What is abortion? This is an artificial termination of pregnancy. As a rule, a woman decides to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy, that is, when she learns about it and decides that this pregnancy is not desired. How does the church view abortion? Is abortion allowed by the church or not? The first thought that arises when asked this question is that the church has a negative attitude towards abortifacient intervention in the female body. Is this so and what does the church really think about this?
Abortion - a sin or not and can it be redeemed?
It is widely believed that the basis of life lies in conception. However, neither medicine, nor the Bible, nor various religions, nor legal traditions support this position. Some high priests (for example, Tertullian) had a negative attitude towards abortion. At the same time, in early Christianity, it seems that abortion was not mistaken for murder.
In the 13th century, Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas noted that the soul enters the body of a boy 40 days after conception and 80 days later into the body of a girl. This formed the basis of church teaching that was followed for many centuries: abortion was not considered a mortal sin.
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The decree of Pope Pius IX, issued in 1869, gives rise to a new belief: life begins at conception. It contains a provision that anyone who terminates a pregnancy at any time will receive the punishment of being excommunicated.
In English common law, abortion was permitted until “rebirth”, that is, until the first fetal movements were detected, which is approximately 5 months. Likewise, there was no significant regulation of the problem in the United States until the mid-1800s. Around 1900, the first abortion laws began to appear, but the main reasons were the potential for injury and death in the work of low-skilled doctors, and the struggle of opposing factions for the right to control the practice of medicine.
Is abortion considered a sin? Yes, his sin is that the unborn child is deprived of the life of its mother. But he is completely defenseless and cannot prevent this in any way. These are frightening images of a child dying, never being able to see this world, and never being able to see it again. Also, conceiving a child is a gift from God. Consequently, killing a fetus becomes a sin that can be compared to taking the life of an already born person.
Abortion becomes a heavy burden for women. It is often said that unborn children who are killed dream of their mothers. Meanwhile, after a while, women come to the conclusion that if they had the opportunity to act differently at the decisive moment, they would not have accepted an abortion.
This sin requires atonement. Children have pure souls, and killing them is a terrible crime. Only sincere repentance will allow you to embark on the path of redemption.
Attitude of the Orthodox Church
One of the few healthy forces in our society actively, consistently and steadily fighting this danger is the Orthodox Church.
She does not share the opinion of some medical and political figures who speculate on the concept of “zygote”. But contrary to them, it teaches that from the moment of conception a new person is conceived.
Therefore, the forcible removal of this human fetus at any stage of its development is nothing more than murder, with all the ensuing consequences.
By the way, until recently, in many Christian countries, abortion was considered not only a spiritual sin, but also a criminal offense.
Public opinion
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Along with the position of the church, some activists who proclaim the possibility of choice have a different opinion. They recognize a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy as part of the right of her own choice, devoid of any legal restrictions. Moreover, abortion is not fundamentally different from other forms of birth control.
Activists say that if abortion is legal, it is not forced. However, their position does not take into account the fact that most of the legislation passed arose from moral issues, and there is quite a long history of them morally opposing abortion and regulating its practice at the legislative level.
Part I
Everywhere we hear the word “peace”, but it is a lie. This is disgusting hypocrisy. This is one of the bestial grimaces of the modern civilized world. There is a war going on around us, incessant and cruel, where there is no truce or ending, where there are no victors and vanquished, but only executioners and their victims. This war has engulfed the whole world, but with particular force are those countries that are proud of their civilization, culture and progress.
This is war - an inhumane, methodical slaughter, a genocide without precedent or comparison in human history. This is a war of parents against their own children. This is a war where blood flows, where murder is accompanied by torture.
And this massacre, which annually claims many tens of millions of victims, with the hypocrisy inherent in modern man, for some reason is not called by its real name - the massacre of the innocent and defenseless, sadism, the legalized right to murder and crime, but is hidden and disguised by the vague and shamelessly hypocritical term abortion , i.e. “throw it out”, as if it were about unnecessary rubbish that is thrown out of the house into a garbage heap, and not about a living being, not about a child.
In the former Union, 7–8 million abortions were performed annually, only registered in medical institutions. The number of secret abortions cannot be counted at all. The Second World War claimed a huge number of victims, but on average, over the same time, there were much more children killed by their parents than soldiers killed at the front.
This dark side of modern humanity clearly proves that civilization has become an escalation of cruelty.
We hear calls for peace, but around us the bloody massacre not only continues, but is also growing, which in the number of victims has surpassed the invasion of the Huns and Mongols, the atrocities of Tamerlane and Batu, and in cruelty surpasses the tyrants and executioners in concentration camps and dungeons.
