“It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3). He provides everything for our bodies; therefore, we are His. “They all wait for You to give them their food in due season” (Psalm 104:27). Above all, He has redeemed us – including our bodies in the resurrection – out of our sin & death into Christ’s righteousness & life. Therefore, we – including our bodies – are His.
Since the Supreme Court’s Dobb decision overturned Roe, abortion is front and center in state and national politics. Abortion advocates forcefully assert that women are now denied a civil right as well as essential health care. The reasoning behind this assertion is that the fetus is part of a woman’s body and under her exclusive jurisdiction. “My body, my choice” is the refrain. I am aware of the insistence that we speak of “pregnant person” instead of “woman”. This is irrational and I will not do it.
A fetus in a woman’s body is not like a kidney or other organ that has always been part of her. Her well-being does not depend on the fetus. She can live with the fetus or without it. The fetus is something new that will be in her body for a time but then will naturally depart from her. The fetus is not like a tumor or other growth that may threaten the health and even the life of a woman and needs to be destroyed. In the vast majority of cases, the fetus does not threaten the health or life of a woman. It does put significant demands on her, but she ordinarily can continue with her activities much as before the fetus showed up. The fetus is unlike both a kidney and a tumor in that it is the result of the arrival of an element from a body that is not hers joining an element of a body that is hers and becoming a body that is neither of theirs with its own distinctive human DNA and its own form and function very early on. The fetus is not part of a woman’s body. It is in her body but it is the body of a distinctly personal human being and therefore has its own rights that must be defended along with the woman’s. The fetus is not her body and therefore it is not her choice.
