Have you ever been discussing abortion with a friend and they said, “I believe that a woman has the right to control her own body!”?
How do you respond? Here’s a response you can try next time:
A Minute for Life: A woman has control over her own body…
Dear Chuck,
I need your thoughtfulness. Do you know of any Catholic theologian who has discussed Exodus 21:22–23? There the penalty for someone causing a woman to give premature birth (resulting in the death of the child) is NOT death, but something less severe. If the unborn had been thought of as a person, the penalty would have been death.
That verse certainly shows how they prized fertility. I prefer these:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” Jeremiah 1:5
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.” Psalm 139:15-16
“With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together. Life and love you granted me, and your providence has preserved my spirit.”
Job 10:11-12