Abortion - 1

Contemporary Moral Issues

 

I. Abortion (part 1)

A. Introduction

1. Most evangelicals agree that it is a major social evil.

2. The test of a culture - How does it treat people?

3. The key issue - Is the fetus a human being?

4. Charles Colson

B. John Jefferson Davis, Evangelical Ethics

1. Profitability of the abortion industry

2. Irresponsible males

3. Opposition of the early church

a. No explicit biblical prohibition

b. Deductive argument can be made from Scripture

i. The Bible condemns taking innocent life.

ii. Abortion takes innocent life.

iii. The Bible condemns abortion.

4. Supreme Court decisions

a. Roe v. Wade

i. Permits abortion up to birth

ii. Borders on infanticide

b. Planned Parenthood of Missouri v. Danforth

5. Methods of abortion

a. Vacuum curettage

b. Dilation and curettage

c. Hysterotomy

d. Saline injection

6. Medical advances

7. Three basic positions

a. Abortion on demand

b. Abortion on indication

c. Life of the mother

C. Biblical Evidence

1. Exodus 21:22-25

2. The personhood of the fetus

a. Job 3:3

b. Psalm 51:5

c. Luke 1:41, 44 and 2:12, 16

d. Psalm 139:13-16

e. Jeremiah 1:5

f. Common sense

i. Caution

ii. Hunting analogy