Abortion: What the Bible Says

What the Old Testament says:

  1. God created humans in his image.
  2. Humans bear God’s image from conception on.
  3. Birth is considered a co-creative process involving a man, a woman, and God. We share in God’s act of creation.
  4. The OT law sought to protect the life of the mother and fetus. A high value was placed on both.
  5. The OT elevates human life as a precious gift from God.

What the New Testament says:

  1. It expressly condemns infanticide.
  2. Conception is seen as a blessing.
  3. Humans bear God’s image from the moment of conception.
  4. The NT teaches personal continuity of identity from womb to grave.
  5. Paul makes it clear that a woman doesn’t own or rule over her own body.

Theological perspectives:

  1. Humans are unique creations in that we are in the image of God.
  2. The woman does not have exclusive rights over the developing human inside her body. Theologically, that life inside her is a gift and a trust from God.
  3. The destruction of human life in any form is against God’s purpose in creation. God is the giver of life; it is Satan who is the destroyer of it.
  4. Jesus’s persistent teaching was that those whom the culture perceived as marginal human beings have value.
  5. The Bible speaks strongly against the shading of innocent blood.
  6. The Bible teaches us to help those who are helpless.
  7. There is nothing in Scripture that even remotely suggests that the unborn child is anything less than a human person from the moment of conception on.