Introduction
The abortion debate as complicated, delicate, dicey, controversial and intense as it may be in modern times has been as old as humanity. There have been no easy ways out of this subject in the context of arriving at consensus agreement that the abortion act is morally justified, this is because of the huge disagreements to fundamental questions like when does personhood begins and if the fetus in the woman is a human person or not. “Christian experts in various fields, such as theology, biblical studies, ethics, and philosophy, have protracted disagreements over this question”. Significantly, abortion arguments are perceived as one of the most moral and legal problems of our time especially because of the endorsement it has in some countries that are not only heavily populated but because their economic might and strength determines also the economy of some other countries.
Charles Belinger capturing and re-echoing the thoughts of John Rawl on the abortion argument in his work stated that “it is wrong to use religious arguments within the abortion debate…for religious people to object to the legitimacy of legalized abortion, would mean attempting to impose by force their own comprehensive doctrine that a majority of other citizens who follow public reason, not unreasonably, do not accept.” Consequently, “…morality and legality of the practice of abortion in the twentieth century is not an easy problem to solve. There is no single causality and there are no simple solutions.” Central to the subject of abortion are two major factions; those who are for arguing from the perspective of giving freedom to people from the shackles of religious dogmatism and getting out of the slavery of patriarchy. And those who are against (pro-life) favors a narrative of humanity not toeing the path of violence and murder, but as moral agents have a duty to protect and save life because it is sacred, freely given by God without the consent of any man and must not be taken by mankind since they are themselves created.
In this paper, I shall be examining common arguments, speeches and proclamations of Pope Francis on abortion, reactions of people to such proclamations, and will also be critiquing by way of spelling out the limitations of the apostolic exhortations of Pope Francis especially his works on ‘GAUDETE ET EXSULTATE on abortion from the perspective of what it didn’t meet.
Key Words:nAbortion, Fetus, Christianity, Bible, Theology, personhood, pro-choice, pro-life
Christian Position on Abortion
There is a deep seated impression most of the times that Christianity speaks with one voice when it comes to the question of the morality of abortion, especially as it reflects as one of the ten commandment “thou shalt not kill.” This passage of scripture suggests that the abortion act is actually a long history and has been a subject of disagreement among Christians and other scholars who have used the Bible as a resource material for their work. However, “there is no mention of abortion in the New Testament (even though it was common in Roman society), the Didache, a Christian document dating back to the second century, opposes both abortion and infanticide, asserting “do not abort a fetus or kill a child that is born.” St. Augustine (345-430 CE) influenced by the Greek thought was of the view “that a fetus is not a person until it develops to the point where it has a human rather than a vegetative or animal soul. Hence, he seems to have held that abortion during the first trimester is not murder,” even though resonating with the teaching found in the didache, “opposed abortion because he viewed it as a form of murder.” A quick look into some biblical instances may help.
Biblical Inights and Theological Debate
One of the key biblical passages referenced in advancing the abortion debate and the subject of personhood is the birth of Jeremiah. “Pro-life Christians believe that Jeremiah 1:5 unambiguously supports their position,” “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Reflected in the work of Michael S. Jones and John B. Molinari “some think that because God knew Jeremiah before he was born, Jeremiah must have been a person (in the sense relevant to the abortion debate) prior to his actual birth… seems to entail that not only the fetus but even the zygote is a person…. because taking the life of an innocent person is murder,…. abortion is murder.” an act which contradicts the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. Arguably, a different perspective would imply that Jeremiah was a person (in the relevant sense) even prior to conception, since God knew Jeremiah from eternity past. “If that’s the case, then the personhood of Jeremiah would seem to be independent of his physical body, which leads to difficult questions about the relationship of the death of the body to the death of the person and perhaps this may fatally undermine the use of this passage in the pro-life cause.”
