Christian View on Abortion

Since legalization of abortion in 1973, there have been more than forty million abortions in the United States alone. Though abortion is legal, the question that still remains is whether it is moral. Christianity and abortion has long since been a complex subject with different denominations holding different views.

This is probably because there is no passage, whether in the New of Old Testament books of the Bible that states abortion is wrong. Though this is the case, the bible clearly teaches that abortion is wrong and majority of Christians hold the same views.

Judeo Christian tradition which dates back to thousands of years back has always placed great value in human life including unborn children.  In Luke’s Gospel 41:1 it says that John the Baptist and Jesus ‘greeted’ one another while they were in their mother’s wombs. The bible forbids the shedding of another person’s blood.

Consequently, if an unborn child is a person, abortion is morally wrong. Developing babies are ‘qualified’ members of the human race as such, scriptures such as Genesis 9:6, Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy27:25a, Proverbs 6:16-19 and exodus 23:7 are applicable.

The Bible also consistently uses the same world for a ‘unborn’ and ‘born’ baby. This makes it clear that the author did not recognize any different between the two. There is no special event in Scripture when a ‘human being’ becomes a ‘person’ rather she or he is a person from the start and they go through development both inside and outside of the womb. Also, according to the Bible, God knew each one of us before we were born. Psalm 139:13-16 is a good example that proves this by stating that God knew us before we were woven in our mothers’ wombs.

The major reason the Bible does not have any specific references to abortion is the simple reason it was covered completely in the commandment ‘Thou shall not murder’. Israelites clearly understood this meant killing by strangulation, sword, abortion, position and other means. As the church started to spread to Gentile cultures, they did not hold the same traditions.

Church leaders though and others consistently forbade practice of abortion based on their understanding of the Bible. Some good examples include:

• Letter of Barnabas 19 from 74AD-Thou shalt not slay he child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt though destroy it after it is born’
• Didache 2:1 from 150 AD-‘You shall not procure abortion, nor destroy a newborn child’
• The Apocalypse of Peter 25, 137 AD-‘ …And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion’

There is a great deal of variation of how the contemporary Christian views abortion. Nonetheless, there are those denominations considered to be anti-abortion while others are abortion right supporters. There is also a sizable minority that doesn’t agree with the views held by their denominations.

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