The freedom of the mother or the life of the fetus? - Miscarriage

Modern society is struggling to determine a moral and legal position on the issue of abortion before it is fully developed or before it is born. Some support the mother’s freedom to determine the fate of the fetus, and they are known as the supporters of the Pro Choice Movement. Others oppose this, believing that they are protectors of the fetus and that abortion is illegal and immoral, and they are known as the Pro Life Movement. The debate is raging. So raging that it has become one of the most important issues affecting modern society and even the results of presidential battles in modern countries.

Statistically, American statistics indicate that a quarter of pregnancies end in abortion, that there is one abortion for every 2.8 births, that 75 percent of women are unmarried, 32 percent are young women, and that more than 250 million dollars are spent annually to cover abortion costs.

In this conflict, the Orthodox Church must take a clear and frank position and contribute to the movement to enlighten and raise awareness among believers. It is her duty to resist the culture of death, which aims to destroy Christian culture. Orthodoxy must defend moral values and bear witness to the Gospel in contemporary society. Our Gospel is the Gospel of life, not the Gospel of death.

To achieve this purpose, the types of abortion must first be identified:

Types of abortion:

There are three types of abortion:

1- spontaneous abortion It usually occurs when the fetus fails to grow and develop into a normal creature, or when the mother is afflicted with a disease or injury at some stage of pregnancy, causing the fetus to die or miscarry spontaneously.

2- There are three types of intentional abortion:

a- Therapeutic hit: It is an abortion performed by a doctor to save the mother from a danger that threatens her health.

B- Optional hit: The mother resorts to it because she believes that the fetus is merely an extension of her body or a lifeless swelling, or to ease the burden of raising a new human being, or to avoid scandal and shame.

T- Laboratory hit: Destruction of frozen fertilized embryos. Many people do not consider this to be an abortion. However, from an Orthodox point of view, it is a deliberate abortion aimed at getting rid of a live frozen embryo. According to the Church, life begins at the moment of fertilization. Therefore, the destruction of fertilized embryos is an abortion.

History of abortion:

Human civilizations have practiced abortion since ancient times, and even the greatest thinkers in history have permitted it. Plato and Aristotle not only permitted abortion, but also approved it in certain cases. For Plato, the unborn child is a living being with a soul. In his Republic, he requires pregnant women under twenty and pregnant women over forty to abort the fetus.[1]He also imposed abortion in cases of bigamy, adultery, incest, and pre-marital sex. His conviction was that women give birth to children for the republic, and the goals of this republic are more important than the unborn. He stressed that the republic should kill fetuses or infants with disabilities, in order to improve the breed (eugenics).

From this same logic, Aristotle approved the killing of deformed children as a means of controlling and improving the birth rate. If killing children is forbidden by local customs, he calls for abortion before the time of entry of the soul into the fetus Ensoulment[2].

But Pythagoras refuted their view on the basis of his philosophy of transmigration, and on the basis that the soul enters the fetus at the time of conception. Pythagoras influenced the Hippocratic medical oath, which includes a pledge not to give abortive drugs to the fetus. Although the Stoics considered that the fetus becomes a being only at birth, they rejected abortion, because nature teaches us to raise and educate children, not to kill them.

Philo of Alexandria considered abortion to be like infanticide.[3].

Bible:

There is a non-violent attitude toward children that runs throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Let's start with the Old Testament:

A-The Old Testament:

From the Old Testament we understand that the unborn is God’s creation. The Book of Leviticus warns against offering children as a burnt offering. The Book of Leviticus says, “You shall not give any of your descendants a burnt offering that smells good to Molech, lest the name of the Lord your God be profaned. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 21:18).

Killing is forbidden in the Bible, and that is why the commandment came: “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13).

Fertility in the Old Testament comes from God. God gives the promise to the children of Abraham. “Whoever comes from your loins, he will inherit you.” (Genesis 15:4) The Lord is the one who provides offspring or prevents women from giving birth. Sarai said to Abraham, “The Lord has withheld from me childbearing.” (Genesis 16:2) Rachel cried out to her husband, “Give me a child, or I will die.” (Genesis 30:1) Jacob was angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has deprived you of the fruit of the womb?” (Genesis 30:2). God is the giver of fertility and life. Barrenness is like pain and death. God visits the barren woman, just as He visited Sarah, who bore Abraham a son in his old age. (Genesis 21:2) Jacob says to his sons, giving the last commandment in the Book of Genesis: “By the God of your father who helps you, by the Almighty who blesses you. “Blessings of heaven above” (Genesis 49:25). God remembers the woman, listens to her, and opens her womb (Genesis 30:6, 24, 32). The Book of Hosea mentions how Jacob, while he was in the womb, seized his brother’s heel, saying: “So Jacob, while he was still in the womb, seized his brother’s heel, and in the time of his manhood he wrestled with God” (Hosea 12:3-4).

