 |
Scriptural passages dealing with
the Unborn PERSON (and related)
Genesis 25:21 And Isaac entreated the LORD on behalf of his wife because she was barren; and the LORD was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife became pregnant. 25:22 But the children pushed roughly inside her, and she said, "If it is like this, why am I here?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. 25:23 And the LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be separated from within you; and one people will be stronger than the other people, and the older will serve the younger." 25:24 And when her days were fulfilled that she should give birth, there were twins in her womb.
Exodus 21 22 "Now suppose two men are fighting, and in the process, they hurt a pregnant woman so her child is born prematurely. If no further harm results, then the man responsible must pay damages in the amount the woman's husband demands and the judges approve. 23 But if any harm results, then the offender must be punished according to the injury. If the result is death, the offender must be executed
23:7 Never put an innocent or honest person to death. I will not allow anyone guilty of this to go free.
Deuteronomy Choose life, then, that you and your
descendants may live 30:19 It is I who bring both
death and life. 32:39
Judges 13:5 As for the son you will conceive and bear,
no razor shall touch his head, for this boy is to be
consecrated to God from the womb.
(From The Gospel of Life CHAPTER II -
I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE)
Job, from the depth of his pain, stops to contemplate the work of God who miraculously formed his body in his mother's womb. Here he finds reason for trust, and he expresses his belief that there is a divine plan for his life: "You have fashioned and made me; will you then turn and destroy me? Remember that you have made me of clay; and will you turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love; and your care has preserved my spirit" (Job 10:8-12).
Job 31:15 Did not he who made me in the womb make him?
Did not the same One fashion us before our birth?
Job 31:18 Though like a father God has reared me from my youth,
guiding me even from my mother's womb
Expressions of awe and wonder at God's intervention in the life of a child in its mother's womb occur again and again in the Psalms.
In the Old Testament, sterility is dreaded as a curse, while
numerous offspring are viewed as a blessing: "Sons are
a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward"
(Ps 127:3; cf. Ps 128:3-4).
Psalms 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did
my mother conceive me.
Psalms 139: 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;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
King David speaks of his life before birth many times in the Psalms-- as a person very special and dear to Almighty God, yet still unseen and unknown by man.
Proverbs 24:11 Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to
death; do not stand back and let them die.
Proverbs 31:8 Open your mouth for the speechless, In the
cause of all who are appointed to die.
Sirach 50:22 And now, bless the God of all, who has done
wondrous things on earth; Who fosters men's growth from
their mother's womb, and fashions them according to his will!
Isaiah 49:1 "Yahweh called me when I was in the womb,
before my birth he had pronounced my name." Can a woman
forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the
son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget
you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands
Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."
Amos 1:13 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not turn back [my wrath]. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders,
(From The Gospel of Life CHAPTER II - I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE)
How can anyone think that even a single moment of this marvelous process of the unfolding of life could be separated from the wise and loving work of the Creator, and left prey to human caprice? Certainly the mother of the seven brothers did not think so; she professes her faith in God, both the source and guarantee of life from its very conception, and the foundation of the hope of new life beyond death: "I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws" (2 Mac 7:22-23).
The Gospel according to St. Luke Chapter 1 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the voice of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
St. Paul the Apostle But when He who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through His grace (The Letter of Paul to the Galatians 1:15)
Teachings Against Abortion from the
Early Church Fathers, Doctors of the Church
and others
BARNABAS (early second century) "Never do away with an unborn child, or destroy it after its birth." (Epistle of Barnabas, chap. 19)
The DIDACHE (first century)
"You shall not slay the child by abortions." (Didache 2:2)
The Didache - Alternate title: The Teaching of the Twelve
Apostles c. 60-100 A.D.
The Didache is, in all probability, the oldest surviving extant piece of non-canonical literature. It is not so much a letter as a handbook for new Christian converts, consisting of instructions derived directly from the teachings of Jesus. The Didache claims to have been authored by the twelve apostles. While this is unlikely, the work could be a direct result of the first Apostolic Council, c.50 C.E. (Acts 15:28). Similarities to the Apostolic Decree are apparent, and the given structure of the church is quite primitive. Most scholars agree that the work, in its earliest form, may have circulated as early as the 60's C.E., though additions and modifications may have taken place well into the third century. 2:2 {Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,} thou shalt not corrupt boys, thou shalt not commit fornication, {thou shalt not steal,} thou shalt not deal in magic, thou shalt do no sorcery, thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born, {thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods, thou shalt not perjure thyself, thou shalt not bear false witness,} thou shalt not speak evil, thou shalt not cherish a grudge, thou shalt not be double-minded nor double-tongued;
The Apocalypse of Peter ca 135 "I saw a gorge in which the discharge and excrement of the tortured ran down and became like a lake. There sat women, and the discharge came up to their throats; and opposite them sat many children, who were born prematurely, weeping. And from them went forth rays of fire and smote the women on the eyes. These were those who produced children outside of marriage and who procured abortions." -26
"Those who slew the unborn children will be tortured forever, for God wills it to so."
