Case study – Abortion

Abortion remains perhaps one of the most sensitive and contested issues of our time. On a purely factual level, abortion is the deliberate ending of the life of an unborn baby/foetus and their expulsion from a pregnant woman. While people feel very strongly about the issue, these biological/medical facts around the process are not largely contested.

The real debate comes around the competing rights and interests of the woman and the unborn child and in which circumstance or stage of development the law should permit or restrict abortion. This is a conversation which touches upon law and morality, bodily autonomy, human dignity, personhood and philosophy.

In our culture today, the conversation is often framed in terms of a tug of war of rights between the woman and unborn child – the pro-choice and pro-life movements. As Christians, we understand that both lives have incredible value and so we want to start the conversation in a different place.