Despite what you may have been told, the Christian Bible cannot be used as a basis to oppose abortion at conception or heartbeat.
Here are some basic facts:
- In the Christian Bible, even considering the verses often quoted by abortion opponents—e.g., Psalms 139:13, Jeremiah 1:5, or Isaiah 44:24—a focus only on those verses ignores Genesis 2 and Ezekiel 37 which define life as beginning not with vessel (i.e., conception, heartbeat) but breath.
- There is no text explicitly prohibiting the termination of a pregnancy, even though it is a practice that has been in existence for centuries.
- In Numbers 5 beginning with verse 11, an abortion is performed by a priest.
- Exodus 21:22-25 demonstrates that ending a pregnancy does not violate “Thou shalt not murder.” Causing a miscarriage incurs a fine and is not subject to the ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ penalty.
- Jesus never contradicted the definition of life beginning at breath and never mentioned the termination of pregnancies in his teachings.
Download a fact sheet on abortion and the Bible.
We condemn anyone who says that a group of people want to ‘kill babies’ in the 9th month or after birth as this is bearing false witness against a neighbor, a violation of the Ten Commandments.
When Roe v. Wade was in place, the vast majority of pregnancy terminations (around 90%) occurred in the first trimester. The second trimester, up to 20 weeks, is a critical period for detecting problems with a pregnancy, including a condition called anencephaly in which a fetus is developing with no brain or skull. In many states, women are now being forced to carry these fetuses to term, often after the body degrades and the parents and family do not have the opportunity to say goodbye to what was a wanted child before the point of degradation. We believe this is sinful. While the rudimentary brain of what will become a baby develops at around 24 weeks, the time when restrictions could be put in place during Roe v. Wade, a very small percentage (less than 2%) of abortions occured due to heartbreaking tragedies when a pregnant woman’s life is put at risk or the fetus is determined to have a fatal abnormality.