will be in growth during the nine-month term of pregnancy. “It is a statement of biologic fact to say that you once were a single cell,” writes Dr. John C. Willke. So does life begin at the moment of conception? Many simply answer yes. For those who think this way, abortion at any time is tantamount to murder.

Others maintain that ‘life begins about 20 weeks after the initial conception.’ Why do they view the matter this way? Because it is at about this time that the mother will begin to feel the fetus move. This period is sometimes referred to as the “quickening.” Live births can take place from the 20th week, and abortions are usually performed any time up to the 24th week of pregnancy, a time factor generally accepted. Is this, then, the time when a baby is legally considered to be alive?

In Britain the law does not recognize an unborn child as a human being. Under such circumstances no abortion can legally be termed murder. But once a child has left its mother’s body, even if the umbilical cord remains intact, to kill that child is a criminal offense. At that time the child has legal rights. Legally, then, from this standpoint, life begins at birth.

The Jewish view, as expressed by Britain’s Chief Rabbi, agrees. Life does not “begin until the moment of birth,” he says, adding: “We do not regard destruction of the unborn child as murder.” What then of the fetus, the baby growing in the womb? In Marital Relations, Birth Control and Abortion in Jewish Law, Rabbi David M. Feldman of New York stated: “The fetus is unknown, future, potential, part of ‘the secrets of God.’”

Conflict in Thinking

From this it is easy to reason that abortion is religiously acceptable. But not all religions think the same way. Consider the official Roman Catholic viewpoint.

Pope Pius IX in 1869 extended punishment of excommunication for the abortion of an embryo at any age. In 1951, Pius XII restated the principle, saying: “Every human being, even the child in the mother’s womb, receives its right to life directly from God, not from its parents.” Speaking in Kenya in 1985, John Paul II bluntly declared: “Actions such as contraception and abortion are wrong.”

Many Catholics today, however, maintain that such an attitude is out of date and must be revised. As a result, Roman Catholics are divided over the issue. Here are some facts.

The Roman Catholic Dilemma

Cardinal Bernardin, chairman of the American bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, asserts that abortion is a moral wrong and that the official stand of the church is binding on all Roman Catholics. Again, Roman Catholic professor of moral theology at Notre Dame University in the United States, James T. Burtchaell, wrote in 1982: “My argument is straightforward. Abortion is homicide: the destruction of a child.” Yet, four years later, priest Richard P. McBrien, chairman of the theology department of the same university, took pains to explain that abortion is not a defined doctrine of his church.a According to this view, Catholics who subscribe to abortion cannot be excommunicated, even though they may be viewed as being disloyal.

On account of this ambiguity of church authority, many prominent Catholics are outspokenly pro-abortion. Included among them in the United States are some priests. Also a number of nuns, some of whom endorsed a controversial abortion newspaper advertisement for which they were threatened with expulsion from their orders.

Additionally, lay Catholics now form an active pro-abortion lobby. “I am in the mainstream of Catholic lay thought,” asserted Mrs. Eleanor C. Smeal, president of NOW, the National Organization for Women, at an abortion rally in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. At the same time, according to The New York Times, she mocked the suggestion that her support for the right to abortion could lead to her excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church.

The Church of Rome is finding it increasingly difficult to resolve such conflicting views within its ranks.

Dangers of Illegal Abortions

To pass laws and edicts is one thing. Yet, even with the best of motives, for any authority to try to enforce a ruling on abortion is quite another matter. People are involved, intimately and personally. Under pressure, people can be unpredictable.

If an antiabortion lobby succeeds, either in preventing a government from legalizing abortion or in repealing existing legislation, what then? Does that solve any problems? “A woman will find a way [to have an abortion], sometimes at the expense of her own life,” commented Marilyn Waring, a pro-abortion Member of Parliament in New Zealand, “and there is nothing politicians, or laws, can do to stop her.” And therein lies a powerful argument. ‘Which is preferable?’ ask those who advocate abortion.

Where abortion is legalized, even though there are still some deaths, the practice is under strict medical supervision. Illegal, “back street” abortions, on the other hand, have a shocking mortality rate, as they are often performed by unqualified personnel under unsanitary conditions. In Bangladesh, for example, it is estimated that every year 12,000 women die as a result of such abortions.

