What About Rape, Incest, and Life of the Mother?

How should Christians think about these tragic cases?

Rape and Incest

Well, let’s start with the rape and incest exceptions. There are two truths that must guide our thinking in this area.

An unborn baby, regardless of how he or she was conceived, is a person made fearfully and wonderfully in God’s image right from fertilization.

1. An unborn baby, regardless of how he or she was conceived, is a person made fearfully and wonderfully in God’s image right from fertilization.
2. We live in a broken, fallen world, and there are lasting consequences that befall innocent victims because of the evil of others.

Rape and incest are horrifying sins that have lasting consequences (and so is murder too)—but a baby that is conceived in that way is still a person right from fertilization. He or she does not cease to be a person because the father was a violent criminal. That baby’s life still matters, and while the rapist should be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law, the innocent baby does not deserve the death penalty because of the father’s sin. So do we have the right to murder a person?

Life of the Mother

And when it comes to the life of the mother being at risk, again, we live in a broken, groaning world, and in rare cases this does happen where a mother’s life is in imminent danger and both mother and child cannot be saved (again, this is very rare). In such cases, again, there are biblical principles to guide us.

1. Both mother and baby are people made in God’s image and are of infinite value.
2. We live in a fallen world and tragedy does happen.

To use rare, medically necessary, and horribly tragic circumstances to justify abortion on demand is disgusting.

In these extreme cases, doctors and parents have heart-wrenching decisions to make, but such decisions are very different from elective abortions and generally do not even fall into the same category (e.g., when an early delivery may be attempted rather than a violent abortion procedure). To use rare, medically necessary, and horribly tragic circumstances to justify abortion on demand is disgusting.

This Needs to Be Said

With the election looming next week, abortion has been increasingly in the news, and while many Christians understand the evil of abortion, they struggle with the “exceptions.” I recently filmed a short video giving my answer. I encourage you to watch and share.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.