There are more victims from this invisible war than from all wars combined, from all murders and executions. This crime crosses out every, not only Divine institution, but also human right.
From the moment of conception, a living organism is formed that carries within itself the full potential of the human personality. The complex and appropriate reactions of the fetus to the environment have been experimentally proven. This is a being that experiences pain and has a desire for life.
The legalization of abortion overthrows all moral and legal codes whose purpose is to protect the human person.
Our first conclusion: the fetus as a human person needs protection, the fetus as a human person cannot be destroyed.
There is no fundamental difference between fetal murder and other types of murder. The right or non-punishment of abortion gives parents the right of a tyrant, which does not belong to any person, who can, at his own discretion and arbitrariness, keep alive or kill his subjects.
The impunity of abortion, the absence of moral and legal laws to protect the fetus and its inalienable right to life make all declarations to protect human dignity and freedom hypocritical and meaningless.
Killing a defenseless person is the most vile and vile type of murder,
therefore, people who decide to kill a defenseless baby can, under certain circumstances, commit any other crime. The aphorism of ancient judges said: “It is better to acquit 10 guilty people than to punish one innocent one.” And here an innocent person is punished by death, and a sadistic execution at that - he is torn to pieces alive.
Previously, they did not extend a hand to the executioner, they did not sit at the same table with him, and modern executioners - parents who kill children, and doctors, who, perhaps unknowingly in this case, become professional killers, are not condemned by public opinion. This means that the whole society participates in the killings. The duty of a doctor is to provide assistance even to the enemy. Now he becomes like an assassin.
The murder of infants is a crime against Divine and human law, against the very idea of family and marriage, against human nature itself, against one’s people and all humanity. Killing children is a bundle of selfishness, cruelty, cowardice and hypocrisy.
- The family, according to Christian teaching, is a small home church; abortion turns her into a gang of robbers.
- A family is mutual assistance and a community of rights in temporary and eternal life, but here people push each other to crime, to moral destruction: instead of friendship and mutual assistance, they treat each other worse than any enemies.
- Family is mutual love. Is it possible to love the killer of your child, even if both spouses are guilty of this?
Crime and human blood never unite, but only separate, which is why the number of abortions and divorces correspond to each other. The murder of a baby profanes the complex, multifaceted relationship between spouses, reducing them to sex alone, which can give neither happiness nor warmth, to the cult of pleasure, in which there is something cruel and ugly.
It has been proven that children inherit not only physical properties, but also certain mental qualities of their parents. The emotional life of parents is reflected in heredity and passes on, in the form of predispositions, to their children.
Parents who decide to kill their child have already introduced into their genetic pool a predisposition to murder, which will burden the psyche of future children, and sometimes the mental property is transmitted not directly, but through generations. Therefore, parents who decided to kill their child committed a crime not only against him, but also against the children whom they left alive.
Parents who have passed on to their children the potential for cruelty and subconscious desire to kill often become victims of their children's cruelty themselves, and wonder where they think such injustice comes from?
For a Christian, the murder of infants is revealed not only as a moral fall and degradation of man, but as a terrible spiritual abyss.
The Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill.” This commandment is an indispensable condition for man’s union with God. If a commandment is violated, the union is dissolved by the person himself, he is left without God...
In Carthage there was an idol named Moloch. It was made of copper and silver. A fire was lit inside it; the metal became hot, then the children, who were voluntarily brought by their parents, were placed on the outstretched hands of the idol. Killing a child was considered the ultimate sacrifice to a demon.
To drown out the moans and cries of the children, the priests played musical instruments, sang and danced. Moloch was considered the deity of wealth. And now children are sacrificed to this demon of wealth (pleasure) and hedonism.
Some make excuses and say: “We had abortions out of necessity.” But there is a paradox: the poor have larger families than the rich. The psalmist David explains the extermination of the Canaanite tribes as God's punishment for human sacrifices.
In the witchcraft and magical rituals of the Middle Ages, the culmination point was the murder of a baby,
therefore, from a mystical point of view, abortion can be viewed as demon worship unconscious to people, as a worldwide hecatomb (mass murder) in honor of the goddess Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and death, who is depicted entwined with snakes. This is the unconscious calling of a demon - and the demon is inseparable from such people.
Attitude of Christianity today
The first argument for Christianity's position on abortion is:
- rape situations;
- incest
A child conceived for the above reasons may be placed for adoption into a loving family that cannot have just one child. The child can also be raised by his mother. After all, he wasn't really to blame for anything, so why should he be held responsible for the bad actions of his male parents?