But in all of this, there is another human factor to be considered. How do doctors and nurses feel about handling abortions on an assembly-line basis? What kind of physical, mental, and emotional toll does having an abortion exact from the prospective mother​—and father? These are questions we will next consider.

[Footnotes]

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Alternative Designations

Supporters of abortion often prefer to be referred to as pro-choice campaigners, just as those who oppose the practice often call themselves pro-life workers. In these articles, simply for the sake of clarity, the expressions pro-abortion and antiabortion are consistently used.

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“We have to believe that women have the right to make their own moral choices,” many state

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H. Armstrong Roberts

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Many women are outspokenly antiabortion

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H. Armstrong Roberts

Abortion​—At What Price?

IN GLASGOW, Scotland, two nurses had “horrific nightmares” and suffered sleepless nights, reported The Daily Telegraph. Why? Because they took part in an operation to abort a baby boy of 24 weeks. Unexpectedly, he lived “for a short time.”

In Detroit, U.S.A., a 29-week-old fetus, supposed to have been killed by an injection into its mother’s womb, was dumped into a stainless-steel bucket in a hospital abortion ward. But it survived. Its cries were heard, and this baby girl was rushed to the intensive-care unit, just in time.

The aborting of viable fetuses is a growing problem as the number of abortions increases. Advancing medical techniques provide better care for premature babies, so that at 26 weeks it is now possible for a healthy infant to survive​—something that would have been very difficult a few years ago. As a result, nurses in some countries have the legal right to refuse, on grounds of conscience, to participate in abortions.

But what about the doctors? How do they react?

The Business of Abortion

“To be publicly identified as an abortionist is the kiss of death,” confided Dr. Phillip Stubblefield in an interview with Newsweek. In fact, public pressure has caused many doctors in the United States to cease the practice entirely. A number of bombing incidents have destroyed abortion clinics, and “all over the country, we have clinics that can’t get medical directors because doctors are afraid of what the community will do,” Dr. Stubblefield explained.

Nevertheless, abortions are still being performed in increasing numbers. And one reason is perhaps not too difficult to find. It is a profitable business.

In Paris, France, for example, parents paid the equivalent of £1,000 ($1,400) for their teenage daughter to have a private abortion, according to a report in the medical magazine Pulse. Some London clinics, says the same report, charge up to £2,000 ($2,800) for every abortion they perform.

In 1982, two of Britain’s largest abortion agencies had a combined income of £4.5 million ($6.3 million). Reporting this figure, Human Concern comments: “Abortion is a lucrative business.” In Japan the government refuses to legalize the birth-control pill. “The ban,” reported The Sunday Times of London, “is due to lobbying by doctors, who make a fortune from abortion.” Wherever you look in the world of abortion, money surfaces.

This is hardly surprising. When faced with a sudden traumatic situation, like that of an unmarried, pregnant teenager, many parents will consider any price a reasonable one to resolve the situation, especially if an abortion can be done safely, speedily, and in strict confidence.

Even so, many doctors are becoming increasingly unhappy about the whole affair. At the opening of the abortion era in Britain, the Daily Mail reported Professor Ian Morris as saying: “If I were just beginning my career knowing what I know now about abortions, I would never choose gynaecology.” He added: “I detest the operation. It is a complete reversal of all my medical training. The whole aim is to save life, not perform this particular form of homicide.” Strong words, indeed, and not every doctor will agree with them. But they do convey some idea of the revulsion to the practice some doctors instinctively feel.

To Abort​—Whose Choice?

When a woman faces the issue of abortion, few people, perhaps even the woman herself, give much thought to the father. The decision to have an abortion is often made by the woman alone, drawing on the support of close friends and relatives. But “men also go through the grieving, the sense of loss,” reports The New York Times, “and may also experience a lot of the ambivalence that women do about becoming a parent.”

Some fathers feel strongly that their wishes should be taken into account, too, that they should have more say before the mother decides to abort their child. “Men wanted to share, not impose, the decision making,” says sociologist Arthur Shostak following a ten-year survey of the problem. Surely such thinking is not unreasonable.

Coping With Reaction

Yet, in making the decision, the woman, unlike the man, has to cope with the physical shock to her whole system if her gestation period is suddenly terminated. Just what is involved?

