Eden McCourt heads up Abortion Resistance, an anti-abortion organisation in the UK.
The debate on whether abortion is murder is complex, involving legal, moral, and biological aspects. Legally, most countries do not define abortion as murder. However, moral and religious views often differ.
I might be wrong on some of the following details.
- El Salvador: Abortion is illegal under all circumstances. Women can face long prison sentences, often charged with homicide or manslaughter.
- Nicaragua: Total ban on abortion with no exceptions. Severe legal consequences for those involved in abortions.
- Honduras: Strict abortion laws with no exceptions. Legal actions are severe for performing or undergoing abortions.
- Dominican Republic: Strict laws against abortion, no exceptions for rape, incest, or mother’s health.
- Malta: Only European country completely banning abortion, no exceptions, and treated as a criminal offence.
- Some states in the US: Prior to Roe v. Wade overturning, there were ‘trigger laws’ to ban abortion.
‘Murder’ is not just a legal term; it also carries moral and religious significance.
Legal versus moral
Biologically, a fetus is human from conception.
There is no getting around that.
It’s the legal wordplay that is problematic. Legally, definitions regularly change, making them bad axiomatic positions.
This is important because, in most countries, ‘murder’ applies only if the fetus is seen as human. A devious way to circumvent this, therefore, is not to define a baby as human until it has reached a certain age.
Just because something is legal does not necessarily make it morally right.
Murder versus killing
The biblical difference between ‘killing’ and ‘murder’ is interesting.
The 6th Commandment says ‘thou shalt not kill’.
Yet God kills or orders killings. It seems contradictory, but isn’t. It’s a misunderstanding of ‘kill’ and ‘murder’. We can kill anything, like a bug, an animal, or a plant, but this isn’t ‘murder’.
Killing a person isn’t necessarily ‘murder’ either. It becomes ‘murder’ when someone takes a life ‘unlawfully’ and with ‘premeditated malice’. For example, self defence is neither unlawful nor premeditated malice.
‘Murder’, however, occurs when taking innocent life.
A baby is obviously innocent.
This is why abortion is murder.
Consider the following
- Pro-choice’ disregards the baby’s choice, making the position incoherent.
- Why is it acceptable (morally or otherwise) to murder the baby in the first trimester, but not in the third trimester?
- Either the baby has the genetic code of a human, or it doesn’t.
- Women (and men) must take responsibility for their actions. Everybody knows what happens when you put a Tweedledee into a Tweedledum.
- If a baby in the womb is part of the mother, then a patient on a ventilator is part of the hospital.
Pro-abortion arguments are illogical, devoid of values, and are a degradation of morality.
The radio discussion to which she referred, can be found here.
