Is it Christian to be pro-abortion?

Originally appeared at The Christian Post on October 29, 2024.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who self-identifies as Christian, keeps claiming Americans don’t need to compromise their religious values to be pro-abortion. To which other Christians (including Tony Dungy) responded to her with, “Exactly what ‘faith’ are you talking about? 

As election day rapidly approaches, abortion is on the ballot in 10 states. In some states, like my state of Colorado, we are being asked to enshrine the right to abortion into our state constitution. This is a critical moment for Christian voters to think clearly about the most enduring moral debate of our time and why it this is the wrong path for our country.  

While what Scripture says may not matter to your secular neighbor, it should matter to Evangelicals. The Bible teaches that we owe our very existence to Him. You, as an individual human, are valuable because you are made in the image of God.  

The Progressive claim that the Bible doesn’t even mention the word abortion is a half-truth. The Bible does not mention the word “trinity” either, but the concept of the trinity is pervasive. While the Bible doesn’t use the modern word “abortion,” make no mistake, it clearly affirms the sanctity of life in the womb.  

Two key biblical passages demonstrate the dignity of life, one in the Old Testament, and one in the New Testament. Everyone should read these sections of Scripture and ask yourself, is the text referring to only one person or two? These passages provide a clear answer. 

The Lord knows each person intimately even before birth. 

In Psalm 139, David speaks about the comprehensive and searching knowledge of God. God knows more about David than David ever imagined — his words, his actions, his thoughts. But verses 13-16 tell us that God knows us even when we are still developing in the womb.  

David says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” 

Now, is David speaking about only one person or two? It’s quite clear — two persons. He said, the Lord “knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  Psalm 139 continues, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body” (15-16).  

Psalm 139 reminds us that God formed us and that we were real persons in the womb. But let me take you to another passage in the Gospels. 

In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we have an account of the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus. Mary is visited by an angelic messenger who tells her she is going to have a son. “How will this be since I am a virgin?” she asked. The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” 

Do you see how and where the incarnation of Christ takes place? Jesus, the Son of God assumes human nature in the womb!  

The second person of the Godhead, sent by the Father, invades time and space, takes on human nature and is made incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary. Some early church theologians referred to Mary as the “Christ bearer.” Others went even further and called her “God bearer.” This is amazing language because Mary carried this simultaneously divine and human person in her human womb.  

Later we read that when Mary goes to visit her pregnant cousin, the pre-born baby John the Baptist can’t keep still; he is bouncing around inside of Elizabeth. Even the pre-born prophet recognizes the presence of one greater than himself. 

Elizabeth then exclaims to Mary in verses 41-44, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb, leaped for joy.”  

Are the Scriptures speaking of one person or two? And it speaks of both Elizabeth and the baby in her womb.  

I have pastor friends who tell me they don’t like to speak on this issue from the pulpit because it is not really a “Gospel issue.” To this, I reply, “what do you mean this is not a Gospel issue? There would be no atonement, no resurrection without a real baby, the Son of God who became human, and was carried and nurtured in the womb of Mary!”  

Because there is an atonement for our sins, there is grace available in Christ for all who have sinned, even for those who have succumbed to the current American abortion mania.  

The early church picked up on these ideals and condemned abortion in the strongest possible terms at a time when the practice was popular in the Roman Empire.  Romans also had a system of infanticide by placing newborn babies out in a field to let the animals take them.  

The overwhelming consensus of the early church saw abortion as wrong. The earliest Christians were courageously pro-life in a very dark culture. This was the uniform witness of the church fathers. Every mention of abortion in the early church rejects abortion forcefully (The Didache, Clement, Letter of Barnabas, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Jerome, the Apostolic Constitutions).  

Abortion ends a baby’s life. For Christians, this should be the most important reason why we oppose abortion. It’s the wrongful, painful taking of the life of an innocent human being made in the image of God. 

The Bible, examples from the early church, as well as the case for dignity, scientific and medical advances and the case for justice all compel us to be pro-life.  

No matter what happens with these ballot initiatives, the focus of the pro-life movement has shifted from the courts of law to the court of public opinion. Even as we work for alternatives for unwed moms dealing with unexpected pregnancies, it is time to make a compelling case for life, contending for the sanctity and dignity of every human life at all stages. It’s time to think clearly about what is now the greatest human rights issue of our day.  

On this election day we have an opportunity to pull back from the moral darkness of the moment. Abortion should not become a state constitutional right.