In my last post, I posed the question, When Did Jesus’s Human Life Begin And How Should This Fact Affect A Christian’s View Of Abortion? which is the second of four key questions to address to determine if the pro-choice position is consistent with the life and teachings of Jesus. The third argument revolves around the stories we read in Luke’s Gospel account of Christ’s birth, Mary’s pregnancy with Christ, and her visit to Elizabeth. When the angel comes to Mary and tells her that she’s going to conceive and bear a child, the angel also reveals that her cousin, Elizabeth, is also going to have a child who has already been conceived.
A few aspects of this story are significant to the life issue. First, Mary faced an “unplanned pregnancy” from a human perspective. She had hopes and dreams for her life and her life with Joseph. Those hopes did not include a child at this time and in this way. Accordingly, Mary’s response to this unplanned pregnancy is instructive; she chose life.
But there’s more because the angel gave Mary another piece of information that was probably not known by anybody else: her cousin, Elizabeth—known to be a barren woman past childbearing years—was pregnant with a son as well. And Scripture says that, once Elizabeth conceived, she hid herself for five months. It is unlikely anyone knew that Elizabeth was pregnant, other than her husband who could not speak. The passage ends with, “Nothing is impossible for God.”
In the very next chapter, we are told that Mary “rose up in haste” to see Elizabeth. Why would she hurry to go see her cousin? When a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy, who does she tell first? Likely somebody who can or should sympathize with her situation. Mary’s miraculous unplanned pregnancy compelled her to go see Elizabeth who was experiencing a rather miraculous pregnancy, too. Scripture tells us that Elizabeth was about six months pregnant when Mary approached her, and when Elizabeth heard the greeting from Mary, the child jumped within her. What prompted the child inside Elizabeth’s womb to jump? Jesus, of course, conceived in Mary’s womb. Importantly, this was probably only days or a few weeks after Christ’s conception. Remember, Mary went in haste to see Elizabeth.
This is significant to the life issue because Scripture tells us that both late-term abortion and early-term abortion end a human life. John the Baptist, who was in Elizabeth’s womb, leaped in response to something happening outside the womb. And he was responding to a “someone,” a life growing in Mary’s womb.
If a Christian is uncertain about the life issue, start with the question, “When did Jesus’ life begin?” Scripture makes clear when it began, but the story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth adds another finer point, affirming the presence of life in the womb in both the earliest and latest stages of pregnancy.
Importantly, none of these Scriptures mention the word “abortion,” but it’s clear that the principles speak to it directly.
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