Does the Bible actually say that abortion is wrong?

There's been several threads in the forums concerning abortion. In all the cases, the issue comes down to "What does the Bible say about abortion?"

Half of the answers were based on the principle that life starts with the fertilization of the egg (I purposely didn't use the word conception because the posts really mean fertilization and not conception.) and the destruction of human life is murder. Murder, of course, was one of the instances of sin mentioned in the list of commandments given by the Lord Almighty to Moses on Mount Sinai, the so-called "Ten Commandment" (the Bible never enumerated them as ten items).

The other half cited the psychological and physiological problems that result from abortion.

There were a handful arguing that most Christians (some even say "all Christians") believe that abortion is wrong.

The posts arguing that life starts with fertilization usually reference 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.

(See what I mean about conception? God conceived Jeremiah and his role before God formed him. i.e., conception before egg fertilized)

Anyway, these posts' argument implies that this pre-fertilization conception of person and role applies to everyone.

While I may agree that abortion is wrong. It would be hard for me to validate the logic used to reach this conclusion.

Here are my problems with these lines of reasoning:

1. Just because God knew Jeremiah before God formed him in the womb, logically speaking, it may not necessarily be true of every person that God formed. God often do things with variations. (While I do believe that the assumption is true, it's inappropriate to use unproven facts as the basis of one's argument.)


2. Even if every person and his/her role were conceived by God before the fertilization of the egg, it may not necessarily mean that every fertilization is the result of God conceiving a person and his/her role. Natural abortions of pregnancies occur all the time. Are these natural abortions also the termination of a conceived person and his/her role?


3. Does the fact that abortions result in psychological and physiological problems justify it being labeled as wrong (biblically speaking)? Don't a lot of things, that God ask us to do, result in problems for us? I'd be hard pressed to find a Christian who has never anguish over something that God is calling him/her to do. Christian discipleship requires us to go outside the boundaries of our comfort zone. If you want to cite physical problems as a reason something should be wrong to do, let me ask, "How many Christians were called to be martyrs?"


4. One may argue that if most of the Christians believes something to be true, it probably is true since Christians are supposed to be living lives led by Christ. However, I can just as easily point out that (according to Christianity Today) the average worshiper (Catholics and Protestant and Orthodox) gives less than three percent of his/her income to the Church; that is so wrong, considering that it is nowhere near the ten percent required by the Old Testament, much less the sacrificial offering that's reflective of our appreciation of what Jesus did on the cross for us. No, even if all the Christians agree that abortion is wrong, one can not equate the unified opinion of all Christians with something to which we can attribute to as "Thus saith the Lord"

Is there a Bible verse that says that abortion is wrong?

Although the medical procedures may not have been available during the time that the Bible (Old and New Testament) was written, I believe there is a Bible verse to which we can reference.

• Exodus 21:22-24
  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, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

(Yes, that's where the term "an eye for an eye" comes from.)

These are the penalties for harming an unborn child. Noticed the first offense and penalty: "life for life".

In fact, God is so protective of the unborn child that even if no harm comes to the unborn child, the husband of the pregnant woman may demand a fine.

Thus we can argue that if an unintentional injury or death, of an unborn child, requires the "life for life...eye for eye..." penalties, surely, an intentional injury or death would be just as wrong if not more.