On January 30, 2017, BBC News published an article entitled “From relief to regret: Readers’ experiences of abortion.” The article can be found here: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38775641

Notice the high percentage of women who express regret and remorse over having had an abortion. Also, note the high percentage of those who view the unborn child as a human person, rather than a piece of tissue. A basic sense of right and wrong is programmed into each human by God. “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10 NIV). This is more or less true to an extent even among those who are not Christians. Of course, it is also true that the “consciences [of many people] have been seared as with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2 NIV) after people begin to violate them over time.

Of course, if the Bible’s counsel about morality was followed, there would be far fewer women faced with such a decision. “Marriage must be respected by all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge immoral people and adulterers” (Hebrews 13:4 HCSB). Immorality between males and females is one of the main causes of unwanted pregnancies which lead so many to consider abortion as a “solution.” Males are not absolved of guilt in cases of immorality, just because the aborted child wasn’t carried in their bodies.

God views the unborn as human persons, and those who murder them as murderers. “When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born prematurely but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman’s husband demands from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment. If there is an injury, then you must give life for life” (Exodus 21:22-23 HCSB). The statement, “If there is an injury, then you must give life for life”, includes the pregnant woman’s unborn child, as well as herself, in this Biblical example.

These women’s consciences, as described in the BBC article above, are working just like Romans 2:14-15 said normal consciences would: “So, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts will either accuse or excuse them” (HCSB).