African Christian View on Morality of Abortion

Abstract

There are several medical, ethical, theological, and personal sensitive questions on abortion – a developing phenomenon across all racial groups. Admittedly, the debates over its morality and verdicts are complex. Notwithstanding the complexity and the numerous sensitive questions surrounding its morality, it has been observed that some women practice abortion regardless of their religious and cultural affiliations. Perhaps, there must have been a gap which may have been serving as grounds for the practice of abortion among women without considering the rights of the foetus. This study seeks to find out the rightness or wrongness of the phenomenon, viewed from African Christian perspective. The study blends ethical and theological methods and a qualitative technique in the analysis. The findings are that even though women have the rights to commit abortion, regardless of the rights of the foetus, they should exercise those rights and make the choice before conception, and not after. This is because once they conceive, the child has independent rights both before and after birth. The study recommends that pregnant women should not take it upon themselves to end the lives of the unborn. Those who are seeking abortion are to be encouraged to consider other options such as giving birth and giving out the babies for adoption. This work fills the gap between African Christian and secular views on the morality of abortion. Keywords: foetus, abortion, morality, murder.