An argument for Choice
The significance of my choice of title is that I am not about to present an argument for abortion of all unwanted pregnancies, for that is too black and white and as we all know, real life is not like that. At one point during my teenage years, I would have said that I would have an abortion. Now, as a Christian of five years, I am much less sure. At this current moment in my life I know that I would probably not be able to condone the idea of my destroying my unwanted child, should I find myself in that situation. My home background is sufficiently comfortable and secure that a decision to abort a baby would be one of choosing selfishly to live my life the way I want to regardless of the consequences and without accepting the responsibilities of my actions. However, my situation in five years’ time might be completely different, and then I might not be able to say the same thing, to make the same argument — every situation is different, every set of circumstances calls for a different evaluation and response.
So then, my argument is simply one for choice, for as the argument for the abortion of all unwanted pregnancies would be too all-encompassing, so equally would the idea of banning abortion altogether. Quite apart from the fact that such a decision on the part of any government would doubtless force the re-emergence of unscrupulous, even dangerous, ‘back-street’ abortions which would surely be a step backwards for society, one of the values that we hold dear as a nation is that of freedom and that includes freedom to make a personal choice in such a situation. As Christians also, we believe that God gave us all free will, to choose to obey him or to sin and to make our own mistakes.
As Christians, many of us feel that we could not stand before God and choose to abort a baby — but we should not condemn or judge those who would make a different choice. Jesus gave us commandments, guidelines for living our lives, but he did not condemn those who faltered. John 3:17 reads, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world”. Could we in all honesty condemn a woman who might be struggling to make a living, or in any other situation fraught with pressures, who might not be able to take the strain of pregnancy?
To conclude then, I am not arguing that abortion is right. What I am asking for is for us not to deny people a basic right to choice and for us to respect that choice and be aware of the difficulties of imposing blanketing restrictions on human free will.