In the Book of Judges, the angel of the Lord says to the wife of Manoah, who was from the tribe of Dan: “You are barren, but you will conceive and bear a son. Now, take heed that you do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything forbidden by the law” (Judges 13:3-4).

In the Book of Job, the Lord is the creator of the fetus in the womb. “But he who made me in the womb made him, and one formed us in the womb” (Job 31:15). The Book of Psalms confirms the same: “My bones are not hidden from you; you made me in the womb, and there you fashioned me in secret” (Psalm 139:13-15). Isaiah mentions the Lord’s calling him from the womb: “The Lord called me from my mother’s womb; from her bowels he made my name” (Isaiah 49:1). The choice from the womb is common in the Bible. “Then the Lord said, who formed me from the womb, ‘To be his servant, to restore Jacob to him’” (Isaiah 49:5). The Book of Psalms confirms God’s care for the fetus: “Your eyes saw me when I was an embryo” (Psalm 139:16). The Book of Jeremiah confirms the calling from the womb and the dedication as well, saying: “Before I formed you in the belly I chose you, and before you came out of the womb I consecrated you and appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).

When Elisha came to Damascus, he wept. When Hazael, the official of the court of Damascus, asked him why he wept, he replied, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will burn their strongholds with fire, kill their young men with the sword, crush their little ones, and rip open their women with child” (2 Kings 8:12).

But there is one text in Numbers 5:11-22 that is disputed, because it deals with an isolated problem: illicit intercourse. “If a man has his wife cheat on him, and he has hid it from her husband’s eyes, and her uncleanness is concealed, and there is no witness against her, and he has not disclosed her secret, and the spirit of jealousy has come into him, and he is jealous for his wife, whether she is unclean or not… then he shall bring his wife to the priest with an offering… and the priest shall put the memorial offering, which jealousy offers, on her palms, and in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse… and he shall make her swear, saying to her… ‘The Lord will make you a curse and a curse among your people, by making your hips fall off and your belly swell, and he shall put this water that brings a curse into your bowels, to make your belly swell and your hips fall off. ’”

This case had a preventive purpose rather than a retaliatory one.

New Testament:

John the Baptist: When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb moved. “As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb moved for joy.” (Luke 1:43).

The role of the virgin in preserving the fetus:

The Virgin was entrusted with the divine fetus. The incarnation took place in the womb from the hour of conception. The Virgin entered into a relationship with the incarnate God in her womb.

God’s choice of the apostles from the womb is clear in the words of the apostle: “But God in his grace chose me while I was still in my mother’s womb and called me into his ministry.” (Galatians 1:15) God’s choice remained hidden for years until God revealed it at the time He had appointed. Just as God’s purpose remains hidden until God reveals it, so God’s purpose in the fetus remains hidden until God reveals it at the right time.

So the fetus in the Bible is a gift from God. Paul says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Whoever destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and you yourselves are the temple of God.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

Early Christian Positions on Abortion:

Let us begin with the teaching of the Twelve Apostles and Barnabas who forbid abortion: He says: Teaching of the Twelve Apostles“You shall not kill a newborn by aborting its mother, nor shall you kill it once it has come into life.[4]

And the Epistle of Barnabas It says the same thing: “Do not kill the fetus in its mother’s womb, and do not kill it after its birth.”[5]

In the late second century, the defender says: Athenagoras“The fetus in the womb is the subject of God’s care. We say that women who have abortions are murderers. They will be held accountable before God.”[6]

And Tertullian He says: “Killing is absolutely forbidden among us, even the killing of a child in the womb. When the mother’s blood is taken to create a human being, it is not permissible for us to destroy it. To prevent birth is a quick murder. It makes no difference whether it takes the life of a newborn or destroys a child about to be born. A man is what he is in becoming a man. The fruit is in the seed.”[7]

Alexandrian Cleomes He considered abortion to be a crime against humanity. He expanded the concept of conformity to the law of nature. The born and the unborn are models of divine providence.

There are several important points in the writings of the early fathers:

1- The unborn is God’s creation, that is, a being, a person, and a relative.

2- Abortion is murder and a crime.

3- God’s punishment will befall those sinners because of their practice of abortion.