-2:264
HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME (170-236 AD) "Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs ... to expel what was conceived, since they did not want to have a child. See then what great impiety that lawless one [Emperor Callistus] has fallen to, by teaching both adultery and murder at the same time."
The Early Church Fathers condemned the atrocity of abortion as child murder and excommunicated for life until on their death bed, those women and her accomplices in the brutal act. It is a historical fact, Canon Law 1398 was applied immediately and rigorously in the Early Church.
ATHENAGORAS OF ATHENS (ca. 177 AD) "What reason would we have to commit murder when we even say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God? For the same person would not regard the fetus in the womb as a living thing and therefore an object of God's care, and at the same time slay it, once it had come to life." (A Plea Regarding Christians, chapter 35)
TERTULLIAN (ca. 223 AD) "We acknowledge, therefore, that life begins with conception, because we contend that the soul begins at conception. Life begins when the soul begins." “For us [Christians], murder is once and for all forbidden; so even the child in the womb, while yet the mother’s blood is still being drawn on to form the human being, it is not lawful for us to destroy. To forbid birth is only quicker murder . . . He is a man, who is to be a man; the fruit is always present in the seed.”
~ Tertullian, 197, Apologeticus, page 9.
"They [John and Jesus] were both alive while still in the womb. Elizabeth rejoiced as the infant leaped in her womb; Mary glorifies the Lord because Christ within inspired her. Each mother recognizes her child and is known by her child who is alive, being not merely souls but also spirits." -De A ninta 26:4
SAINT CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (223 AD) "Those who use abortifacients commit homicide."
“. . . if we would not kill off the human race born and developing according to God’s plan, then our whole lives would be lived according to nature. Women who make use of some sort of deadly abortion drug kill not only the embryo but, together with it, all human kindness.”
~ Clement of Alexandria, priest and the “Father of Theologians” (c. 150-220), Christ the Educator, Volume II, page 10.
|
|||||||
|
Athenagoras of Athens, letter to Marcus Aurelius, 177, Legatio pro Christianis (“Supplication for the Christians”), page 35. “Those women who use drugs to bring about an abortion commit murder and will have to give an account to God for their abortion.”
Minucius Felix, theologian (c. 200-225), Octavius, page 30.
“. . . there are women who, by the use of medicinal potions, destroy the unborn life in their wombs, and murder the child before they bring it forth. These practices undoubtedly are derived from a custom established by your gods; Saturn, though he did not expose his sons, certainly devoured them.”
Menucius Felix condemned abortion with, "...after such
audacious acts [abortion and child murder], they, lost to
all shame, attempt to call themselves a Catholic
Church!" Menucius Felix goes on to say, "Thou shalt not
murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is
begotten...and make the chamber of procreation a
chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was
given for childbearing unto slaughter."
Council of Eivira ca 305 "If a woman becomes pregnant by committing adultery, While her husband is absent, and after the act she destroys the child, it is proper to keep her from communion until death, because she has doubled her crime."
-Canon 63
SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (345-407 AD) "Where there is murder before birth, you do not even let a harlot remain only a harlot, but you make of her a murderess as well."
St. Ambrose of Milan ca 339-397 The wealthy, in order that their inheritance may not be divided among several, deny in the very womb their own progeny. By use of' parricidal mixtures they snuff out the fruit of their wombs in the genital organs themselves. In this way life is taken away before it is born .... Who except man himself has taught us ways of repudiating children?"
-Hexameron
SAINT AUGUSTINE of HIPPO (354-430 AD) "Sometimes their sadistic licentiousness goes so far...they find one means or another to destroy the unborn and flush it from the mother's womb." (The City of God, Book One, Chapter 16)
St. Jerome (c. 340-420), Letter to Eustochium, 22.13.
“Some virgins [unmarried women], when they learn they are with child through sin, practice abortion by the use of drugs. Frequently they die themselves and are brought before the ruler of the lower world guilty of three crimes; suicide, adultery against Christ and murder of an unborn child.”
St. BASIL THE GREAT (379) "The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. The hair-splitting difference between formed and unformed makes no difference to us."
