Question
Gramps,
What and where is the scriptural basis for your contention that a person’s spirit existed in Heaven before that person’s earthly body was born? Does that spirit inhabit a baby’s body before birth or, as you see it, or does it occur when the baby emerges from the birth canal? If the spirit is not present in preborn babies, they are just blobs of human flesh that have no eternal significance. Abortion then is not a bad thing at all. The many millions of babies who were never allowed to draw their first breath are of no consequence to God. What happens to all those uncounted spirits who pre-existed in Heaven, waiting to inhabit their human counterparts?
Anonymous
Answer
Aonymous,
On first blush, your main thrust of questions deals merely with why the value of life should be placed so high. After all, if the life inside a mother’s womb doesn’t count somehow, then it doesn’t matter. Whereas if it does count, how do we know? How can we prove it?
First of all I want you to reflect on the Law of Moses. Understand that the LORD would have rather given Israel a much higher law, but they weren’t prepared for it, so instead they were given a by-the-numbers law instead. The Law of Moses was intended to guide Israel to be prepared for the higher law to be given later on. Part of the Law of Moses is the well-known punishments for adultery as well as murder. The consequence of either was death. So it would appear that the LORD viewed life as very important, both how we come into this life, and how we leave it.
Part of the reason we value life so much is because we are, in a small way, sharing in the further creative process begun from before the foundations of the Earth. God guards his powers carefully and abusing the creative powers each of us has within us is a very serious matter in his eyes.
One of our main purposes in this life is to first of all, get here and obtain a physical body. Through the Atonement of Christ we are assured that while death may separate us from our bodies, it is but a temporary thing. We will receive our bodies, perfect and immortal because Jesus was ‘the firstfruits of them that slept.’
Now to your questions directly,
(Q) What and where is the scriptural basis for your contention that a person’s spirit existed in Heaven before that person’s earthly body was born?
(A) One of the scriptures that explains pre-mortal existence is found in Jeremiah 1:5,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
(Q) Does that spirit inhabit a baby’s body before birth or, as you see it, or does it occur when the baby emerges from the birth canal?
(A) Nobody knows the precise moment the spirit actually inhabits the body, but many 
Latter-day Saints believe it begins at conception. However this question is entirely beside the point. Once a pregnancy is commenced, the most common outcome is childbirth. Any mature adult should understand this all but instinctively. Then remembering that each adult was once a helpless fetus should invoke a spirit of humility and protective love on the part of the parents, but such isn’t always the case.
(Q) If the spirit is not present in pre-born babies, they are just blobs of human flesh that have no eternal significance. Abortion then is not a bad thing at all. The many millions of babies who were never allowed to draw their first breath are of no consequence to God.
(A) This causes me to see only the cold-hearted selfishness that is unfortunately more and more common among my fellow man. Can you think of any universal condition God has placed upon us that has no eternal significance? If you can, you do not know the smallest part of the mind of God, which is unfortunate because he has revealed far more to us than that. Statements like this make me sorrow for the future generations of adults that care nothing for their posterity. Already it is present among us in parents killing their own children. I fail to imagine anything more horrifying, and yes, I put unnecessary abortions in that category.
(Q) What happens to all those uncounted spirits who pre-existed in Heaven, waiting to inhabit their human counterparts?
(A) God is a perfectly just being. All who have been obedient to Him in the spirit world, or premortal existence, will obtain the promised reward of a physical body. No plans of men or Satan can stop the will of God from being fulfilled. Which death causes you to flinch first, a newborn kitten, or a human fetus? You should flinch at both equally, because they’re both equally innocent in the eyes of their creator.
I cannot emphasize how serious abortion is as a moral issue when viewed through the written word of God. It makes no difference whatsoever when the spirit enters the body. The entire purpose of our procreative abilities is to further the accomplishment of God’s will for us all. To view them in any other light is to entirely miss the point of why we were entrusted with them in the first place. It is true there are many aspects of life that are affected by our sexuality, but none of them hold a candle to the main purpose, to bring our fellow brothers and sisters into the stage of life essential for eternal progression.
There are cases where an abortion is medically advisable, and possibly even necessary to preserve life. Even in these cases the Church gives a solemn warning that even considering an abortion in such a case must be done prayerfully and with sufficient counsel from not only doctors but Bishops as well. The tone of your comments has touched a nerve of mine that disturbs me for several reasons. My marriage and my family have not always been easy to have. My children have not always been a source of joy to me. They have been sources of worry, sorrow, anger, fear, and anxiety that only parents know. Through it all I would have never given them up for anything. I am who I am because of the family I have helped raise with my wife. I have been tempered and tested on every emotional level I could think of because of raising my children. The blessings that have come to me from the life I have lived have yet to stop coming. I cannot imagine willingly giving up any of my children for any reason at all.
Perhaps the biggest lesson we need to learn is selflessness. This world has become so selfish that abortion has actually become a debatable issue. I thought we had worked harder to provide a better world for our children. I hope that in time they can still have it through selfless decisions rather than the selfish ones being considered now.
Gramps
