| If men, who are fighting, hit a
pregnant woman . . .The early Christian writer Tertullian pointed out that the 'Law of Moses' ordered strict penalties for causing an abortion. This law, the lex talionis or 'law of retribution' applies to abortion. The lex talionis establishes the just punishment for an injury ('eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life' compared to the much greater retributions that had been common before, such as 'life for eye', 'life for tooth', or 'lives of the offender's family for one life'). The lex talionis would already have been applied to a woman who was injured in a fight. The distinguishing point in this passage is that a pregnant woman is hurt "and she gives birth prematurely (literally in Hebrew 'so that her child comes out'); the child is the focus of the lex talionis in this passage. Aborted babies must have justice too. This is because they, like older children, have souls. James, in the New Testament said, "the body without the spirit is dead" (James 2:26): The soul is the life-principle of the human body. Since from the time of conception the child's body is alive (as shown by the fact it is growing), the child's body must already have its spirit. In 1995 Pope John Paul II declared that the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on abortion "is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors ... I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church." (Evangelium Vitae 62) This vigorous defense of the rights of the unborn child is nothing new: This has been the consistent declaration of all the Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox church. And, as the following quotes from the early Church Fathers show, Christians have been adamant defenders of the lives of unborn children from the very beginning. The Letter of Barnabas"The way of light, then, is as follows. If any one desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge, therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following. ... Thou shalt love they neighbour more than they own life. Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born."(Letter of Barnabas 19-5; A.D. 74) The Didache"The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child."(Didache 2:1-2; A.D. 120) The Apocalypse of Peter"And near that place I saw another strait place ... there sat women ... and over against them sat many children who were born to them out of due time sat crying. And there came forth from them rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes. And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion."(The Apocalypse of Peter 25-26; A.D. 137) "Those who slew the unborn children will be tortured forever, for God wills it so." (The Apocalypse of Peter 2:264; A.D. 137) Clement of Alexandria"Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, if order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human soul."Paedagogus 2; A.D. 165) Athenagoras"What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers? ... [W]hen we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God's care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it."(A Plea for the Christians 35; A.D. 177) Tertullian"In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed."(Apology 9:8; A.D. 197) "Among surgeons' tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery. There is also [another instrument in the shape of] a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: They give it, from its infanticide function, the name of embruosphaktes, [meaning] 'the slayer of the infant', which of course was alive. ... [The doctors who performed abortions] all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and [they] pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive." (The Soul 25; A.D. 210) "Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does." (The Soul 25; A.D. 210) "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; A.D. 210) "The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex. 21:22]." Minucius Felix"There are some [pagan] women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your [false] gods. ... To us [Christians] it is not lawful either to see or hear of homicide."(Octavius 30; A.D. 226) Hippolytus"Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!"(Refutation of All Heresies 9:7; A.D. 228) Council of Eivira"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; A.D. 305) Lactantius"When God forbids us to kill, he not only prohibits us from open violence, which is not even allowed by the public laws, but he warns us against the commission of those things which are esteemed lawful among men. Therefore, let no one imagine that even this is allowed, to strangle newly-born children, which is the greatest impiety; for God breathes into their souls for life, and not for death. But men, that there may be no crime with which they may not pollute their hands, deprive [unborn] souls as yet innocent and simple of the light which they themselves have not given. Can anyone, indeed, expect that they would abstain from the blood of others who do not abstain even from their own? But these are, without any controversy, wicked and unjust."(Divine Institutes 6:20; A.D. 307) Council of Ancyra"Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees."(Canon 21; A.D. 314) Basil the Great"Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years' penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not."(First Canonical Letter, Canon 2; A.D. 374) "He that kills another with a sword, or hurls an axe at his own wife and kills her, is guilty of willful murder; not he who throws a stone at a dog, and unintentionally kills a man, or who corrects one with a rod, or scourge, in order to reform him, or who kills a man in his own defense, when he only designed to hurt him. But the man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it die upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees." (First Canonical Letter, Canon 8; A.D. 374) "She who has deliberately destroyed a fetus has to pay the penalty of murder. ... here it is not only the child to be born that is vindicated, but also the woman herself who made an attempt against her own life, because usually the women die in such attempts. Furthermore, added to this is the destruction of the child, another murder." (First Canonical Letter, 188:2; A.D. 374) "Moreover, those, too, who give drugs causing abortion are deliberate murderers themselves, as well as those receiving the poison which kills the fetus." (First Canonical Letter, 188:2; A.D. 374) John Chrysostom"Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication ... Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit? — where there are many efforts at abortion? — where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter? For with a view to drawing more money by being agreeable and an object of longing to her lovers, even this she is not backward to do, so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire. For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is thine."(Homilies on Romans 24; A.D. 391) Ambrose of Milan"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; A.D. 350) Jerome"I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother ... Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder."(Letters 22:13; A.D. 396) The Apostolic Constitutions"Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for He says, 'You shall not suffer a witch to live' [Ex. 22:18]. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten; for 'everything that is shaped, and has received a soul from God, if it be slain, shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed.'"(Apostolic Constitutions 7:3; A.D. 400) . . . . . . .The Bible"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I sanctified you."(Jeremiah 1:5) "Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, lest I become like the Lion's prey, torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me." (Psalm 7:2-3) "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and for the rights of all the unfortunate." (Proverbs 31:8) "Rescue the week and needy, save them from the clutches of the wicked!" (Psalm 82:4) "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me." (Psalm 119:73) "Be the saviour of those who are given up to death, and do not keep back help from those who are slipping to destruction." (Proverbs 24:11) "They, no less than I, were created in the womb by the one same God who shaped us all within our mothers." (Job 31:15) "And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." (Luke 1:41) . . . . . . . . .And A Few Modern Christian Quotes"There are no ordinary people." "Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon the nascent life. The question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human has been deliberately deprived of his life ... and that is nothing but murder." (Ethics, Dietrich Bonhoeffer) "What makes life worth living is the thought of my nine grand-children, and that they are continuing this life at the point that I leave it. Yet our so-called humane society is pursuing the terrible notion that we can have too many people, that when we have the slightest feeling that a child is going to have this, that, or the other infirmity, we should kill it. For the sake of our own souls, we should stand up and insist that despite all the humbug that's talked about this and all the hypocritical justification of it, this is a society sinking in its morality and in the basis of its existence." (The Memory of a Loving Face, Malcolm Muggeridge) "The cause of so much lack of peace, family breakup, sorrow and pain in families throughout the world is abortion. Everything must be done to bring back respect for life in the womb. Jesus is in the womb." ("The Interim", November 1986, Mother Teresa of Calcutta) "We [the Church] have to face the realities of our own opposition to abortion. We need to provide much more support for overburdened mothers — personal, financial, social, and medical support — both before and after their child is born." (A New Beginning, Dr. John R.W. Stott) "Abortion is crime that kills not only the child but the conscience of all involved." (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) "Christians and others who wish to see an end to inhumanities, in compassion and love must offer alternative solutions to the problems. Churches and other groups opposed to abortion must be prepared to extend practical help to both the unmarried woman who is pregnant and the married woman who may be faced with the question of abortion. Merely to say to either one, 'You must not have an abortion' — without being ready to involve ourselves in the problem — is another way of being inhuman." (What Ever Happened to the Human Race, Francis A. Schaeffer & C. Everett Koop) |
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