The views on abortion vary significantly in terms of income, religion, education, and race. Most studies have focused on the relationship between abortion and religious and overall attitudes towards abortion. Arguments against abortion have shown that the religious community is likely to scrutinize women for having an abortion (Thomas, 2016). The religious community is strongly opposed to abortion. For instance, Conservative Protestantism and Catholicism over the years impacted the practices and attitudes towards abortion which has arguably put the use of contraceptive under debate. Such groups often disapprove abortion as result of ‘soft’ reasons like viewing abortion as a form of individual choice, instead of “hard” reasons like `physical harm to fetus (Hess, 2009). Evidently, there is a convergence between the Protestants and the Catholics in relation to their attitudes towards abortion.
Majority of the researchers have focused on Taiwan as the ideal case to test the religious attitudes and abortion (Chevrette & Abenhaim, 2015). A study carried out by Zhai & Yu (2007) showed that there is no impact of religion on the possibility of abortion among the married women in Taiwan. However, there exists an impact on religion on attitudes towards abortion. While controlling for the socio-demographic factors which include but not limited to age, wealth, levels of education, and the marital statuses, Protestants generally are more likely to hold conservative perspective against abortion. According to Hess (2009), Conservative or Pentecostal churches and the growing mainline churches have been shown to apparently hold evangelical views. Majority of the emerging religious movement sect such as the YGD tends to show more conservative attitudes towards abortion.
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Conservative Protestants and the rising New Religious Movement (YGD) in Taiwan, for instance, have been shown to share universal characters, for instance, stressing on family morality, holding stronger religious values and religious community that emphasizes on the traditional family principle while fighting against abortion. However, the majority of the Taiwan Catholics have not shown stronger attitudes linked to conservative perspective on abortion than traditional groups (Zhai & Yu 2007).
Among all religious communities, it is believed that increasing tolerance of killing is wrong. Studies have it that allowing abortion is ultimately legalizing murder. Further, making the act of killing legal will apparently reduce people’s respect for life (Rubin & Babbie, 2007). For instance, a Judeo-Christian tradition for many years has continued o value human life and cherishes the unborn. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus and John the Baptist ‘greet’ one another while in the wombs of their mothers. Verse 41 of the first chapter says: “It happened when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Thus they have developed negative attitudes towards abortion and do not advocate for any form of abortion since they hold onto the belief that life is highly valuable and no one has the right to take it away (Frant, 2014).
From a Buddhist perspective, abortion is murder, an act which should never be condoned. According to Hess (2009), it is wrong to reduce the society’s respect for life because it might result in rising rates of murder euthanasia or even genocide thus making abortion or killing wrong. Abortion or killing should thus be illegal, just as murder is to avoid possible consequences that might emerge as a result of legalizing abortion including euthanasia. One would question why the world believes that it is very tolerable to destroy an unborn infant particularly the most sensitive phase of development. It is critical to have measures in place that would counter abortion and ensure that the unborn children have same legal rights as an adult (Cockrill et al, 2013).
In conclusion, based on religious attitudes towards abortion, it is evident that the communities have held negative attitudes towards abortion and believe that abortion is wrong. The essay has established that abortion is wrong because the act ends precious life and religious community is more likely to scrutinize women for abortion. Based on the above analysis, it is clear that abortion is morally wrong based on religious views because it inflicts pain and destroys life.
- Chevrette, M., & Abenhaim, H. A. (2015). Do state-based policies have an impact on teen birth rates and teen Abortion rates in the United States?. Journal of pediatric and adolescent gynecology, 28(5), 354-361.
- Cockrill, K., Upadhyay, U. D., Turan, J., & Greene Foster, D. (2013). The stigma of having an abortion: development of a scale and characteristics of women experiencing abortion stigma. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 45(2), 79-88.
- Franț, A. E. The Social Consequences Of The Legal Regime Of Abortion: A Comparative View. EDITORIAL BOARD, 127.
- Hess, R. F. (2009). Healing After Abortion: A Search for Forgiveness. Journal of Christian Nursing, 26(3), 154-158.
- Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. R. (2016). Empowerment series: Research methods for social work. Cengage Learning.
- Thomas, D. (2016). Better Never to Have Been Born. Journal of Religious Ethics, 44(3), 518- 542.
- Zhai, J., & Yu, W. (2007). Impact of religion on the attitudes toward abortion and contraception use in contemporary Taiwan. In annual meeting of the Population Association of America, New York.
