Information Related to "The Abortion Controversy"
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I'll never forget the day she came to my office. She had called earlier in the day, audibly upset, and asked if she could come over and talk with me. As her pastor, I naturally said that would be fine and made time for her. A little while later she walked into my office, looking very distraught with her face red and eyes bloodshot and puffy from crying. At that moment she looked much older than her 16 years. I handed her a box of tissues and sat down to hear her story.
She began telling me of her relationship with a boy at school. She had been sneaking out to be with him without her parents' knowledge, and one thing had led to another until she had very recently discovered that she was pregnant.
She knew she was too young to raise a child and her boyfriend didn't want the financial responsibility, so he had provided the money required for an abortion. Earlier that day she had added one more baby to the more than 1.5 million who were aborted that year in the United States . With tears running down her cheeks and pleading in her voice, she begged me to tell her she had not just killed her baby. She kept asking, "What do I do now?"
Although the number of abortions taking place has declined over the past decade in the United States , the numbers are still staggering. Experts estimate that worldwide between 36 and 53 million abortions are carried out every year—with slightly less than half of those being legally performed. If current rates continue, more than 40 percent of American women will have at least one abortion by age 45.
For 61 percent of the world's population, abortions are legal. But are they right? Those who call themselves "pro-choice" consider abortion to be a legitimate form of birth control and a matter that is entirely the personal choice of the mother. But it is important for us to ask what God thinks about abortion. Is abortion morally acceptable behavior, or is it a sin before God?
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