Scripture and abortion

Re “Battling abortion isn’t a holy war,” Opinion, Nov. 4

Garry Wills asks us to overlook 2,000 years of clear, unanimous tradition that abortion is a particularly grave moral disorder punishable by excommunication. This teaching is based on Catholic Church doctrine. Wills claims that doubt exists as to when a human being comes to exist. The leading texts in human embryology don’t share that doubt because they clearly state that human development begins at fertilization.

Wills asks why miscarriages and late-term abortions are not baptized or given Christian burials. He should be aware that baptism is an initiation ceremony in which a live person is welcomed into the Christian church. A miscarried or an aborted baby can be baptized, however, and can also be given Catholic burials. Reluctance of the aborting mother and the abortion clinic -- claiming that they don’t believe the fetus to be a person -- to turn the remains over to Catholic authorities controls the implementation of this practice.

James P. Graham

Agoura Hills

Wills doesn’t get it. He is simply repeating the stale arguments use by abortion proponents for years. Nuclear war and airplane hijacking aren’t mentioned in the Bible either, but we all know that they are bad. Splitting hairs over the unanswerable question of when a fetus becomes a child is a waste of time.

The real question we try to answer is how do we as a secular society reduce the need for abortions while still respecting the rights of people to govern their own behavior?

Kevin Kerr

Rosamond

The Bible does mention abortion. Conservatives don’t want to admit it. Progressives are embarrassed by its sexism. In the book of Numbers, Chapter 5, in the Old Testament, there is a detailed formula designed to end a pregnancy. If a jealous man believes his wife is pregnant by somebody else, he can take her to a priest, who forces the woman to drink “bitter water.” If the woman is pregnant by a man other than her husband, this concoction would cause her to miscarry. That’s called an abortion. Otherwise Wills is accurate.

Charles H. Bayer

Claremont