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60 Questions for Pro-Choice Christians

June 29th, 2022 | 7 min read

By Jamie Wilder

For many evangelicals, the leaked draft decision last month felt like the culmination of many prayers, tears, hard conversations, and difficult decisions at the voting polls. Now that Roe has fallen, the most vulnerable will now have a chance to be legally protected in some states and the pro-life movement will have some headway into the culture.

For many of our neighbors, the overturning of Roe and Casey is a sign of an upcoming theocratic takeover filled with fundamentalist extremism. A woman’s fundamental right to choose, which we have been told is paramount, is now under assault.

As Jonathan Haidt has pointed out, we are not getting better at debating and we have little to no tolerance when it comes to embracing tough conversations. Social media, institutional overreach into politics, and polarization are all factors, but I wonder if another contribution is something we have lost along the way.

Jesus asked over 300 questions to his friends, disciples, adversaries. He was fully God, fully man and knew full well the answers, yet he asked many questions.

With that I have 60 questions for any Christian who identifies as pro-choice. These are not meant to be dismissive, snarky, or rhetorical. They are much more helpful than calling an entire segment of people “bigots” or “baby murderers.”

1. Are all humans made in the image of God?

2. How do you think Genesis 1:27 can speak into the abortion discussion?
– And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and
female He created them.

3. Is a fetus a “potential human life” or a “human life with potential” (if you don’t intentionally end it)

4. Is the life that is being ended through abortion worthy of protections?

5. How can Proverbs 6:17 help us think about abortion?
– “The LORD hates those who shed innocent blood”

6. Is life within the womb innocent?

7. What do you think of the fact that there is entirely new, separate human DNA in the fetus at the moment of conception?
medlineplus

8. What do you think of Jeremiah 1:5 telling us that a person exists even before that person’s birth

9. Is the life within the womb human?

10. When does a person deserve rights?

11. What is an abortion?

12. Have you ever seen an abortion?

13. Do you think the pro-choice / pro-abortion position aligns more closely to a Biblical worldview than the pro-life / anti-abortion position?

14. In America, it is illegal to kill a bald eagle, carrying a maximum fine of $250,000 or two years in prison. And the law extends to the eggs of the bald eagle, making no differentiation between a living bald eagle and a pre-born bald eagle. Why should a bald eagle egg have more protection than an unborn baby?

15. Does the Bible provide us reliable wisdom on how to think about abortion?

16. Did you know that followers of Jesus have been distinctly pro-life and anti-abortion since the 1st century A.D.?
– Justin Taylor’s Did the Early Church Oppose Abortion?
– For instance, the Didache 2.2 (c. A.D. 85–110) commands, “thou shalt not murder a  child by abortion nor kill them when born.”
– Another non-canonical early Christian text, the Letter of Barnabas 19.5 (c. A.D. 130),
said: “You shall not abort a child nor, again, commit infanticide.”

17. How do you think God is most glorified through the various abortion methods? (Vacuum Aspiration, Abortion poison pill, Dilation & Evacuation)

18. What do you think your view on abortion testifies to how God views children?

19. How does God view children?

20. When should abortion be legally allowed?

21. Will you speak up for Christian doctors who are pro-life and believe performing an abortion goes against their religious convictions and conscience?

22. What do you think Proverbs 31:8-9 is commanding us to advocate for when we think about abortion?
– “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being
crushed.” NLT

23. Is there ever a situation or a point in development that abortion should be outlawed?

24. If you believe that the baby inside a woman’s body is “her body”, does she have two hearts, two sets of fingerprints, two blood types, two sets of DNA, for nine months?

25. Theologically, how do you think about abortion in light of the cultural mandate, “Be fruitful and multiply”?

26. What other instances can an individual be legally protected while taking an innocent human life for virtually any reason?

27. Do you think that referring to preborn babies as “a clump of cells” has any dehumanizing effects?

28. Do you think a society that kills over two-thirds of pre-born babies diagnosed with Down syndrome is a society that values what God values?
– The Atlantic

29. What kind of job do you think the Church has done in helping mothers in crisis pregnancies (and their pre-born babies)?

30. Do you personally give money, time, prayers to any Pregnancy Resource Centers or Crisis Pregnancy Centers in your local area?

31. Did you know practicing Christians are more than twice as likely to adopt when compared to the rest of the country?
– Barna

32. Did you know that highly religious Americans disproportionately donate money, time, and goods to the poor and charities compared to all other U.S. adults?
Pew

33. Considering the lack of basic protections in so many states, do you think pre-born babies fit the description of “the least of these” that Jesus commands us to care for in Matthew 25:40?

34. Did you know the founder of Planned Parenthood was an advocate of eugenics?

35. Did you know that in recent years, there have been (5,000+) more black babies aborted than born in New York City?
– Politifact

36. Did you know that Planned Parenthood calls CPCs / PRCs “fake clinics,” like what has been graffitied on their buildings since the leak?
– Wash Examiner reports graffiti
– What are Crisis Pregnancy Centers? By Planned Parenthood

37. Is abortion a political issue?

38. Is abortion only a political issue?

39. Is it wrong to legislate morality?

40. Is it wrong to criminalize murder or rape?

41. Does the government have any role in restraining immorality in its own society?

42. Is abortion a moral good?

43. Should abortion be incentivized?

44. What laws do you think might create perceived incentives for a mother to abort her baby rather than keep or put the child up for adoption?

45. Did you know that 96% of the 5,577 biologists in a recent study affirmed the view that a human life begins at fertilization?
– here

46. Did you know a fetus was one of the very first to rejoice at the coming Messiah Jesus Christ (who Himself was still in utero)?
– Luke 1:40-44 “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her
womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”

47. Christologically speaking, did God the Son disappear from the cosmos when he left Heaven until he was born?

48. Did we only have two-thirds of the eternal, Holy Trinity for roughly nine months?

49. Or has the Son of God always been and always will be (including conception and pre-birth)?

50. Did you know that Embryologists at Princeton published a piece titled “Life Begins at Fertilization with the Embryo’s Conception”?
– Princeton

51. What are your thoughts on recent legislation erasing the term “woman” and replacing it with “pregnant people”?
NYTimes

52. Can men get pregnant?

53. Even if you still do believe that the separate body with separate DNA is “her body”, how do you reconcile abortion with 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 instructing every christian to disregard autonomy?
– “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were
bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

54. If abortion is not a decision with any moral weight, why is there a heavy toll after such an act?

55. Did you know that experts estimate there are between one and two million couples looking to adopt?
Adoption Network

56. How can establishing God’s kingdom and will on earth as it is in heaven inform us on this topic

57. Do you think Jesus’ parable of “The Good Samaritan” can teach us anything in the abortion discussion?

58. What do you think Job 31:15 can tell us about which side we should advocate for?
– “Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us
both within our mothers?”

59. Have you taken part in abortion?

60. Did you know that in Christ you are fully known, fully loved, and fully forgiven?

You may have considered all of these questions before. You may not have ever considered any of these questions before, but they are certainly worth considering before condemning the position the church of Jesus Christ has held for a couple millennia.

In any discussion surrounding abortion, I find much hope and resolve when I am reminded of the Westminster Confession, “As there is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation; so there is no sin so great, that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent.”