"Moreover, those, too, who give drugs causing abortion are deliberate murderers themselves, as well as those receiving the poison which kills the- fetus."
-Letter 188:2
The Apostolic Constitutions ca 380 "Thou shalt not slay the child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. For everything that is shaped, and his received a soul from God, if slain, it shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed."
-7:3
|
|||||||
|
Consistent Teachings through the centuries
into our modern day
St. Thomas Aquinas: Teaches that "abortion is a grave sin against the natural law."
Martin Luther, Luther's Works How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is! How many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God.
--, American Ed., (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing), v. 4, 304.
JOHN CALVIN: "The fetus, though enclosed in the womb
of its mother, is already a human being and it is a
monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet
begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in
his own house than in a field, because a man's house is
his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be
deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb
before it has come to light."
Pope Stephen V: "That person is a murderer who causes to perish by abortion what has been conceived."
Pope Sixtus V condemned abortion with the greatest severity.
G.K. Chesterton- Moral issues are always terribly complex, for someone without principles.
Pope Pius XI "Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority ... to defend the lives of the innocent ... among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates ... do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors and others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cries from earth to heaven" (Casti Connubii No. 67).
Pope Pius XII "Every human being, even the infant in the mother's womb, has the right to life immediately from God, not from the parent or any human society or authority. Therefore there is no man, no human authority, no science, no medical, eugenic , social, economic or moral "indication" that can show or give valid juridical title for direct deliberate disposition concerning an innocent human life - which is to say, a disposition that aims at its destruction either as an end in itself or as the means of attaining another end that is perhaps in no way illicit in itself. Thus, for example, to save the life of the mother is a most noble end, but the direct killing of the child as a means to this end is not licit..." (Pope Pius XII, Allocution to Italian Midwives, October 29, 1951)
Pope John XXIII recalled the teaching of the Fathers on the sacred character of life "which from its beginning demands the action of God the Creator."
The Second Vatican Council, presided over by Paul VI, has most severely condemned abortion: "Life must be safeguarded with extreme care from conception; "abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes."
The same Paul VI, speaking on this subject on many occasions, has not been afraid to declare that this teaching of the Church "has not changed and it is unchangeable."
|
|||||||
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen To help stop abortion in America and the world, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen encouraged the spiritual adoption of an unborn child. This is done by praying a ten second prayer that an unborn baby's life be spared abortion and be allowed to live.
The prayer is:
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the unborn baby that I have spiritually adopted who is in danger of abortion.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta - "Abortion kills twice. It kills
the body of the baby and it kills the conscience of the
mother." Abortion is profoundly anti-women. Three quarters
of its victims are women: Half the babies and all the mothers.
 Read the complete speech of Mother
Teresa of Calcutta to the National
Prayer Breakfast, Washington, DC,
February 3, 1994
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2271: Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
"You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish."
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: Abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
2272: Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2322: From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a "criminal" practice (GS 27 § 3), gravely contrary to the moral law. The Church imposes the canonical penalty of excommunication for this crime against human life.
2274: Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual. . . . It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."
2273: The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:
"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death."
"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. . . . As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."
Pope John Paul II-- Evangelium Vitae, (The Gospel of Life) 1995
72. Disregard for the right to life, precisely because it leads to the killing of the person whom society exists to serve, is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good. Consequently, a civil law authorizing abortion or euthanasia ceases by that very fact to be a true, morally binding civil law.
73. Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. From the very beginnings of the Church, the apostolic preaching reminded Christians of their duty to obey legitimately constituted public authorities (cf. Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-14), but at the same time it firmly warned that "we must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). In the Old Testament, precisely in regard to threats against life, we find a significant example of resistance to the unjust command of those in authority. After Pharaoh ordered the killing of all newborn males, the Hebrew midwives refused. "They did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live" (Ex 1:17). But the ultimate reason for their action should be noted: "the midwives feared God" (ibid.). It is precisely from obedience to God—to whom alone is due that fear which is acknowledgment of his absolute sovereignty—that the strength and the courage to resist unjust human laws are born. It is the strength and the courage of those prepared even to be imprisoned or put to the sword, in the certainty that this is what makes for "the endurance and faith of the saints" (Rev 13:10).
In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to "take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An embryo is an individual, no matter how small. While the embryo receives cells from the mother and the father, it is neither the mother nor the father."
by Rev. Frank A. Pavone
In Isaiah, chapter 43, verse 4, God says, "You are precious to me and I love you."
 YOU CAN NOT BE BOTH
A CHRISTIAN AND
PRO-CHOICE !
|
December 28
What can be said of today's