4- Resistance to abortion is part of the broader Christian ethic of love and nonviolence.

5- We do not find any distinction in their writings between formed and unformed embryos and between the existence and nonexistence of the soul.

6- Despite the persecution that befell Christians, they refused to consider the unborn as part of the mother’s body. Otherwise, they gave great importance to the activity of God in the womb.

7- The holiness of the unborn took on a deeper dimension in the light of Christ. Christianity believes that God became a fetus in the womb of the Virgin.

8- They rejected the deadly practice of those with defects and illnesses.

9- They used the argument of preserving embryos as a means to refute those who say that Christians are cannibals.

As for Minucius Felix In the early third century he made abortion and infanticide equally permissible.

And the message of the saint Basil The first to Amphilochius, which is sent under the form of a law, says: “A woman who takes a drug to cause abortion is considered a murderer.”[8].andChrysostom Abortionists are considered worse than murderers.[9]

Chrysostom He explains his opinion on abortion, saying: “I do not know what to call it, because it does not take the life of the one who is born, but prevents him from being born. Why do you distort God’s creation, fight his laws, follow the curse as if it were a blessing, make the birthing room a room for killing, and prepare the woman who is fertilizing for killing?”[10]

As for Law 21 of the Ankara Council It states: “It was previously prescribed in a law that harlots who aborted children or manufactured abortion drugs should be cut off from communion until the hour of death. Some have agreed to this. However, we desire that they should be treated with some compassion, and therefore we have prescribed that they should spend ten years in repentance according to the degrees mentioned.”[11]

Law 91 of the Trullo Council He repeats the same thing, saying, “Women who give drugs to abort the fetus and those who take poisons to kill the fetus are subject to punishment.”[12]

In the West, Western theologians condemned abortion, because the fetus is the work of God alone, as he says. Luther.[13] And Kelvin Consider every abortion a kind of horrific murder.

To summarize the Christian position, we must emphasize the following:

1- Christianity considered the unborn to be God’s creation, a being distinct from the woman even if he lived in her womb. (The baptism of a pregnant woman does not mean the baptism of a child, Canon 6 of the Council of New Caesarea).

2- Christianity affirms the sanctity of human life and the immorality of abortion.

3- The Church believed that the unborn has an independent personality even if he has not fully developed in the body.

4- The Church did not distinguish between the created and the uncreated, and between the born and the unborn.

Life cannot be destroyed when we do not want it or when the quality of life is lower than normal. Therefore, the Church must have compassion for the unborn and also care for women who do not want the fetus and seek abortion.

Abortion in the modern era:

In the 19th century, many countries prohibited abortion, especially dangerous abortions. But between 1920 and 1967, European countries legalized induced abortion, including the Soviet Union, the Scandinavian countries, Britain, and others. Half of the world's population lives in countries where abortion is available. Today, some feminist movements in the world have risen up to support women's freedom to decide the fate of the fetus. B. Bonner says that ancient Roman law, which gave the father the power of life and death over the unborn, has been transferred in the modern world to women. Therefore, some Christians consider these feminist movements to be an attempt to bring back paganism to the modern world. Contemporary moral theologians reject the idea that the mother's decision to live and die is legitimate or legal. In their view, legalizing abortion is a violation of moral standards and encourages irresponsibility. Feminist movements call for abortion to be considered a "sexual freedom" equivalent to that of men. True freedom and equality are achieved in spiritual union.

In the United States, the debate takes place in the Supreme Court, and evidence is presented by both sides to justify their positions. Here is what was stated in the argument of more than two hundred doctors in 1972:

“At fertilization, a new and unique being is created. Although it receives half its chromosomes from its father and the other half from its mother, it remains different from both. Within seven to nine weeks, hundreds of cells have formed and the process of implantation begins. Blood cells begin to grow after 17 days and the heart beats after 18 days. The complete cardiac system begins after 7 weeks. The report goes on to mention all the other details of the nervous system, muscles, and so on. This indicates that life begins at fertilization.”

The basic question before us has legal, political and financial dimensions, but it is primarily a moral question: Is abortion moral or not? That is, can abortion be justified morally?

What is a Zygote?

To answer this important question, we must first know the zygote or embryo. Many people ask about the time when the embryo becomes a living being. Modern scientific research has proven that the embryo grows at a tremendous speed in the first two months to form the organs of the human body. Embryology confirms that the fertilized egg divides into billions of cells to eventually form a fully formed human embryo. After the eighth week of pregnancy, the embryo has two characteristics:

1- The fetus is bouncing in the abdomen, so that the mother feels the fetus’s movement at the beginning of the fifth month.

