DAY 17
CHALLENGE
“Catholics shouldn’t oppose abortion. The Bible never says anything about abortion or when we get our souls.”
DEFENSE
This objection supposes that we need the Bible to address the subject. We don’t.
First, reason alone is capable of establishing that the unborn are innocent human beings and thus have a right to life (see Days 70, 88, 185, 191, and 202).
Second, Catholics are not Protestants and do not have to verify everything from Scripture alone (see Day 5; cf. CCC 2270–75).
Third, Scripture contains principles that apply to the question of abortion. The most fundamental principle is in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not kill” (Exod. 20:13; Deut. 5:17). Though the King James Version and older translations use the word “kill” in this passage, the Hebrew term (ratsakh) has a more specialized meaning. Thus many modern translations render the commandment “You shall not murder” or “You shall not commit murder.”
The Ten Commandments do not explicitly apply this principle to unborn children, but the Bible recognizes that they are, in fact, children, and that they must be protected:
When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage [literally, “and her children go out”], and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot (Exod. 21:22–24).
The fact that the unborn are, indeed, children—and that we ourselves were in our mother’s wombs—comes out in a particularly touching way in Scripture, such as when the Psalms declare:
O Lord, you have searched me and known me! . . . For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise thee, for thou are fearful and wonderful (Ps. 139:1, 13–14; see also Job 31:14–15, Jeremiah 1:4–5).
Scripture also notes that the spirit is what keeps the body alive, so that “the body apart from the spirit is dead” (James 2:26). Since a living human being is present from the moment of conception, the soul is present from that time as well (cf. CCC 365).