Abortion and Bible

Abortion is a subject that everyone has an opinion about. Some people are afraid to discuss the subject and others have very strong feelings on the subject for their own reasons. This article is an effort to see what God is trying to tell us based on verses in the Bible. The term “abortion” is a fairly new term given describe the intentional ending of a pregnancy. Therefore, the term “abortion” will not be found as such in the Bible; however, what can we learn about God’s views on the process?

From “How Should We Talk about the Sin of Abortion to Others” by Aaron Brown:

Nowhere in Scripture is abortion mentioned by name, but that doesn’t mean the Bible has no response to the topic. We know from Scripture that there is “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). That includes abortion. Is abortion a sin? This is a logical question any believer would ask when discussing the topic. Abortion is indeed a sin because of at least two passages in Scripture. The first readily available answer appears in the Book of Psalms.

“For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13)

“My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.” (Psalm 139:15-16)

Apparent in this passage, life for human beings begins in the womb. Not only that, but the one who forms us is our Father above. How then can we consider an embryo or even a fetus as not being alive, or even human? If a fetus (a stage in human development) is not a person then what is a fetus? The psalmist writes that God saw him when he was still “formless.” This passage gives us clarity on what we should consider as “life.” Another passage in Scripture tells us how to treat life.

“Do not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)

There is an important distinction between murder and killing, and that is intent.

From “What Does the Bible Say about Abortion?” from Tamela Turbeville:

The most significant debate is about when life begins. Is the unborn child fully human or tissue? It cannot be both. When does human existence begin? Science says that at nineteen days, a heart starts to beat, and at forty days, the heart output is almost twenty percent of an adult.

In God’s eyes, an unborn child is entirely a human being. Scripture also contends life begins before birth and refers to the unborn and born interchangeably. One is as fully human as the other. For example, God reassures Jeremiah, the prophet, of his importance by showing him he was known before he was born. “God knew him as fully human before his birth. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).

King David wrote about how God knew him fully before he was born. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb …Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13, 16).

When Luke writes about Elizabeth and Mary greeting each other, he speaks of the unborn John the Baptist as a baby. “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41).

To end life through abortion divides life into the unborn and born, and we learn through Scripture this opposes God’s view of both being equally human.