What's the Difference?

Abortion has long been a hot button issue in this country.  The "undercover" videos that have recently surfaced about Planned Parenthood have added fuel to the fire, causing even staunch abortion advocates to wince at the callous attitudes shown by Planned Parenthood doctors and personnel about the harvesting of organs from aborted babies.  

I've had debates with family members in the past about whether abortion is a moral outrage or whether it's acceptable in a civilized society.  The point made by my relative was that abortion is legal.  My point is that while it is legal, it's not moral.

"Legal" and "moral" are two entirely different standards. Ideally, they should overlap, but this is sometimes not the case.  Legality is conferred by man-made laws and thus are subject to the whims of society.  Man-made laws can and do change with societal norms and mores.  

Morality, however, is derived from God's laws, which are constant and unchanging. In my opinion, God's laws should always trump man's laws. Legality does not confer morality on actions. For example, in the early days of the United States, slavery was legal.  Did that mean it was moral?  Did it become immoral only when it became illegal?  Of course not!  It was always immoral, even when it was legal.

I believe humans have an immortal soul.  Greater minds than mine have contemplated the question of when the soul enters the body.  Is it at conception, at birth, or after birth?  The truth is that no one knows for certain. An analogy may help illustrate my point here.  Let's say you go out into the woods to hunt.  You see movement in the bushes:  is it the animal you're hunting, or is it possibly another hunter?  You don't have to know with certainty that it's another hunter to be morally constrained from shooting.  The fact that it is possibly a hunter means that you are morally bound not to shoot.  Thus it is with abortion. You don't have to know with certainty that the soul has entered the body to be morally constrained from ending that innocent life.  The possibility that this being is fully human, with an immortal soul, means we should be morally constrained from ending it.