2- The fetus’s viability outside the womb begins in the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy.

3- In terms of embryology, the fetus remains different from the mother.

Thus, embryology says that the individual exists with all its organs in an incomplete manner, although completion emerges in action, stage by stage.

4_ Although the zygote does not think or communicate, it is a being that lives in its mother’s womb.

Sperm and egg are both forms of life, but the zygote is a human life.

Arguments between pro- and anti-abortion advocates:

The important moral question is: “Does the fetus have the right to live?”

The people of choice - that is, the supporters of mothers' freedom - answer as follows:

- The fetus has no right to life whatsoever. Only the mother has the moral right to abort the fetus at any time and for any reason she deems appropriate. The fetus is nothing but a fleshy swelling, protoplasmic waste, or gametocyte material belonging to the mother.

The fetus has the right to life after the fifth month. Abortion is justified in the period before this stage and prohibited after it.

Moderates justify abortion for desirable reasons, of which there are many in their view.

Abortion is a means of birth control. The alarming increase in the human birth rate constitutes a population crisis that can only be solved by abortion and birth control.

- Laws that prohibit abortion conflict with a woman’s right to do whatever she wants with her body. They also conflict with the practice of medicine in its personal sense, as the medical relationship is a private and confidential relationship between doctor and patient. The state has no right to intrude or interfere in private medical affairs.

Abortion should be legalized for unmarried women, because the stigma is attached to young women.

- Prohibiting abortion leads to the birth of unwanted children, which negatively affects the psychology of the parents.

Abortion should be considered in cases of rape because of its serious consequences for the mother.

It should be analyzed in cases where the mother is at risk of death, or in the case of a deformed fetus, i.e. a monstrous growth in the woman’s uterus.

The response to these allegations can be done as follows:

Abortion cannot be morally justified, because it is a violation of the fetus’s right to life. Every human being, whether born or fetus, has the right to live his or her life to the full, so that human nature can take its course without anyone destroying it or eliminating it from existence.

– Abortion is a revolt against God’s work and His plan for salvation for the world and humanity. This is known as blasphemia creatoris. Since man is God’s creation, he comes into existence by divine will, and completes his life by the plan of his Creator, the fetus is God’s creation in the woman’s womb, and a trust entrusted to the parents to be preserved. Procreation is like creation, in fact it is a participation in it. Therefore, humans have no power over the breath of life, and all that is required of us is to protect and enhance it.

We must consider the fetus as our relative. Just as we must love and care for our relative as ourselves, so our responsibility towards the fetus must be filled with love, crowned with self-denial and sacrifice.

– The prohibition of murder is a common denominator among many moral and religious beliefs. Abortion is the killing of a fetus, whether it is fully developed or not. Establishing peace in society requires eliminating all forms of violence, hatred and hostility towards every living being, including the unborn child. When we resist abortion, we free the fetus from the violence practiced against it and free the mother from the violence practiced against her body.

Freedom is not a justification for sin, but rather the means by which we are freed from sin. The claim of personal freedom should not be a substitute for our submission to the will of God. In ancient times, Roman laws gave the father the authority to kill members of his family, and in this way the modern trend tries to give this right to the mother alone. In both cases there is a delusion and an abuse of personal freedom.

Justice requires defending the rights of the weak, the poor and the innocent. Therefore, vulnerable fetuses need someone to protect them and defend their rights.

- Respecting human life is our duty because every human being, born or unborn, is created in the image of God. Human life is a continuous process towards the Creator. The fetus possesses that power which, if we allow it to be completed, will lead to resemblance to God.

- Civil law must agree with divine law. Therefore, moral law must prohibit the killing of embryos, because it is the killing of a living human being.

Accordingly, we must put an end to this silent massacre, and believers in human life must seek to formulate their social and legal commitment, and raise their voices on behalf of living embryos.

{pdf=orthodoxonline-content/library/public/abortion.pdf|550|1000}


[1] Republic 5

[2] Politics 7, 41

[3] Special Laws 3, 108-109

[4] Teaching of the Apostles 2:2

[5] Barnabas 19:5

[6] Appeal to Christians 35

[7] Advocacy 9

[8] Canon 8, Canon Law, p. 887

[9] Romans 4

[10] His interpretation of the Epistle to the Romans 24

[11] Canon Law, p. 138

[12] Canon Law, p. 603

[13] Martin Luther works 45:333.

Scroll to Top