The second argument stems from the frequent question about the danger to the mother's life and the possibility of having an abortion to save her. It is quite difficult to answer this question. First, it should be remembered that this situation occurs quite rarely (less than 0.1% of cases). At the same time, most women resort to abortion not to save themselves, but to create comfort.
Second, God can save the life of a woman and her child regardless of the medical diagnosis. Therefore, the solution to the problem depends on the man, the woman and the Lord. A couple experiencing such difficulties should pray to God for wisdom (James 1:5) about what He wants and what they should achieve.
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More than 95% of abortions are performed by women who simply do not want to have children. Less than 5% are cases of rape, blood or poor maternal health. However, even with such reasons, you should not put abortion in the first place, you should not consider it as the only way out of the situation. A person already lives in the womb and it is worth giving him the opportunity to be born.
Christian believers and society do not take a clear position. There is also no single decision in which cases abortion is permitted.
Public opinion polls were conducted about their attitude towards abortion. The results look like this:
- 28% support the legalization of abortion, regardless of the reasons that led to it;
- 17% support the position that abortion is illegal regardless of the circumstances;
- 54% say abortion should be allowed for a list of reasons.
Infanticide
Of course, every woman has the right to independently decide what to do. But I would not advise anyone to take such a sin on their soul.
There are abortion methods that are very dangerous. These are home abortions. Such manipulations are mainly carried out at home, without the supervision of medical personnel. Women try to get rid of the child on their own, scraping out the fetus on their own. It is very difficult to imagine this.
However, home abortion is very popular. Especially among underage girls. This can be explained quite simply. Girls have intimate relationships with boys without using any means of contraception. The result is pregnancy. Parents don’t want to talk about this, and they won’t be able to go to a specialized medical institution. To have an abortion on a minor girl, parental consent is required. This means that parents will have to tell about the pregnancy. But the girls are afraid of this. They are at an age when they are not yet psychologically ready to become mothers. All this pushes them to rash actions, mainly to self-abortion at home, which is fraught with dire consequences.
Abortion under the supervision of a doctor is dangerous even for an adult woman, let alone a girl who wants to have an abortion on her own.
From all this we can conclude that parents should better monitor their children and conduct conversations about means of protection during sexual intercourse. And if a girl does become pregnant, she should not be afraid to admit it. This means that it is necessary to build trusting relationships with children.
Women who decide to get rid of a child are interested in what kind of abortion to have and how safe it will be. They often turn to me to review the situation and seek advice. I can answer that there is no need to have abortions at all.
Firstly, killing a child is a sin for which you will have to pay if you do not pray for it. Secondly, the consequences of abortion can greatly affect later life. Therefore, I do not advise anyone to kill their own child, because even saying it is scary, let alone doing it.
The dangers of abortion for women's health
Unfortunately, the awareness of the female population about abortion is quite low. As a rule, this is limited to the knowledge that the basis of abortion is aspiration or curettage of the fetus. However, not everyone knows that abortion is one of the most common causes of death for women.
Termination of pregnancy has a strong negative impact on a woman’s health, since from the first days of pregnancy the body begins to restore itself, in particular, this applies to both the nervous and hormonal systems. As a result, abortion leads to severe hormonal imbalances and nervous breakdowns that affect the entire body. In turn, hormonal imbalances can lead to disruption of reproductive function and the menstrual cycle. With each abortion, the chances of conceiving and having a child decrease rapidly. In addition, there is a risk of exacerbation of inflammation of the genital organs.
Disorders of the menstrual cycle may consist in the fact that menstrual flow will become less and less frequent and will be scanty, or, on the contrary, it will come more often and abundantly. Also, menstruation may stop altogether or cause uterine bleeding. Your period may become much more painful. About 12% of women who had an abortion experienced such negative consequences. Most often they occur as a result of scraping.
The negative consequences of abortion also affect the development of thyroid diseases, which also affect the entire body.
The adrenal glands also suffer from miscarriages: metabolism is disrupted, the production of male hormones begins in large quantities, which can be observed both externally and psychologically (in particular, the woman will become unstable from stress.
The pituitary gland is also susceptible to the negative consequences of miscarriage, and this can lead to disruption of the reproductive system and infertility.
A greater degree of dangerous consequences of abortion is typical for women who do not have children. Since with the onset of pregnancy the female body begins to restore itself, the reverse process may not follow immediately. If an abortion is performed by a woman who has already given birth, the adjustment may take three to four months. In this case, a woman who has not given birth will need a year or more.
