Asking All the Wrong Questions about Abortion

As I have mentioned previously, I gave birth to a stillborn child.  Her name is Julia Marie. 

I was nearly 40 years old when she was stillborn on my due date.  She was full term, beautiful, and visibly healthy in every human regard, except she was dead. 

When I first went to my doctor—to confirm this pregnancy—my doctor, a woman, was required by law to inform me I had a right to have tests done to see if Julia would have genetic problems associated with my maternal age.  The primary purpose of these tests would be so that I could enact my right to an abortion if Julia would have had a genetic disorder such as Down Syndrome.

I declined to have these tests because my choice wouldn’t be affected by the outcome.  I know many women in my position have considered a baby to be inconvenient or hard to explain or even embarrassing given the 10 year gap between my youngest and a new baby.

I am not blind to the nearly 12% of abortions due to women over 35 years old.   My choice, however, would always be life.

Yes, the wrong question is, “Should there be limits on a woman’s right to choose?”

Even back in 1998, my theology was developed enough to know that the Right Question is, “How well do we see the Image of God in the unborn?”

I believe that arguing about when life begins is missing the whole point.

The Image of God is present in an embryo who IS a soul.  The Image of God is present whether the body is formed, whether the body is male or female, whether the fetus is able to survive outside the womb, will be born into poverty, was the result of rape, or is genetically malformed.

This is where good theology comes into play.

If the Image of God is what Jesus came to save and if the Image of God is present in a soul eternally, the Bible makes sense when it says of Jeremiah,

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5)

The body’s formation or viability is immaterial.  The Image of God is soul deep.

In our last Asking the Wrong Questions article (on Discrimination), I stated that “The imago Dei, the Image of God, is the intangible quality of humanity that separates human beings from the rest of the Animal Kingdom….The bodies we have today will someday be changed, but our souls eternally bear the Image of God and therefore we matter greatly to Him.”

Laws are necessary in an orderly society.  Laws are typically fashioned to protect the vulnerable from the powerful.

So, regarding abortion, some of you might think that I’m building a case to overturning Roe v Wade. 

I’m not.

Frankly, if the law could ever have succeeded in legislating and inspiring unfailing morality, Jesus could have stayed home in heaven and let us improve upon the Ten Commandments by writing newer and better laws and trusting us to be law-abiding.  Laws preventing murder and theft haven’t kept people from doing those either.  The law is weak; and one can NEVER legislate morality.

That is because morality is an issue of the heart and of the soul and of which god you serve.  Do you serve the God of the Bible or the god of your politics?

What do I want to do?  I want to have a consistent answer regarding stillborn, miscarried, and aborted babies.  I want a theological answer that addresses the worries of these women.  Do you want to know their major worry?  It’s the question,

Is my baby in hell?”

Oh, they ask lots of questions and I offer you my consistent answer on the next page.  I told you this would not be your typical article.  Read on for the real questions I get from real women who confess privately to have aborted babies.

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