Abortion and Adoption
As Christians, we believe in the inherent value of human life. The Bible tells us that all human beings are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). In Psalm 139, we have a wonderful picture of the value and miracle of life before birth:
‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.’
It is a staggering statistic that in England and Wales there are 181,600 abortions carried out annually and estimates suggest that 55 million abortions are performed each year around the world. The law currently allows termination of pregnancy for ‘social’ reasons up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and up to full term in the case of fetal abnormality.
Terminations of pregnancy for fetal abnormality make up around 1% of the total in Britain. In 2002, there were 1863 terminations due to fetal abnormality and 376 of these were for fetuses affected by Downs syndrome.
In today’s society, abortion is effectively available on demand and the majority are carried out under the following 2 clauses of the 1967 Abortion Act:
C the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman
D the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of any existing child(ren) of the family of the pregnant woman
The recent advances in ultrasound scanning have given new insight into life before birth and have raised discussion about lowering the limit for social terminations from its current limit of 24 weeks.
This would not however have any impact on the law regarding termination for fetal abnormality. The recent case of a pregnancy which was terminated at 28 weeks, due to the baby being affected by cleft palate (a treatable condition) has highlighted possible dangers in this late termination law, however it is certainly a complex area and by no means ‘black and white’.
The sad fact is that many women suffer significant emotional trauma after having an abortion, and some are left with anxiety, grief, and a sense of loss. When a woman is faced with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, she may feel lonely and frightened. She is faced with perhaps the most difficult decision of her life. As Christians, we must be as Jesus would be. Our task is to listen and understand, to show empathy and compassion and not to judge or condemn. We can be those who provide love and support, and those who seek to provide assistance in finding alternatives to abortion.
Adoption is one of these alternatives, however it is certainly not without its difficulties. Any woman choosing to give her baby up for adoption has to go through a long, unwanted pregnancy, labour, delivery and of course the emotional recovery afterwards. She will therefore be in need of a great deal of support. It is not enough for us as Christians to offer this alternative to abortion but then to abandon the woman to get on with it on her own. Another factor to be considered is the complex emotional difficulties an adopted child may encounter later in life.
The number of legal adoptions in the UK reached a peak of 24,800 per year in 1968 – the year that the abortion act became effective. Since then, the number of adoptions has been falling steadily. In England and Wales in 2003 there were 5,354 children adopted through the courts. The fact that abortion has become more common and is now socially acceptable has in part led to this fall in the number of babies available for adoption. This trend also has implications for the increasing numbers of couples who have difficulty having a baby of their own, making it progressively more difficult for them to adopt a child.
These are all complex issues and as Christians, we are called to bring love and compassion as well as the truth, so that people in a seemingly dark and hopeless situation might find hope.
