What about rape, incest and the life of the mother?

How should Christians think about these tragic cases?

Rape and incest

Let's start with the exceptions for rape and incest. There are two truths that must guide our thinking in this area.

An unborn baby, regardless of how it was conceived, is a human being, amazingly and miraculously created in God's image from conception onward.

1. An unborn baby, regardless of how it was conceived, is a human being, amazingly and miraculously created in God's image from conception onward.




2. We live in a broken, fallen world, and the evilness of others has lasting consequences for innocent victims.

Rape and incest are terrible sins with lasting consequences (as is murder) – but a baby conceived this way is still human after fertilization. He or she does not cease to be human because the father was a violent criminal. This baby's life still matters, and while the rapist should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, the innocent baby does not deserve the death penalty because of the father's sin. So do we have the right to murder a person?

mother's life

And when it comes to putting the mother's life in danger, then we live in a broken, sighing world, and in rare cases this happens when a mother's life is in imminent danger and both mother and child are not (again ) can be saved, this is very rare). Even in such cases, there are biblical principles that can guide us.

1. Both mother and child are human beings, created in God's image and of infinite value.




2. We live in a fallen world and tragedies happen.

It is abhorrent to use rare, medically necessary and terribly tragic circumstances to justify abortion on demand.

In these extreme cases, doctors and parents must make heartbreaking decisions, but such decisions are very different from elective abortions and generally do not even fall into the same category (e.g., when an attempt at early delivery may be made instead of a forcible abortion). Procedure). It is abhorrent to use rare, medically necessary and terribly tragic circumstances to justify abortion on demand.

That has to be said

With the election approaching next week, abortion has become increasingly in the news, and while many Christians understand the evil of abortion, they struggle with the “exceptions.” I recently made a short video giving my answer. I encourage you to watch and share.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

This article was written with the support of the AiG research team.