Even after an early abortion, it is usual for a woman to feel weak and tired. Cramps, sickness, and possible bleeding are common too. When an abortion is performed much later on, the signs of the terminated pregnancy can last up to a week or more as the hormone level drops. Soreness of the breasts and a feeling of depression are additional factors to face. Yes, having an abortion can be a painful experience, as only the woman knows, and it is seldom an easy choice.

Of greater importance is the fact that, emotionally and mentally, the effect of an abortion can be devastating. The problem is that whereas a physical reaction can be immediate and expected, the mental and emotional wounds appear later and take longer to heal, if ever they do. “Speaking as someone who professionally has to deal from time to time with patients who have had abortions, they are often greatly disturbed many years after the clinical event,” writes a correspondent to The Times of London. How big is this problem?

“It now seems that the size of the hidden problem is greater than previously thought,” commented The Sunday Times. The effects of depression and emotional disturbance are often so great that “half the unmarried women who have abortions for therapeutic reasons end up needing psychiatric help.” These findings have been borne out by a study at London’s King’s College Hospital. This study reveals, according to The Times, that “couples who decide to have a pregnancy terminated can face acute grief reactions” and that they find their grief “difficult to cope with.”

The Japanese have an unusual way of handling this human problem. Tiny statues, made of plastic, plaster, or stone to represent aborted children, are placed in temple grounds. There they are committed to the care of Jizo, the Buddhist guardian of children. Parents, as they pray to the deity for forgiveness, can thus give vent to their feelings of shame, sorrow, and guilt. But they are not alone in feeling the need to do this. Consider the following personal experiences.

“I Soon Became Ashamed”

By the time she was 22, Elaine had had three abortions. She recalls: “I was told that it was not wrong or criminal to do it at only six weeks’ gestation, since a baby had not been formed by then, only if it was three months or more. After that, when I heard people passing bad remarks about unwed mothers, I became happy I had terminated my pregnancy. Two years later I repeated the same procedure twice, becoming increasingly happy I had found a way of not bringing children into this world.”

Soon after this, Elaine entered the nursing profession, working in midwifery. “It was a delight,” she recalls, “to see the birth of a baby and to experience the joy such birth gives to doctors, midwives, and parents. But I soon became ashamed of myself for terminating three innocent lives and found myself struggling with my feelings of disquiet and embarrassment. I kept looking back and counting to see how old my children would be and whether they would have been boys or girls and what they would look like. It is horrible to be in such a situation.”

Janet, a mother now 39 years of age, relates her feelings following an abortion: “The only way I coped was by brainwashing myself into believing that it never really happened to me. I convinced myself for many years that I couldn’t have done it, that it was some horrible nightmare.”

Nineteen-year-old Karen confides: “I did my best to pass off what I had done, but I cried when I saw a baby or a pregnant woman. I was so depressed. Then milk started to come out of my breasts to remind me. The nightmares I had made me wake in tears, hearing babies crying. I became so bitter over it all.”

To view an abortion as a simple operation of convenience is misguided. Once the step has been taken, it is irreversible. The immediate problem may go away, yet its effects, as we have seen, can be far reaching and long lasting. But what about when an abortion is recommended by a doctor?

“You Ought to Abort the Child”

That was the straight advice given to Sue by her doctor. Why? Sue already had two young children, and no sooner had she realized she was pregnant than one of them caught rubella, or German measles as it is more commonly called. “It was inevitable that I should catch it, too, as I had never had it before,” she says. Sure enough, soon she was quite ill herself.

Medical experience has established that rubella, when contracted by a woman early in pregnancy, can cause distressing deformities to the growing embryo. It was with this fact in mind that the doctor spoke as he did. “He told me bluntly,” Sue recalls, “that the baby would be deformed and that I would never be able to cope with it. At his clinic he insisted that if I ignored his advice, I would have to sign a letter accepting full responsibility, absolving him.” Sue signed it. “In all fairness, I must say in his defense that he was genuinely worried about me, especially since I am an epileptic,” she added.

Sue’s husband, although naturally very concerned, left the decision to his wife, and she made arrangements to have her baby. In due time a daughter was born. Tests were immediately carried out on the child, but apart from slight anemia, there was nothing wrong with her at all. The doctors were surprised, however, to find antibodies in the baby’s blood that her mother did not have, indicating that the developing child had certainly been affected by the rubella.

