Got
Questions.org: If God hates abortion, why does He allow miscarriages?
Miscarriages are
sometimes allowed by God for His own purposes. There is an important
distinction to be made between a naturally occurring miscarriage and the
deliberate ending of a human life in abortion. Although
pregnancy loss is known in the medical world as a “spontaneous abortion,” it
has nothing to do with induced abortion or abortion-on-demand. One is unplanned
(from the human perspective); the other is purposeful. One is based on God’s
authority over life and death; the other is a human usurpation of divine
authority.
A common form of miscarriage is an
ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg implants
anywhere other than the uterus. Such pregnancies cannot proceed normally.
Although the egg is fertilized and the embryo has grown to a certain degree, it
can never fully develop, except in rare circumstances. The fertilized egg has
often implanted in a Fallopian tube, in an ovary, or in the cervix. None of
those locations are designed to support a growing life, and the pregnancy will
end in miscarriage or in some cases through surgical intervention to protect
the health of the mother.
Removal of an ectopic pregnancy, even
through medical intervention, is not the same thing as abortion. An induced
abortion ends the life of a growing baby who would otherwise develop to a stage
where he or she could survive outside the womb. If left alone, a pre-born child
in the womb continues to grow and develop. Abortion brings that life to a
premature end. In an ectopic pregnancy, by contrast, the fertilized egg will
likely never develop to a stage where the baby can survive outside the mother.
The embryo usually dies on its own and is expelled naturally, or the tissue is
absorbed into the mother’s body. In some cases, the growth of an ectopic
pregnancy causes severe bleeding, pain, or life-threatening conditions that require
surgical removal of the embryo.
In this broken, sin-dominated world,
God has allowed many things He does not like. Miscarriages, ectopic
pregnancies, and birth defects are among them. Wars, natural disasters,
illness, death, crime, and all other manifestations of sin are allowed to
remain for a time. They are all part of sin’s curse on this fallen world. While
God does control everything, He still allows what He hates to accomplish what
He desires (see Isaiah 46:9–11).
Jesus gave us a glimpse into the mind
of God when He responded to a question about a man born blind. Asked whose sin
caused the man to be born sightless, Jesus answered, “It was not that this man
sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3).
In that instance, the “works of God” resulted in a miraculous healing whereby
many believed in Christ. God allows other difficult situations as well in order
to bring about a greater good (Proverbs 19:21). Since God is the creator of all life, He
alone can take that developing life without being a murderer. When human beings
interrupt God’s creative work through abortion, we usurp a power that belongs
only to the Creator (Psalm 139:13–16).
Only God can bring eternal good from
situations that are not good (Romans 8:28). We don’t have the power to do that. We did
not start that tiny heart beating, create the blood that is flowing through the
fetus’s veins, or preordain the days of a child’s life as God has done.
Therefore, when human beings induce an abortion, we are destroying God’s
creative work without His permission. However, when God chooses, through
miscarriage, to take a child’s life early, He has the right to do so. It is His
child, His work, His masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10; Mark 10:14).
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