Abortion and Ectopic Pregnancy...What do you think???

Well I've been thinking about ectopic pregnancy and abortion a lot lately.  Before we started this blog it crossed my mind briefly, but I don't really remember thinking much about it. I've now had to think about it a lot, and I want you to think about it as well.

A week or so ago I was at a conference and there was a speaker there teaching about pro-life foundations and how to have a good debate and such.  This speaker said he believed abortion was necessary, and morally acceptable if the pregnancy was ectopic.  I had jotted down some good notes on his lesson, but when I heard this I couldn't concentrate on anything else (in his session or any other).  Out of the whole conference, this was the one BIG thought I came out with. Is abortion ok if you're having an ectopic pregnancy?

For those of you who don't know what an ectopic pregnancy is, let my try and explain.  Ectopic means "out of place", so an ectopic pregnancy is when your baby is not in the womb where it should be.  Instead of settling in the uterus, it accidentally implants in the fallopian tube (path of travel to the uterus) and begins to grow and develop there.  The problem is, that because it's a tube and not an expandable uterus, the baby will grow too large for the tube and then it will rupture and the mom will bleed internally until she dies.  The baby will die also.  Not all ectopic pregnancies cause the tube to rupture though.  Studies have shown that more than 60% of ectopic pregnancies end in a natural miscarriage.  This is normal and does not harm the mother at all.
   
Anyways, with this being said, I had to ask myself, does scripture say it is ok to murder your child if your life is in danger?  It is still just as much human as a baby growing inside the womb, just as much human as myself.  Would it be Biblically acceptable for us to take that life and end it?  If it's wrong according to the Bible to kill an innocent human being, then it's wrong to kill an innocent human being.  And since the baby in an ectopic pregnancy is an innocent human being, wouldn't that mean it is wrong to kill him/her?
   
This morning I got to thinking about this topic some more, and I recalled something I had seen in the clip, 180. I remember one part when Ray gave this analogy in comparison to the value of human life and abortion.  He said, suppose you are in Germany in a Nazi camp during WW2.  There is a large pit filled with dead and dying Jews.  The officer commands you to drive a bulldozer forward and bury them alive.  If you don't, they'll kill you and do it anyway. Would you do it?  And of course my answer would be, "No!  Kill people to save my life, when they not doing anything wrong?  That would still be murder!" This is my example for ectopic pregnancy.  Would it be ok to kill the baby, that is doing nothing wrong, to save your life?  The baby is going to die anyway, right?  How can I say "no" to the first example and "yes" to the second?  But, even if I do say yes to the latter, do I have scripture to back myself up?  I cannot find a verse(s) that say that God makes exceptions for murder in certain scenarios.  I find where he states that murder is wrong, and that he will punish those who shed innocent blood, but none for it ever being ok.
 
Another thing I thought about was playing God. Would it be ok to take matters of life and death into my own hands and play God?  I believe God is the giver and taker of life.  I believe that if it's His will that someone die of cancer or in a car accident when they're 8-that's His will.  He gave him/her life, He can take it.  I also believe that abortion is murder.  I believe it's selfish and that it's wrong.  So then shouldn't I believe that to kill an innocent child because I don't want to die yet is wrong?  If He decides I have come to the end of my numbered days, He is in control and can take my life.  Just because I don't want to die yet, or I don't want to die a certain way should not mean I can slaughter my son or daughter to avoid it.  If I didn't believe this to be true there would be a loop hole in my stance, correct?
   
But, then we've got intent.  I've read many articles now on whether or not it's ok because of the intent of the procedure. That it's not the same as abortion because the intent is to save the life of the mother, not kill the baby. And that sounds nice.  But then I thought, wait a minute, what is abortion intended to do?  We can say it's intended to enable a girl to go to school, or intended to ease emotional pain of rape, or intended to save the life of the mother, but are those things the true intent of an abortion? I don't think so.  Those reasons might be a side effect. Abortion is intended for one reason.  It's intended to terminate a pregnancy.  To end the life a living human being, made in the image of God.  It's intent is not anything else.  No matter what reason I could give, I cannot deny that the intent of abortion is to kill a baby.  So, if the procedure is to "remove the pregnancy" so that the mother will "get better", and the pregnancy (a.k.a. baby) is still alive, then the intent of the procedure is to abort.  To kill the baby.

If I say that it's never ok to have an abortion, even if you'll die without one, then I'm thinking this...  people (even people I know) will say "Theresa!  You mean you'd rather have your mom die and leave little children behind? And her husband?  She would never get to see ya'll get married, or graduate, or anything! Are you saying she should sacrifice being the mother of all her other family members for this one that is going to die anyway?" And I'm thinking that it sounds really harsh, that I would be for all of those sad things.  But what is worse?  Dying and leaving your family, ministry, and life behind because God says your time is up, or killing your child so you can continue your life on earth, only to have the eternal punishment of his/her murder later?

All of this thinking brings me to my conclusion.  I've decided in my heart that abortion is murder and is never ok or excusable.  I believe that abortion in the case of ectopic pregnancy is really no different than abortion in the case of anything else.  I believe that abortion in the case of ectopic pregnancy is wrong.  What have you decided?  I challenge you to think and pray about it, and then tell us what you think by commenting on this post. (Please be polite when sharing your opinion, opposing comments will not be deleted but inappropriate comments will.)

For further reading, here are some interesting links:
http://www.personhoodinitiative.com/successful-ectopic-pregnancies.html

http://www.personhoodinitiative.com/ectopic-personhood.html

http://www.lifenews.com/2008/06/02/int-770/

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_ParentingResource/baby-born-deformed-misdiagnosed-ectopic-pregnancy/story?id=15421441#.UavqGbXD-M-

~Theresa