The Bible and Abortion~By Grant Swank

The Bible and Abortion

The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply
tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother
or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the
moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus
is killing a person. "In the past, some people have
mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be
in the process of formation for some time, and then
'God breathes a soul into it.' They had it backwards.
The life that is present forms matter into a body for
itself' (Joseph Breig, "Life Forms Matter," The
Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. 8).

"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn
and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay.
Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me
out like milk ... and knit me together with bones and
sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and
in your providence watched over my spirit" (Job
10:8-12 NIV).

"Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth
he has made mention of my name ... and now the LORD
says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant"
(Isaiah 49:1, 5).

"The word of the LORD came to me, saying, '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 1:4-5).

In the following passages we note that personality is
ascribed to the unborn.

"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 fully 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" (Psalm 139:13-16).

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward
from him" (Psalm 127:3).

Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a
circumstance relating to the death of the unborn: "If
men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she
gives birth prematurely but there is no serious
injury, the offender must be fined whatever the
woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if
there is serious injury, you are to take life for
life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt that
comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine
penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the
fetus? The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the
fetus within Elizabeth: "When Elizabeth heard Mary's
greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth
was filled with the Holy Spirit.... As soon as the
sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my
womb leaped for joy" (Luke 1:41, 44).

Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood
leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having
personality. In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a
person while still in his mother's womb, but more a
person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare
Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent): "But when God, who
had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called
me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in
me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles"
(Galatians 1:15-16, NASB).

"For all the talk of freedom and self-determination,
the abortion movement is at its heart a movement
denying rights to a silent segment of humanity and
soliciting public sanction, support and subsidy to its
own cause"
(Donald P. Shoemaker, Abortion, The Bible
and the Christian, Hayes Publishing Co., 1976, p. iv).

-- By Grant Swank