Abortion: A Religious Issue One of the most difficult issues to discuss in our world today is abortion. Abortion is the induced termination of pregnancy before the fetus can survive. Nowadays, abortion affects all people, not just the mother and child. There are moral, ethical, health-related, political, and religious aspects that influence how people feel about abortion. By looking at religion and its views, one can see how difficult it would be to argue the pro-choice position in this debate. First of all, I have to start with the truth: The Bible directly says nothing about abortion. The actual word is not mentioned at all. In biblical times, abortion was an unthinkable act and “there was no need to mention it in the penal code” (Anderson 1). “Children were seen as a gift or inheritance from the Lord…the Scriptures state…that God opens and closes the womb and is sovereign over conception” (Anderson 1). In this sense, “childlessness was seen as a curse” (Anderson 1). Passages from the Bible are used as supporting details because they indirectly express God's feelings on the matter. Before the birth of Christ, however, opinions regarding abortion varied. Unwanted children were destroyed through abortion and infanticide because the Romans and Greeks thought that human life was neither sacred nor inviolate (Ayd 48). Aristotle, in fact, argued “that all children beyond a quota established by law should be condemned to death by exposure” (Ayd 48). However, there were some people who took issue with this inhumanity. “Hippocrates declared that doctors should not perform or allow a woman to procure an abortion” (Ayd 48). Even though there were laws against this act, people ignored them and continued to perform the procedure as if nothing had happened. Then God became man and man was created in the image of God. The Bible says that man is not the master of his life and body, and the uses he can make of them are limited and regulated by divine law (Ayd 48 ). God's entire will is for man to know Him in a personal relationship in order to spend eternity in Heaven. This is why there is life on Earth. If a person can face the trials and temptations of life and remains on the Lord's side, then he or she is deemed worthy of going to Heaven. By proceeding with abortion, the u... middle of paper... holy churches will continue to teach that the Bible and God are against abortion. There will also be many people who oppose this teaching because of their own opinions and beliefs. No matter what people think about the issue of abortion, we must remember that the entire procedure occurs between the mother and the fetus. Both must be taken into consideration when making a decision, and it is not difficult to see where reading the Bible might lead you. There's only one thing I don't understand. Whatever happened to the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you? As Dr. Irvine Page says, “Life has a way of taking revenge on those who destroy it” (Ayd 51). Works Cited Anderson, Kerby. “Arguments against abortion.” 2000: February 19, 2001 .Ayd, Frank J., M.D. “Abortion: The Catholic Viewpoint.” Abortion: changing vision and practice. Ed. R. Bruce Sloane, MD New York: Grune and Stratton, Inc, 1971. 48-52. Bible - New International Version Schwarz, Stephen D. The moral question of abortion. Chicago: Loyola University Press,1990.