Coping With Deformity

Even though in that case the outcome was a happy one, the fact remains that many children are born deformed, in need of special care. It is easy to say that it is humane to prevent cripples’ coming into the world, but who is in a position to judge the quality of life of another? Are there not people with varying degrees of mobility in every community, enjoying life to the extent they are able and contributing, in turn, something for the good of mankind?a

Sue viewed things this way. But she also had another source of strength upon which to draw​—her faith. When her doctor first intimated that her baby would be deformed, she told him that even if this were so, she knew she could count on strength from God to help her cope. Also, she had no right to deprive a crippled child of the “wonderful hope of a cure of all physical sicknesses in God’s new system of things,” under the rule of his Kingdom. (Revelation 21:1-4) Such faith has its own rewards.

The Crucial Choice

“Birth? Or Abortion?” Faced with the choice, which will it be?

Sue reasoned: “My baby hadn’t asked to be conceived, so what right had I to terminate that little life before it had a chance to see life?”

Her question is simple enough. How would you answer it?

[Footnotes]

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A Conflict of Loyalties?

The Declaration of Geneva was adopted by the General Assembly of the World Medical Association at Geneva, Switzerland, in September 1948. It is based on the ancient Hippocratic oath. The following is an extract from this Declaration:

“At the Time of Being Admitted as Member of the Medical Profession: I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity. . . . I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity. . . . I will maintain the utmost respect for human life, from the time of conception; even under threat, I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.”

How do doctors interpret such an oath? Here are two conflicting views. Which do you share?

DOCTOR I. M.

“I can never look at the tissues I have removed during the termination of a pregnancy without revulsion. It may be a jelly, but it is, after all, human life that I am destroying.”

DOCTOR V. A.

“I don’t think abortion is ever wrong. As long as an individual is completely dependent upon the mother, it’s not a person.”

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Abortion Techniques

The dangers of an abortion for the mother are directly related to the age of the embryo. They should not be underestimated.

For first trimesters it is usual for the fetus to be sucked out by vacuum pump.b This is usually done in a clinic in a short space of time. For second trimesters the dismembering of the fetus to extract it from the mother, or induced abortion brought on by injection, are usual procedures. A short stay in a hospital is normal. For any third trimesters a major operation, such as a hysterotomy, may be the only option.c

[Footnotes]

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It is now possible for premature babies to survive because of advanced medical techniques

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Justitz/​Zefa/​H. Armstrong Roberts

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Few people give much thought to the feelings of the child’s father

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Emotionally and mentally, the effect of an abortion can be devastating

Abortion​—And “the Source of Life”

TODAY, with modern technology, doctors can easily determine the sex of a fetus. But who can determine its disposition? Who can see its potential as a living, human soul? (Genesis 2:7) Only Jehovah God can, since he is “the source of life.” (Psalm 36:9) Consider the following Scriptural examples.

The patriarchal laws of inheritance related to the primacy of the firstborn. Yet, when Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was pregnant with twins, God told her: “The older will serve the younger.” The lives of their two boys, Jacob and Esau, testified to Jehovah’s understanding of their personalities long before their birth.​—Genesis 25:22, 23.

Centuries later, an angel told Zechariah the priest that his wife Elizabeth would have a son who should be named John. It was the privilege of this son, later known as John the Baptizer, to prepare the way for Jesus, the Messiah. Humility of mind was an exacting requirement for this commission, as God well knew.​—Luke 1:8-17.

The Human Fetus​—How Precious?

King David acknowledged: “You [Jehovah] kept me screened off in the belly of my mother. . . . Your eyes saw even the embryo of me, and in your book all its parts were down in writing.” And that is just as true of any one of us.​—Psalm 139:13-16.

Every human pregnancy is precious to “the source of life,” Jehovah God. Just how precious, the Mosaic Law makes clear at Exodus 21:22, 23: “In case men should struggle with each other and they really hurt a pregnant woman . . . , if a fatal accident should occur, then you must give soul for soul.”

Some Bible translations make it appear that in this law the crucial matter was what happened to the mother, not the fetus. The original Hebrew text, however, refers to a fatal accident to either mother or child.

Early Christian Thinking

Following the death of Jesus Christ’s apostles in the first century, many men expounded on their teachings. These writers were not inspired as the Bible writers were, but their comments are of interest, for they reflect the religious thinking of their time on this crucial issue. Here are some excerpts.

The Letter of Barnabas, chapter 19:5 (c.100-132 C.E.)

“Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born.”

The Didache, or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (c.150 C.E.)

“This is the Way of Life: . . . You shall not kill the child in the womb or murder a new-born infant.”

Tertullian: Apology, chapter 9:8 (c.197 C.E.)

“But with us murder is forbidden once and for all. We are not permitted to destroy even the foetus in the womb, as long as blood is still being drawn to form a human being. To prevent the birth of a child is anticipated murder. It makes no difference whether one destroys a life already born or interferes with its coming to birth. One who will be a man is already one.”

Basil: Letter to Amphilochius (347 C.E.)

“She who has deliberately destroyed a foetus has to pay the penalty of murder. And any hair-splitting distinction as to whether the foetus was formed or unformed is inadmissible to us.”

The Christian View

A spontaneous abortion or a miscarriage may result at any time from human imperfection or from an accident. A deliberately induced abortion, however, simply to prevent the birth of an unwanted child, is a different matter. According to the Scriptures, as we have seen, it is a willful taking of human life.

Who is “the One laying out the earth and its produce, the One giving breath to the people on it, and spirit to those walking in it”? It is not man but the Source of all life, Jehovah God. (Isaiah 42:5) Our God-given ability to pass life to our offspring is a precious privilege for which, as in all things, “each of us will render an account for himself to God.”​—Romans 14:12.

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A Happy Conception

In 1973, The Watchtower, the companion magazine to Awake!, carried a short article discussing the Bible’s viewpoint on abortion. Two young students read it. The girl was pregnant, and she and the father had agreed on an abortion. But the article made them think. As a result, they decided to have their baby.

Recently the man was again contacted by Jehovah’s Witnesses, and he said: “I have the highest esteem for your Bible literature. It is because of that jolting article that my wife and I are the proud parents of a lovable 13-year-old daughter today!”

It was certainly rewarding for them to take the Scriptural course.

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H. Armstrong Roberts

Abortion​—Knowledge Brings Responsibility

DO YOU always speak when you know something is right? It is good to do so, especially when the welfare of others is at stake. After reading an article on the subject of abortion in an earlier issue of this magazine, a mother in England wrote as follows:

“I have just read the ‘Letter From the Mother of an Unborn Child’ in the July 22 [1986] issue of Awake! and it broke my heart.

“I have never experienced an abortion, but when I was four months pregnant with my first child, my sister-in-law was two months pregnant with her third child. She had just got her two little girls off to school and had found herself a well-paying job. There were things she wanted: furnishings, videos, a new car, plants for the garden. But a baby would have put an end to the job and thus to the income to buy all these things. So she decided to have an abortion.

“As the day of the abortion closed in, she felt excitement. But I grew sicker and sicker at the thought of it. I was by this time just beginning to feel my baby kicking within me, and I used to think of the baby within my sister-in-law growing too.

“The eve of the abortion came, and I kept hoping my sister-in-law would change her mind. I could visualise her baby, snug and safe in her womb listening to the soft and relaxing beat of its mother’s heart. Then my mind would recoil at the thought of that little child torn away from its safe little world and destroyed. I would cry deeply at the thought. The abortion took place. My little daughter will never know the cousin she could have grown up with, their ages being so close.

“What of my sister-in-law? She lost her job but found another, and she has had several since. She got her videos, her new car, her plants, new clothes, etc., but she went through a stage of depression and left her husband and children, then returned home after a few days. But she isn’t happy. When she visits me, her two little girls play with my daughter and my son of 11 months, and they say of my daughter: ‘Isn’t she lovely, Mummy? I wish we had a little sister or brother.’ It’s at these words that I steal a glance at her expression. I feel I want to comfort her because at the time of her abortion she didn’t really realize what she was doing. But my sister-in-law chose money above the life of her child, and it is for this reason I feel she now regrets it.

“However, this leads to my asking myself a very serious question. I might think of myself as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, although not yet baptized. But I can see I yet have a long way to go, for true Witnesses are like Jesus, feeling love and compassion toward all, no matter what others have been or done. I long for the day when I can truly say I feel as they do toward others and carry Jehovah’s name proudly. Perhaps if I hadn’t sat on the fence so long, I could have had the courage to witness to my sister-in-law, and the baby might have been saved.”

It is the sincere hope of the publishers of Awake! that this present series of articles may serve that very purpose.