I don’t know if you are a Christian or not, but Christians believe God is about love, grace, and mercy. He loves the “little guy” in life. He has commandments for us to take care and defend those who can not take care of themselves. The widows, orphans, those living in poverty who cannot feed themselves, and those being led to the slaughter. In my opinion, abortion doesn’t fit with who or what God is. Abortion is contradictory to him, and who he is as THE Supreme Being. Your use of scripture to support your pro-choice view, is not persuasive because we have the BIG picture of who and what God is, and what he likes and doesn't like.
Proverbs 24:11 says “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.”.
The ancient Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians and Persians all had extremely strict laws forbidding abortion. The Assyrians were a brutal bunch of people who chopped peoples fingers off for dinner time entertainment. How can such a blood thirsty people forbid abortion, when we, the United States of America, a supposedly civilized group of people, allow it? The Greeks and Romans allowed abortions, but there were strict laws forcing the woman to inform her husband of her abortion BEFORE it took place. The Hippocratic oath given in 400 B.C. stated, "I will not give to a woman an instrument to procure abortion." Pagan Greeks thought the “fetus” was fully human, equivalent to the newborn.
The Hebrew people placed high value on children and families. It was unthinkable that a Jewish woman would want an abortion. It is wrong to shed innocent blood. Innocent human life was valuable because of the sacred nature of being made in the likeness of God. Also, the Hebrew word for fetus and child was the same (I think). Have you not read the dozens of stories of God “helping” a woman get pregnant, to fulfill his will, so he could be glorified. God LOVES babies, and you can see it in all the barren stories of Elizabeth, Sarah, Hannah, and Rachel. Babies were ALWAYS a blessing whether she was barren or not. AND…..have you also not read how much God HATED child sacrifice and what he did to his people when they turned to this. Child sacrifice, idol worship, and homosexuality was the LAST STRAW for God. He would not tolerate people throwing their babies into the fire.
You said this; And so, since in your opinion "abortion is murder of the innocent," that gives you the moral right, and I would say IMPETUS and OBLIGATION and DUTY to do whatever you can to stop the "murder," and extend CONTROL into every aspect of a woman's life, even to her own womb.
I would say the government has the moral DUTY to protect citizens, even those unborn. There are laws to protect your life and my life. Does an unborn child not matter? Why is a “fetus” a human if the woman has a miscarriage, but if she has an abortion, the “fetus” is a nothing. Determining the pre-born child’s “life” status of “human” or “not human” all depends on the emotions of the mother. Laws protected the unborn and had “control” over a woman’s womb for centuries. Big deal. No one complained about it 100 years ago. It was “accepted” that a baby was a life. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were pro-life. Then Margaret Sanger came along, and the rest is history.
I don’t understand your obsession with theocracy. Were we a theocracy before 1973? There are plenty of non religious pro life people, because they believe in the sanctity of human life and civil rights for all humans, even the unborn.
There doesn’t need to be an 11th commandment saying, “Thou shall not kill your unborn child”, for Christians to understand that abortion is evil. Abortion is the brutal action of a deep lack of faith in God to work everything out for her. There are plenty of scriptures to support God’s attitude about protecting the unborn. Protect the innocent, you were made in my image, your body is not your own…it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, thou shall not commit premeditated murder, fornication is a sin, always have faith in me because I will take care of you and everything will work out. etc, etc, etc.
My body and my womb does not belong to me. It belongs to God. I Corinthians 6:19 "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit {who is} in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?"
If you go read the Planned Parenthood testimonial board, MOST of the women who get abortions are college aged girls who “weren’t ready for a baby or their boyfriend left them”. Abortion to save the life of the mother is rare and usually not necessary, since a late term abortion takes three days, when a C-section takes 30 minutes. Soooooooo…..abortion, what we have right now, is birth control. THAT IS EVIL.
Back alley abortions is an emotional, dramatic myth. I’m sure it happened occasionally, but it was rare. I don’t buy that argument.
You also said, ”But "abortion is murder" is not the way to go about it. It hasn't won the debate yet, and it won't,. Well, maybe not with you (yet) but it sure worked on people like Norma McCorvey.
One more point and then I need to get up. I take issue with the dramatic use of “we are going to go get women who get abortions with guns”. That’s a little over the top and not true. Your stereotyping is not fair or just. I can’t speak for every pro-lifer here at FR, but I seriously doubt any of us would walk up to a woman getting an abortion or one who had one, and scream in her face, “YOU’RE A MURDERER”. We are in this to save the woman just as much as the children. Even Norma McCorvey will tell you about all the times she spat in the face of a pro-lifer, only to have them wipe it off with a smile and say, “Jesus loves you”. Yes we feel abortion is murder, and because we are here debating this serious, emotional subject, we say emotional things. But when it comes down to the real thing, we would take her in our arms and give her a big hug and try to talk to her. We would try to share with her the loving mercy and forgiveness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that is available to her, free of charge.
Yikes! Sorry for the "essay". I had a lot to say and wanted to get it all over at once. I'm busy. Have a good day.
Shalom.