Abortion and Christianity

The Biblical vs. Patristic Perspective

There’s a long tradition in Christianity of being ethically opposed to abortion. Because of this tradition, people who identify as Christian have a long history of supporting politicians who wish to legally prohibit abortion. In this essay, I want to look at what the Bible and the Church Fathers say about abortion in order to challenge the assumption that abortion ought to be made illegal.

The first thing we should consider is what the Bible says on this matter. The Bible is manifestly not anti-abortion. There is only one passage in Scripture that addresses the question of abortion, and it provides instructions on how to procure an abortion in the case of infidelity.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure — or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure — then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing. The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband’ — here the priest is to put the woman under this curse — ‘may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen. So be it.’ The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse.”(Numbers 5:11–27)

Now, the Church Fathers who came later certainly do condemn abortion and even suggest that it is equivalent to murder.

“You shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten.”(Didache, Ch. 2)

“You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born.”(Epistle of Barnabas, Ch. 19)

I won’t go any further into what the Church Fathers have to say on the matter because I believe what has already been said is sufficient to demonstrate the general outlook of the Fathers throughout Church history. Given the patristic stance against abortion, there is a strong case to be made that Christians ought to “think twice” about getting an abortion. At the same time, since the Bible explicitly permits abortions under certain circumstances, I think there is a strong case to be made that abortion ought not to be banned. In fact, the biblical account allows for abortion in cases of unwanted pregnancies that result from infidelity. This suggests that abortion ought to be permitted in cases where it results from adultery, promiscuity, or rape. And, it should be mentioned, that the persons permitted to procure abortions under biblical law were believers, so it ought not to be prohibited even for Christians, though perhaps it ought to be frowned upon.

Thus, while it may be true that a Christian ought to view abortion as a bad thing, it seems to be equally clear that a biblical perspective would not support a ban on abortion. Indeed, it seems that the Bible suggests that abortion ought to be permitted in most cases in which one might wish to seek an abortion. A Christian, therefore, ought not to feel strongly in favor of banning abortion or making abortion difficult to acquire. And a Christian most certainly ought not to let their anti-abortion sentiment override the Christian sentiments of justice, love, and equality — abortion ought not to be a driving concern of Christians when it comes to politics.