Abortion: What Is a Life?

I have been watching the polarized responses to [the] Supreme Court decision to overturn the nearly-50-year-old ruling commonly known as Roe v. Wade. On the one hand people are crying out that this overturn has made abortion illegal in the United States (not true: it simply removes constitutional protection for abortions because such protection was never guaranteed in the constitution. Rather, the legality of abortion was sent back to the individual states for legislation for or against it). 

On the other hand people are praising God for this ruling—a ruling which many people felt they would never live to see. As I have watched the nation react to this decision, I have been remembering my own unquestioning approval of the concept of abortion when I was an Adventist. In fact, I saw an online article published by the staff of the Seattle, Washington, National Public Radio station KUOW which reminded me of my own viewpoint as an Adventist. 

One of KUOW’s reporters, Kate Walters, had requested responses from Seattle clergy regarding the SCOTUS decision. Interestingly, the one response the station published was from an Adventist pastor. His remarks convinced me that I needed to address this issue of pre-born life once again.

Pastor Derek Lane of Seattle’s Maranatha Seventh-day Adventist Church, sent an short article to KUOW.

Lane writes: “It’s sad because there is an assumption that all people of faith stand in solidarity with this decision. While my own particular religious denomination recognizes the multi-layered aspects of the debate, it does lean towards a more conservative stance and emphasizes the sanctity of life.

“But upon closer examination people of faith within my faith tradition as well as many others who represent a “silent majority” have long recognized another valuable and equally important aspect of faith, and that is freedom…

“As a faith-based leader and community activist I lean towards freedom because that is what I see my sacred text and values promote above all else.

“As Derek Lane alluded, the Seventh-day Adventist organization does publish a conservative-leaning statement about abortion on its official website. Significantly, this statement was amended in October, 2019, and its wording is even harder to read as a pro-choice statement than the previous statement was. What is impossible to understand in this statement, however, is that since 1971 the Adventist organization has supported two different statements on abortion: one for the public, and one for internal use by Adventist physicians and health care institutions. That internal document has allowed abortions to be done inside Adventist hospitals and clinics for decades.”

My point [is] to say that the Adventist pastor quoted above by KUOW is not an anomaly within Adventism. His personal view that abortion is an issue of “freedom” and not an issue of murder is the common view within Adventism. Even those Adventists who personally oppose abortion (and there are many who do oppose it) usually favor the position of “freedom” rather than of “legislation” of personal choice. 

And now we reach the dark secret in the foundation of Adventism that shapes their worldview and hence their understanding of abortion: Adventism teaches that humans are purely physical. They have no immaterial part of themselves separate from their bodies. Instead, they believe that the human “soul” is the living, breathing person, not a part of the person separate from the physical body. They believe their literal breath in their respiratory system is the “spirit” that enlivens their physical bodies, and when the person breathes, a “soul” comes into existence. 

In fact, this understanding is stated in chapter 7 of their book Seventh-day Adventists Believe—the chapter explaining their Fundamental Belief on the Nature of Humanity: “In Genesis:2:7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
See All... it denotes humans as living beings after the breath of life enters into a physical body formed from the elements of the earth, ‘Similarly, a new soul comes into existence whenever a child is born, each ‘soul’ being a new unit of life uniquely different and separate from other similar units’ ” (Seventh-day Adventists Believe, 2018 edition, p. 94, internal quote from SDA Bible Commentary, rev. ed., [1979], p. 1061). 

Here we find the “secret sauce” that colors all Adventist belief: man is merely a body that breathes. If, as the official statement above declares, a living soul does not come into existence until a body breathes, then abortion is just a technical decision. Adventists can ponder endlessly the questions of “viability” and “identity” and “life”, but at the bottom line, Adventism teaches that a person does not have life unless he or she breathes.

A baby in utero has not yet breathed. Oh, its potential and odds for survival increase as the fetus grows, but until it is born and breathes, it is not a soul (and note that Adventists say that humans ARE souls, not that they HAVE souls). Prior to being a soul, it is just a bundle of potential and not a full life. Thus, abortion cannot be murder. 

There are many reasons why Adventism protects and provides abortion—not the least of which is the money to be made. In addition, arguments of quality of life for the mother as well as for the child drive this industry. The ever-present belief in human “free will” is never far from their minds—but that “free will” cannot apply to an unborn baby because it is not yet alive, and it is not able to make its own decisions. 

https://blog.lifeassuranceministries.org/2022/06/30/abortion-what-is-a-life/