Imagine a girl, trembling hands pressed to her stomach. She's almost three months along in her pregnancy, and she will be starting to show soon. What will her fiancé do? What could he possibly do? This isn't their child. They never came together. She wonders how on earth she can possibly explain it to him. How can she? He will never understand.
She lives in Israel, 1 BC. Back then, unwed girls found to be with child were stoned according to the law.
If abortion had been around back then, would she have taken advantage of it?
It would make sense, right? What right did this pregnancy have to destroy her hopes and dreams? She would never be able to marry the man she loved. At best, he would send her away privately so as not to cause a scene. At worst, he would pick up a stone. She knew he loved her. She knew he wouldn't be able to pick up that stone. But still, he was a righteous man. This pregnancy would drive an inseparable rift between him, because he wouldn't be able to understand that she had been anything other than unfaithful to him. He would send her away, privately. And permanently.
But what if an abortion could make that rift disappear? What if she could still have his love, if she would but terminate the pregnancy?
Is this the life she would be forced to live if not? Was she destined for isolation and shame because of this unexpected pregnancy? Would her family disown her? Would they forget she ever existed, or at least pretend she never existed? Could she possible support herself and a baby? How would she?
Abortion could take away the insecurity. It would provide safety for her. It would make all the questions go away.
What if her fiancé, Joseph by name, learned she was pregnant, but had that third option other than stoning her or sending her away? Wouldn't he love her enough to urge her to get the abortion? Wouldn't that be what's best for all of them? After all, who could trust that his fiancé had really seen an angel? People had hallucinations all the time--a matter of dehydration, or a really bad lunch. Could this angel have been a hallucination, especially given its bizarre message about a virgin birth?
Yes, an abortion certainly would make sense in this case, wouldn't it?
So who would have blamed Marry for aborting the greatest unplanned pregnancy of all time?
Would you have?
Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!“And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”
Luke 1 39-45
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