The Miracle of Birth

Here, we will try to understand the noisy and often angry debate about abortion. We start with the fundamental truth that the anti-abortion movement is led primarily by factions of Christians. Jews and Muslims agree there are instances where abortion is necessary, and each case must be dealt with individually. Christian factions want a universal ban on abortion so that the world will have no choice but to follow its beliefs.

Let's look at the primary Christian objections to abortion. First and foremost, the Bible states in Psalm 127:3, "Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward." Christians consider pregnancy a miracle, a divine intervention, as opposed to science or biology.

Now, look at the Bible and how those words came to be. While it is claimed throughout the Bible that God spoke to one person or another, there is no proof of this, and so far is no proof that God exists. The words in the Bible are the almost exclusive construct of men, many of them aged. They were trying to understand the universe in which they lived, but without the benefit of the knowledge or science, we have today. Ultimately, the "miracles" of the universe, the rising and setting of the sun, rain, pestilence, diseases, and all the elements that affected human life were attributed to "gods," quite a few of them at the beginning of the human belief in supernatural beings.

Over time, religion, like everything, evolved. As the masses rejected the myths of the gods, polytheism, the belief in more than one god, became monotheism, the belief in only one god. So, we were left with one God who reigned over all the myths about the universe previously attributed to gods of the sun, fertility, the dead, rain, and thunder; the whole enchilada of life became the realm of one God.

Many of those "miracles" are now scientific facts. Most people now understand that the great floods, the swarms of locusts, earthquakes, volcanoes, pandemics, and raging wildfires are naturally occurring events, not the wrath of the gods or 'The God.' We no longer make sacrifices to the gods to quiet them down.

Birth occurs around us every day as plants break through the earth's surface, and cats, dogs, birds, fish, and millions of animals and insects are born as part of our unique planet and ecology. If the "miracle" of human birth is so holy, so should the birth of all things. It seems the authors of the Bible saw the dilemma presented by declaring that human birth was unique alongside the need to eat both animals and plants, which are also the miracle of this God. They wrote, Genesis 9:3 - Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Aha! Our get-out-of-jail card for killing and eating God's creations.

Human birth is no more or less miraculous and scientific than breeding cattle, sheep, and pigs for food. We use various methods to control the size of animal herds in nature; we are talking about controlling the growth of our human population based on several factors.

We understand that we must procreate to survive as a species like every other species on the planet. I don't think anyone would advocate for killing humans for fun (although, unfortunately, we do that with other animals), and the pro-choice people are not advocating for that.

Pro-choice says that the decision to have a child or more children is up to the mother and the father if he is in the picture. And, it will be based on any number of factors such as rape, incest, not being prepared mentally or financially to raise children, the physical or emotional health of the mother, the maturity of the mother, the health of the fetus, and, we have enough/too many children.

No one is advocating for killing viable fetuses, which is medically and scientifically determinable. As a mature and educated populace, we must accept biology, science, and the physical and mental well-being of adults and children and not divinity in deciding whether to bear children. Until then, we will continue standing on opposite sides of the street, screaming at each other.