In addition, in 25 out of 100 cases, abortion during the first pregnancy leads to infertility. With this in mind, it is very important to carefully choose the clinic where you will have your abortion.
To church after an abortion
Does the Church forgive abortion? It really depends on the situation. First of all, it should be noted that the church does not subsequently reject such women. They must repent through prayer and participation in the so-called saving Sacraments. If during pregnancy a serious threat to women’s health arises and it is necessary for medical reasons to terminate such a pregnancy, the church shows its leniency in this situation. The likelihood of receiving leniency is especially high if this woman already has children.
In any case, a woman must go to confession after an abortion. The fight against abortions, which are committed due to a woman’s lack of finances and social protection, should be waged more actively in our society, because this can truly be called a problem.
Prayer before abortion
A conspiracy can relieve psychological stress and ensure a successful abortion, free from negative karma.
Forgive me, Lord, for my deeds. Forgive me, and may you, my fruit, not become a man. You will not have your own destiny, and the soul will not be able to incarnate in you.
Lord, be my witness when performing this therapeutic action and save me from serious complications and moral and physical consequences after this. Protect me from the judgment of people and the dissatisfaction of loved ones and give me the opportunity to become a mother again when I am ready for this and under favorable circumstances. And now I am going for an abortion and doing it deliberately, so as not to paralyze the life of either me or my potential child, because now is not the time for me to give birth.
Take this guilt away from me, Lord, and spare the one who caused my pregnancy and abortion. Do this, Lord, so that we can feel good and calm in the future, so that over time we can afford to give birth to a healthy and strong child. Our destinies and the threads of time are in your hands. Save us from illnesses, problems, mistakes and evil. Make us happy and forgive us...
Hantaa ular.
Prayer of a girl who had an abortion
Women can say several prayers after an abortion.
A woman's prayer for the lost souls in her womb:
Remember, Lord of man, the souls of the dead slaves of your children, who in the womb of Orthodox mothers died accidentally from unknown actions, or from difficult childbirth, or from some kind of carelessness, or were deliberately spoiled and therefore did not receive Holy Baptism. Baptize them, Lord, in the sea of Your mercies and keep Your inexpressible mercy, and I, a sinner (name), who killed the child in My womb, forgive and do not deprive Your mercy. Amen.
Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Open the doors of mercy to us, Most Holy Theotokos, hoping in You that we will not perish, but will be able to get rid of your problems, you are the salvation of the Christian people. Rejoice, Mother of the One Creator, Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ! Be an intercessor on the day of terrible trial, when I appear to the throne of the immaculate judge, as if I were freed from the fiery intercession of torment by your prayers, or blessed one. Most Holy Theotokos, save us!
Call to the Lord:
O Teacher, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God! Your kindness of your goodness for us and for our salvation was clothed in flesh, was crucified, buried and renewed our corrupted nature with your blood, accept my repentance of sins and listen to my words: I have sinned, Lord, in Heaven and before You, in word, in deed , body and soul, and the thoughts of my mind. Thy commandments have been broken, I have disobeyed thy command, I have angered thy kindness, my God, but since thy creation is such, I do not despair of salvation, but I come boldly to thy infinite grace and pray: Lord! in repentance, give me a broken heart and accept me, pray and think carefully, give me tears of tenderness, Lord, let me, by Your mercy, start a good start. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, the fallen one, and remember me, your sinful servant in your kingdom, now and forever, forever and ever. Amen.
- Prayer for murdered children;
- Read here a prayer for the birth of a healthy child;
- The 10 commandments of God and the 7 deadly sins - https://bogolub.info/10-zapovedej-i-7-grexov/.
How to atone for the sin of abortion
Is the sin of abortion forgiven? How to redeem? This requires confession and appropriate repentance, which will be prescribed by the priest. It is important to know that no “abortion prayer” will automatically remove sin.
It will also help to atone for sin if the woman still has a child: “the woman .. will be saved through pregnancy if she continues in faith, love and holiness with chastity” (1 Tim. 2: 14-15). If this is not possible due to age, adult children (if any) should be warned about the abortion.
Forgiveness of the sin of abortion also comes as a result of the suffering that begins to accompany those who decide to do so: speech about loneliness, absence of children, family problems, difficulties in raising children, their loss, mental and physical health disorders, poverty.
Another way of redemption is found in the Epistle of the holy Apostle James: “Whoever turns a sinner from the wrong path will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). And again: “Save those on death row, and will you really give up those sentenced to murder?” (Proverbs 24:11).
