Abortion and the Bible

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Abortion, the intentional termination of a pregnancy, is opposed by virtually all conservatives and devout Christians. There are numerous references in the Bible to an unborn child in the womb as a unique person.[1]

Additional passages confirming that unborn child in the womb is a person include:

  • Job 10:8, 11 ("Your hands shaped me and made me." ... Did you not… clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?")
  • Psalms 139:13-16 ("For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.")
  • Jeremiah 1:5: ("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.")

Contents

Other Passages

Some pro-abortion advocates cite Exodus 21:22-25, which imposes a penalty to be determined by the father for an accidental miscarriage caused by striking a pregnant woman:[2]

And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

This passage is taken as an injunction by God against the killing of an unborn child,[3] while others note that the punishment proscribed by God for this accidental killing of an unborn child is much less severe that the punishment proscribed for the intentional murder of another human being (as in Exodus 21:12).

It does not say who exactly suffers the "mischief" or harm; it could be the unborn child as well as the mother.

Numbers 5, where the Lord appears to give a curse that causes abortions in unfaithful wives. According to this passage, the Lord instructed Moses that a husband who suspected his wife of sleeping with another man could take her to the priest for a test that would either confirm or deny his suspicions. The test involved his wife drinking a cup of "bitter water," which consisted of holy water mixed with the dust of the tabernacle floor. If the woman were innocent, then no harm would come to her by drinking it. But if she were guilty, then she would be cursed with "bitter suffering;" namely, "she will have barrenness and a miscarrying womb."

In the King James Version, verse 27 is translated as "her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot." What this means, unfortunately, is open to interpretation. However, newer translations of the Bible, which are based on improved scholarship, give less ambiguous translations. The New International Version gives "her abdomen will swell and her thigh waste away," but adds in the footnotes that an alternate translation is "she will have barrenness and a miscarrying womb." The liberal New Revised Standard Version gives "her womb shall discharge, her uterus drop ...," which seems to attempt by liberal translators to imply abortion.

In Genesis 38, Judah mistakes Tamar as a prostitute, and orders her to be burned to death, despite the fact she is three months pregnant. The execution order was later lifted because Judah learned Tamar's true identity.

Denominational stances on abortion

The Catholic Church has always opposed all abortion.[4]

Evangelical churches are virtually unanimous in opposing all abortion.

As of 2006, the liberal General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is officially pro-choice, though maintains "grave moral concern" in regard to late-term abortion.[5]

External links

References

  1. ↑ See, e.g., Feminist Bible.
  2. ↑ New American Standard Version
  3. ↑ C. Ratt, A Christian View of Abortion
  4. ↑ The Pew Forum: Religious Groups’ Official Positions on Abortion
  5. ↑ Presbyterian 101: A General Guide to Facts About PCUSA
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