THE BIBLE’S VIEW ON ABORTIONSentinel 14:1 Fall 1997by Robert V. McCabe, Jr., and Professor of Old TestamentSince the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing abortion in the case Roe vs. Wade in 1973, there havebeen more than 30 million abortions. In the United States, abortion is the leading surgical procedure. Infourteen leading metropolitan areas, there are more abortions performed than there are live births(Alcorn, ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments, p. 29). Because of the impact that abortion has onour society, Bible-believing Christians must ask this question: What does God have to say aboutabortion? To fully understand what the Bible has to say on this subject, we will examine three issues: thereason why the Bible never explicitly discusses abortion, the Bible’s teaching concerning the value ofhuman life, and its teaching about the inception of human life. Before we examine these issues, we willinitially define abortion and some of the issues associated with abortion may be defined as the expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the womb of its motherbefore it is capable of independently sustaining life. An abortion which happens naturally is called aspontaneous or involuntary abortion. A miscarriage is a spontaneous abortion. An induced or voluntaryabortion is medically induced for therapeutic or nontherapeutic reasons. This type of abortion results inthe termination of a pregnancy by killing the embryo or fetus. The induced abortion is the focal point ofthe modern abortion Bible-believing Christians maintain that an induced abortion is a moral atrocity. However, ifthis is truly such an atrocity, then why does the Bible never explicitly address the issue? The answer tothis is found in the Israelite view of children. God was responsible for the opening the womb (Gen30:22; 1 Sam 1:19–20). Consequently, children were viewed as a gift from God (Gen 33:5; Ps 127:3).An Israelite expected proliferation in childbearing as an aspect of the prosperity that God had promisedin the Mosaic Covenant (Deut 7:13; 28:4). The abundance of children was a blessing, but the lack ofchildren was often considered a curse. Therefore, a voluntary abortion was unthinkable for an Israeliteand, consequently, was not an issue that needed to be addressed in Scripture. To understand the moralramifications of this, we must approach the issue of medically induced abortion in light of other does the Bible teach about the value of human life? To determine this, we must brieflyexamine the Bible’s teaching about man. Moses wrote in Genesis 1:26–28 that man was created in theimage and likeness of God. The divine image refers to those personal, rational, moral, and spiritualqualities of man which make him like God. Though it was marred at the Fall, the divine image in manwas not lost (Jas 3:9). This is cogently demonstrated in Genesis 9:5–6 with God’s institution of capitalpunishment for murder. The motivation for this command is God’s creation of man in his image (v. 6).Whatever else Genesis 9:5–6 may affirm, it clearly emphasizes the sanctity of human life. This isreinforced by the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, “Thou shalt not murder” (Exod 20:3; Deut5:17), and is reaffirmed by our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:21–22). Though theseScriptures clearly assert the sanctity of human life, they do not deal with the question of when genuinehuman life does the Bible teach concerning the inception of human life? A key passage is Psalm 51. Thisis a record of David’s confession of sin after having committed adultery with Bathsheba. In v. 5 Davidtraces his moral culpability back to the time of his conception by asserting that he was sinful from thetime his mother conceived him. Another significant passage is Psalm 139:13–16. Having dealt withGod’s omniscience (vv. 1–6) and omnipresence (vv. 7–12), David then gives an exposition on God’sprovidential involvement in his prenatal development. God created David’s inmost being (v. 13) and hisbody (v. 15). David affirms in v. 16 that his “substance,” his embryo, as well as the course of his life,was part of God’s plan. David’s personal identity extends back to his prenatal state. In addition, Luke1:41, 44 has a bearing on this subject. After an angel had announced to the virgin Mary that she wouldcarry the Messiah, she went to the home of Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant with her son Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, her unborn son leaped for joy. This demonstrates that John theBaptist had rational and spiritual capacities in his prenatal state. These passages indicate that a child inhis prenatal state has personal, rational, moral, and spiritual qualities, and, therefore, is fully understanding of a child being fully in the image of God from the time of conception is furthersupported by two other biblical items. The first is the biblical teaching concerning the origin of thehuman soul. God created the human race immediately in Adam. Adam and Eve transferred their spiritualand physical characteristics to their children through the process of procreation (Gen 5:3; Acts 17:26).When an ovum and sperm unite, a new person containing the hereditary characteristics of one’s fatherand mother is brought into existence. This prenatal child is a genuine second item which argues that an unborn child is fully human is found in the teaching of Exodus21:22–25. However, this passage has some interpretational difficulties. The passage has been used bysome to support the legitimacy of having a medically induced abortion. The passage reads as follows:“22If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischieffollow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shallpay as the judges determine. 23And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, 24eye for eye,tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”There are two principal views of this passage: the miscarriage view and the premature birth holding the miscarriage view take this passage as a reference to a situation where two men arefighting and one of them happens to hit a pregnant woman who suffers a miscarriage (“so that her fruitdepart”) but she herself does not experience any “harm” (“mischief” in vv. 22 and 23 may also be takenas “harm”); the offender then must pay a fine (v. 22). However, if something subsequently happens tothe woman, then the offender is to suffer punishment in proportion to the damage that he has inflictedupon the woman (vv. 23–25). Since the law of retaliation is applied to the woman and only a monetarycompensation for the aborted fetus, it is implied that the woman has a higher value that the unborn situation described in this biblical passage has been used to infer that under some difficultcircumstances, a voluntary abortion is justifiable because the mother’s life has more value than theunborn child. The miscarriage view is supported by some commentators and translations. For example,some translate the clause “so that her fruit depart” as “so that she has a miscarriage.” Against this view,it should be observed that the Hebrew verb “depart” when used in the context of childbirth is never usedfor a miscarriage. Furthermore, the noun “fruit” is normally translated as “child,” “son,” or “boy.”The correct interpretation of Exodus 21:22–25 is that it refers to a premature birth. When theHebrew noun “fruit” or “child” is used with the verb “depart,” as in v. 22 (“so that her fruit depart”), thiscan only be understood as a reference to premature birth. This view would explain the situationdescribed in vv. 22–25 in this fashion. If two men are fighting and one of them hits a pregnant womancausing her to prematurely give birth, there are two potential consequences. First, if there is no harm, afine is to be enacted because of the potential danger for the mother and her child (v. 22). Second, if thereis harm, a penalty corresponding to the crime is to be enacted (vv. 23–25). For example, if either themother or her child dies, then a capital punishment would be in order. Rather than being a justificationfor voluntary abortion, this is actually a strong text arguing that the life of a child in its prenatal state isof equal value to its mother. Consequently, the unborn child is fully light of the biblical material examined here, we must emphatically maintain that a medicallyinduced abortion violates God’s moral standard against taking another person’s life. Since God is theauthor of his moral standards, our view on abortion is ultimately a reflection of our view of God.