From Pro-life to Pro-choice: The
Dramatic Shift in Seventh-day
Adventist Attitudes
Towards Abortion
by Nic Samojluk
The purpose of this posting is to report to you the progress made so far by me, in the writing of my doctoral dissertation thesis. The title of my dissertation is: From Pro-life to Pro-choice: A Dramatic Shift in Seventh-day Attitudes Towards Abortion. I am steadily making significant progress towards my goal, which might be reached, God's willing, before the end of this year. [This goal was reached on June 29, 2007]
Disclaimer: The display of the SDA logo above should not be misinterpreted as an official endorsement of this article by the SDA church!
Your Imput is Needed. The main sources for the material utilized is coming from Ministry, Spectrum, Adventist Today, and several books authored by SDA scholars. In addition, I would like to include your opinion on this controversial issue. If you have published on the subject in the above mentioned venues, you don't need to do this, unless you want to alter your position. You may contact me by E-mail at nicsamojluk@adelphia.net, or you can post your opinion on this forum
The Three Basic Positions on Abortion. There are three basic positions on abortion: Pro-life, Pro-abortion, and Pro-choice. You are invited to defend any of these three basic positions on this issue. Make it short, since most of the arguments pro and con have probably already been made by somebody else. I am mainly interested in documenting your position regarding this controversial issue.
My Main discoveries Made so Far. So far, I have made the following basic discoveries: The early SDA pioneers, including James White, J.N. Andrews, John Harvey Kellogg, John Todd, and even Ellen White, were definitely Pro-life. For them abortion was plain murder. Ellen White never used the term "abortion," nevertheless she stated that a pregnant woman's neglect of her health implies almost murder to the unborn child. I conclude that killing the unborn would be treated as murder by her.
Another discovery is that 97 percent of the abortions are performed for convenience. The three remaining percent is for rape, incest, congenital malformation, and threat to the life or the alleged mental health of the pregnant woman. This means that nearly fifty million unborn babies were sacrificed for the sake of convenience.
The Hard Cases of Abortion. My investigation is revealing the following regarding the hard cases: abortions motivated by rape, incest, congenital malformations, and threat to the life or health of the pregnant woman:
Abortions Resulting from Rape and Incest. Society allows the rapist to live in spite of his crime and cruelty towards his victim. At the same time, society executes the innocent, the baby resulting from rape. Is this justice?
Threat to the Life of the Pregnant Woman. There have been documented cases where a SDA physician did recommend abortion because he was convinced that the pregnant woman would die as a result of the pregnancy. Both the baby and the mother survived. This means that before making the decision of opting to save the life of the pregnant woman by abortion, a second opinion might help, and some guidance from above.
Threat to the Mental Health of the Pregnant Woman. Studies have indicated that the psychological harm to the pregnant woman is compounded following the abortion. A woman can forget the inconvenience of a pregnancy, and she can even forgive a rapist, but she will never forget having taken the life of her unborn baby. It is harder for her to forgive what she has done to the victim of abortion.
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