Question
What does the Bible say about abortion?
Analysis
The texts cited for the unborn having the standing of a person
| Text | What it is taken to show |
|---|---|
| Psalms 139:13; Psalms 139:14; Psalms 139:15; Psalms 139:16 | God forms and knows the person in the womb, and the days are written before one of them exists |
| Jeremiah 1:5 | God says he knew and set apart Jeremiah before he was formed |
| Luke 1:41; Luke 1:44 | John responds in Elizabeth's womb; the Greek word used for him, brephos, is also used of a born infant (Luke 2:12; Luke 2:16) |
| Job 31:15 | The same God formed both master and servant in the womb |
| Isaiah 49:1; Isaiah 49:5 | Called from the womb |
| Exodus 20:13 | The prohibition on killing, applied to the unborn on the above reading |
The text at the centre of the dispute
Exodus 21:22; Exodus 21:23; Exodus 21:24; Exodus 21:25 is the one place the law addresses harm to a pregnant woman, and its translation is genuinely disputed. Two men fight, a pregnant woman is struck, and the outcome determines the penalty. The disagreement is over what the Hebrew describes:
| Reading | What happens | What follows |
|---|---|---|
| Miscarriage | The child is lost, and the penalty is a fine; "if there is further harm" refers to the woman, and only then does life-for-life apply | Some argue the law therefore treats the loss of the unborn as a lesser matter than the death of the woman |
| Premature birth | The child is born early and lives; "if there is harm" covers the child as well as the mother, so life-for-life covers both | Some argue the law therefore extends full protection to the unborn |
The Hebrew is genuinely capable of both, translations across the six versions we host differ, and this is not a case where one side is ignoring the text. Read the verses in more than one version before drawing a conclusion.
Other texts brought into the argument
- Genesis 2:7, where the man becomes a living being when God breathes into him, is cited by some as tying personhood to breath at birth. Others answer that a single account of the first human's creation is not a general rule about gestation.
- Numbers 5:21; Numbers 5:27, the ordeal for a wife suspected of adultery, is sometimes described as a divinely prescribed abortion. That reading is disputed: the passage does not clearly state that the woman is pregnant, and the phrases translated variously as the thigh wasting away or the womb miscarrying are read by many scholars as infertility or prolapse rather than the ending of a pregnancy.
- Genesis 9:6 and the image of God (Genesis 1:27) are used to ground the value of human life generally.
What the earliest Christians said
This is a matter of historical record rather than of interpretation, and it is unusually clear. The Didache, a Christian manual usually dated to the late first or early second century, instructs believers not to abort a fetus, and the Epistle of Barnabas says the same. This is among the earliest non-scriptural Christian ethical writing there is. It tells us what the early church taught; it does not by itself settle how Scripture should be read, and traditions weigh the authority of such sources differently.
Where the traditions stand
| Position | Summary | Held by |
|---|---|---|
| Opposed without exception except to save the mother's life | Human life begins at conception and has the standing of a person from then; direct abortion is never permitted, though treatments that unintentionally cause the loss of a pregnancy while saving the mother may be | Roman Catholic; Eastern Orthodox |
| Opposed, with narrow exceptions | Abortion is a grave wrong, with exceptions variously allowed for the mother's life, and debated for rape, incest, and lethal fetal abnormality | Most evangelical and conservative Protestant bodies |
| Restricted but permitted in a wider range of cases | The unborn has real and increasing moral value, weighed against the mother's life, health and circumstances; the decision belongs with her in consultation | Several mainline Protestant denominations |
| A matter of conscience | Scripture does not settle it, so it is left to individual conscience before God rather than prescribed | Held in parts of several traditions |
Where the disagreement actually lies
Not, for the most part, in whether the Bible values unborn life. Nearly everyone in this argument affirms that it does. The disagreement is over two further questions:
- Does the unborn have the full standing of a person from conception, or does that standing develop? Both sides appeal to Scripture, and Scripture does not use the category directly.
- How are competing goods weighed when the mother's life, health or safety is at stake? Every position above allows some weighing; they differ on how much and when.
What is agreed
| Point | Where |
|---|---|
| Human beings bear God's image and human life is not cheap | Genesis 1:27; Genesis 9:6 |
| God is involved in forming life in the womb | Psalms 139:13; Jeremiah 1:5 |
| The vulnerable have a particular claim on God's people | Psalms 82:3; Proverbs 31:8; James 1:27 |
| Condemnation is not the church's posture toward those who come to it | Romans 8:1; John 8:11; Galatians 6:1 |
| Caring for a mother in crisis is part of what the position costs | James 2:15; James 2:16; 1 John 3:17 |
On that last point there is more agreement than the public argument suggests. Christians who differ sharply on the ethics often agree that a position which condemns and does not help is not a Christian one.