Abortion is unethical because abortion is against religion

The argument

Religious opponents of abortion, and Christians in particular, do not rest the case on a single line of reasoning but on several that converge. The most widely held begins from the premise that human life is sacred and that it begins at conception. If both halves of that premise hold, then what is destroyed in an abortion is already a human life rather than a potential one, and the act is not a medical procedure of a special kind but a killing — on this view the moral equivalent of murder. The force of the argument lies in the conjunction: sanctity supplies the wrongness, and conception supplies the point at which the wrongness attaches. A second strand accepts a later threshold. On this account what matters morally is ensoulment, understood as occurring at some point after conception, so that abortion becomes immoral once that point has passed. Proponents note that this variant does not weaken the religious objection so much as relocate it, since it still grounds the wrong in a theological claim about the status of the unborn rather than in any secular calculation of interests or consequences. Scholarly defence of the stricter position draws directly on scripture. Scott B. Rae, a professor of Christian ethics, cites the celebration of Jesus's conception in the Bible as proof that a zygote is valued in the eyes of God, describing the unborn child as "the object of God's intricate handiwork in the womb". The inference proponents draw is that if God's regard for a life is already engaged at that earliest stage, the valuation cannot be conditional on development, viability or the wishes of others, and what God has valued should not be terminated. Taken together, supporters of the position hold, these arguments establish that abortion is contrary to religion and therefore unethical.

Context

Many people are opposed to abortion for religious reasons. According to the Pew Research center, 79% of adults who say abortion should be illegal in all/most cases, are “absolutely certain” about their belief in God compared to 50% of adults who say it should be legal in all/most cases. 73% of adults against legal abortion also say that religion is “very important” in their views of abortion compared to 37% of adults for legal abortion.

Premises

Counter-arguments

There is no evidence for the existence of God or creationism. Since we cannot prove that God exists or that he created life, there is nothing that makes life inherently sacred. It is not unethical to abort a fetus because life is not sacred and not worth protecting. Religion is not a guide for morality; "morality and a religious value system are two distinct kinds of value systems or action guides." Therefore, while religion can be used to guide an individual's idea of ethics, religious convictions that deem abortion unethical do not extend to all people.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise reports what many believers hold, which establishes the content of a religious position rather than supporting it. The question asks whether abortion is ethical, and citing a conviction does not by itself answer that. [Rejecting P2] The two premises are alternatives that give different answers, since conception and a later ensoulment mark different points. The argument does not settle when, on its own account, the objection takes effect. [Rejecting P3] The scriptural reading is offered as proof, and the counter-argument raises the step the premises skip: a conclusion drawn from inside one tradition's texts does not extend to those outside it. At most this establishes that abortion is unethical on that tradition's terms, not that it is unethical.