by Rachel Ogbu

If debates could win Oscars, this probably would be a winner.

This week on YNaija we will be engaging the issue of abortions from all views and though we know for a fact that in most circumstances it’s illegal in Nigeria, we would like to examine the moral question, is abortion murder or not?

It is interesting to note that the very reason people oppose abortion is also the same reason others support it, including ethical, moral and scientific but the primary basis seems to come from a religious conviction.

Community activist and writer, Eliyahu Federman said in examining the punishment for the wrongful killing of a fetus the most insightful and accurate understanding of how the bible views a fetus can be ascertained. The verses most on point when it comes to abortion are Exodus 21:22-25 which state:

22. And should men quarrel and hit a pregnant woman, and she miscarries but there is no fatality, he shall surely be punished, when the woman’s husband makes demands of him, and he shall give [restitution] according to the judges’ [orders]. 23. But if there is a fatality, you shall give a life for a life, 24. an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot. 25. a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.

Federman who says his analysis is based on a strictly literal reading of original scripture, divorced from commentary and exegesis that may prohibit abortion explains that the woman is not killed in the passage. Only the fetus dies in the encounter.

 The resulting punishment for the miscarriage is a mere fine. The Bible continues with declaring that had the woman died the death penalty would be imposed under the principle of a “life for a life.” If the fetus was considered a life then the death penalty would be imposed under the principle of a “life for a life” but since a fine is imposed it is understood that the fetus is not considered a life. From this it is clearly understood that a fetus is not considered a full human life, otherwise the punishment would be death under the subsequently enumerated literal biblical principle of lex talionis (‘eye for an eye’).

Do you think the Bible would proscribe a monetary punishment for the killing of a human being? The Bible does not even deem the act of wrongfully causing a miscarriage as criminal. It’s obvious that based on a literal reading of this passage, the Bible does not view a fetus as a full human life or abortion as murder.

It is also noteworthy that as early as Genesis 2:7, the Bible states that life begins at birth, declaring that God “breathed into his [Adam’s] nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul.” The verse implies that until Adam took his first breath he was not considered a living being.

Furthermore, you can scour the Bible with a fine-toothed comb, yet you will not find any passage that describes a prohibition or penalty for a woman who chooses to terminate her pregnancy. Not a single verse yet the anti-abortion movement continues to declare, in the name of God, that abortion is murder. It seems that God left out the prohibition of abortion or perhaps does not consider a fetus a full human life. I’ll let you decide.

Another argument holds that the first trimester abortions may have absolutely no moral implications whatsoever.. Some have described the first trimester embryo as no more conscious than a kidney or spleen. It is believed that before an embryo is developed it is a collection of human cells and does not have the right to live just because it is of the human species.

The arguments go further, referring to the unborn as potential human beings who don’t have rights. Instead pro-choice activists argue that a woman’s circumstances may override the foetus’ right to live like the right to ownership of her own body and to decide her own future.

Someone once said that if the fetus is not a person then this argument is nonsensical. If the fetus is a person then abortion is either justifiable homicide or self-defense.

However, millions of people hold that abortion at any stage is nothing but cold-blooded murder.Since life begins at conception, abortion is akin to murder as it is the act of taking human life.

Instead of abortion, many offer the solution of adoption which accomplishes the same result as abortion punishes the unborn child who committed no crime.

The Bible doesn’t call abortion, “abortion” but the Bible does address it. Consider these verses to start:

“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5).

This passage declares that God Himself said that He “formed” and”knew” the baby “in the womb… before” the baby was “born”.

“What then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him? Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?” (Job 31:14-15).

Abortion is murder, a physician once argued. “Each abortion snuffs out an innocent human life. Tragically, doctors have deceived the American public. Referring to unborn babies as “fetus,” “embryo,” or “zygote,” may be scientifically correct, but does not change the fact: These little ones are little human beings. Though called “parasite,” “blob,” or “tissue,” give each wee creature about 266 days after conception and see what emerges from his mother’s womb. It will be a human baby, not a zebra, a trout, frog or an orangutan,” he said.