22 Jul Thinking about Abortion: Where do we begin?
Let’s be honest. Just the topic of this post makes some of us uncomfortable. In fact, abortion is one of those words that can send Christians scurrying for cover. We can be reluctant to engage with the topic because we feel unqualified and underprepared. We may hear the clamour of voices on the news, and wonder what the Bible says about when life begins. We may come with our arguments at the ready, but struggle to respond to real life ethical dilemmas. Even if we feel like we have a good grasp of what culture and the Bible have to say, we may feel out of our depth applying a biblical perspective to such a sensitive subject.
It is for this reason that we are excited about the upcoming release of Thinking About Abortion: Where do we begin? by Ben and Valentina Cadoux-Hudson and Dr. Chris Richards. The introduction alone is enough to get all of us thinking…
Why do we need to think about abortion?
- A woman in church has had an abortion, but she doesn’t feel she can tell anyone. Eventually she plucks up the courage to tell you. How will you respond?
- The daughter of a family at church has been treated dismissively by her teacher after she expressed pro-life views during a class discussion about abortion. What should her parents do?
- A Christian social worker has to advise the family of a teenage girl who has been raped. The parents have found out that she is now pregnant. What should the social worker say to her?
- One of your local MP candidates supports the ‘decriminalisation’ of abortion in the UK. In her email to you, she argues that, while we all want to live in a world with fewer abortions, criminal sanctions are not the way to achieve this. What can you write in response?
- Over the last few months, a Christian GP you know has had consultations with several young women in different situations who came to ask for a referral to have an abortion. How should she respond to such requests?
The scenarios above are not fictional ‘case studies’. These are real-life conversations which either the authors themselves or people they know have faced. These – and many, many more – are the real-life dilemmas which sit at the heart of the topic of abortion.
We will attempt to address these questions in the course of our book, but we will not do so straight away. We will need to think carefully about the topic of abortion as a whole if we want to respond wisely in each of these particular scenarios. But even before we do this, we need to zoom out further to the ‘big picture’ question of how Christians should approach decision making in ethical matters – and how this differs from the approach of our society.
As Christian authors, we have based our book unashamedly on our biblical convictions. We have a readership of Christians primarily in view. However, we anticipate that other readers (followers of other religions and those with no interest in religion) will also pick up copies. Our prayer is that each reader will benefit from thinking more deeply about this topic.
If this excerpt has you wanting more, we suggest you grab a copy of Thinking About Abortion: Where do we begin? which will be released in October 2021.