Is the unborn a part of a woman’s body to do with as she pleases?

Psalm 139:13-16You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. . . . You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

If the unborn were simply clumps of cells, a woman could do with those cells whatever she pleased. However, God does not view an unborn child as a clump of cells. He sees them growing together as a human being carefully crafted by him.

Proverbs 31:8Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.

Philippians 2:4Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

If the woman were the only one affected by an abortion, the issue would be clear-cut. However, if the unborn child is a human being, a mother’s actions affect another living person who has his or her own human rights.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. . . . Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? . . . You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Our bodies were created by God and designed by him as places where his Spirit can live. Even though we can choose what to do with our bodies, we ought to make choices that are honoring to God and life-giving to others.

Luke 9:24“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

Philippians 2:4-7Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

Doing what is right often comes with a cost. A woman who keeps a child she wasn’t prepared for faces a long pregnancy, financial burdens, a social stigma, and the difficult task of arranging for the child’s care. Even if the mother gives the child up for adoption to make sure the child is well cared for, such a decision isn’t without emotional costs. Yet this is precisely the kind of self-sacrificial love Jesus modeled for us. At great burden and pain to himself, he paid the price on the cross so we could have life.