Is the Bible Pro-Abortion?

Question

Why is it that people use the bible to say that God opposes the killing of "innocent" children? Throughout the old testement one will find this is not the case. According to the bible, God repeatedly commands the Israelites to kill "every man, woman and child...even the sucking (nursing child)" God also commands his people to rip out the unborn child of "enemy" pregnant women. Read:Nub 31:17, Deut 2:34, I Samuel 15:3 to name a few.
No child should have to be punished "at the edge of the sword" due to the religous beliefs or evils of the adults. Therefore the bible can not be used as a method of supporting that idea that it is wrong to kill unwanted innocent children. Personally I'm not saying it is right to abort children, but I am saying the Bible is a lousy pro-life reference. And NO, the New Testement does not condem the killing of children, Jesus himself said children who curse their parents should be "stoned".

Answer 1

All Christians should be pro-choice. The Bible is pretty specific about this. It says punishment should be an eye for an eye, life for life, etc., and in the same passage it says that if a man hits a pregnant woman and causes her to miscarry, he only has to pay fine (to the woman's husband). Because he doesn't have to pay with his life, he clearly did not take a life. Abortion is not murder. The Bible says so. Forced abortion is wrong (not as bad as murder), but the Bible says nothing at all about voluntary abortion. Of course, since when do Christians actually listen to what the Bible says?

Answer 2

The Bible makes it clear that God and the Hebrew people do not consider the infant to be fully alive until the first breath is taken, and then only considered a person after the first full cycle of the moon after birth.



Further, the penalty for killing a person in the Tanakh is death. However, the Tanakh prescribes a very limited form of punishment for a person who causes a miscarriage.



So no, the Bible does not support the Pro-Life movement.



Logic and morality, on the other hand... does.



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Peachy:



The Bible only proscribes death if the man causes the death of the woman who is with child. If she is only injured and miscarries, he pays only a fine to the woman's husband.

Answer 3

Properly Interpretted and Understood, the Bible certainly CAN be used to show the evils of abortion. The Bible's teachings on abortion are EXACTLY the same as the Bible's teachings on the evils of contraception:



Gen 1:28, 9:1,7; 35:11 - from the beginning, the Lord commands us to be fruitful ("fertile") and multiply. A husband and wife fulfill God's plan for marriage in the bringing forth of new life, for God is life itself.



Gen. 28:3 - Isaac's prayer over Jacob shows that fertility and procreation are considered blessings from God.



Gen. 38:8-10 - Onan is killed by God for practicing contraception (in this case, withdrawal) and spilling his semen on the ground.



Gen. 38:11-26 - Judah, like Onan, also rejected God's command to keep up the family lineage, but he was not killed.



Deut. 25:7-10 - the penalty for refusing to keep up a family lineage is not death, like Onan received. Onan was killed for wasting seed.



Gen. 38:9 - also, the author's usage of the graphic word "seed," which is very uncharacteristic for Hebrew writing, further highlights the reason for Onan's death.



Exodus 23:25-26; Deut. 7:13-14 - God promises blessings which include no miscarriages or barrenness. Children are blessings from God, and married couples must always be open to God's plan for new life with every act of marital intimacy.



Lev.18:22-23;20:13 - wasting seed with non-generative sexual acts warrants death. Many Protestant churches, which have all strayed from the Catholic Church, reject this fundamental truth (few Protestants and Catholics realize that contraception was condemned by all of Christianity - and other religions - until the Anglican church permitted it in certain cases at the Lambeth conference in 1930. This opened the floodgates of error).



Lev. 21:17,20 - crushed testicles are called a defect and a blemish before God. God reveals that deliberate sterilization and any other methods which prevent conception are intrinsically evil.



Deut. 23:1 - whoever has crushed testicles or is castrated cannot enter the assembly. Contraception is objectively sinful and contrary, not only to God's Revelation, but the moral and natural law.



Deut. 25:11-12 - there is punishment for potential damage to the testicles, for such damage puts new life at risk. It, of course, follows that vasectomies, which are done with willful consent, are gravely contrary to the natural law.



1 Chron. 25:5 - God exalts His people by blessing them with many children. When married couples contracept, they are declaring "not your will God, but my will be done."



Psalm 127:3-5 - children are a gift of favor from God and blessed is a full quiver. Married couples must always be open to God's precious gift of life. Contraception, which shows a disregard for human life, has lead to the great evils of abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide.



Hosea 9:11; Jer. 18:21 - God punishes Israel by preventing pregnancy. Contraception is a curse, and married couples who use contraception are putting themselves under the same curse.



Mal. 2:14 - marriage is not a contract (which is a mere exchange of property or services). It is a covenant, which means a supernatural exchange of persons. Just as God is three in one, so are a husband and wife, who become one flesh and bring forth new life, three in one. Marital love is a reflection of the Blessed Trinity.



Mal. 2:15 - What does God desire? Godly offspring. What is contraception? A deliberate act against God's will. With contraception, a couple declares, "God may want an eternal being created with our union, but we say no." Contraception is a grave act of selfishness.



Matt. 19:5-6 - Jesus said a husband and wife shall become one. They are no longer two, but one, just as God is three persons, yet one. The expression of authentic marital love reintegrates our bodies and souls to God, and restores us to our original virginal state (perfect integration of body and soul) before God.



Matt. 19:6; Eph. 5:31 - contraception prevents God's ability to "join" together. Just as Christ's love for the Church is selfless and sacrificial, and a husband and wife reflect this union, so a husband and wife's love for each other must also be selfless and sacrificial. This means being open to new life.



Acts 5:1-11 - Ananias and Sapphira were slain because they withheld part of a gift. Fertility is a gift from God and cannot be withheld.



Rom.1:26-27 - sexual acts without the possibility of procreation is sinful. Self-giving love is life-giving love, or the love is a lie. The unitive and procreative elements of marital love can never be divided, or the marital love is also divided, and God is left out of the marriage.



1 Cor. 6:19-20 - the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; thus, we must glorify God in our bodies by being open to His will.



1 Cor. 7:5 - this verse supports the practice of natural family planning ("NFP"). Married couples should not refuse each other except pe

Answer 4

Wow, good points.



So cool how the Bible refutes itself. Makes the work of atheists easier.

Answer 5

That was then, and it was to prevent the babies from seeking revenge on those that killed their family when they grew up.

Answer 6

I'm glad you can see all sides of things, it's a rare thing

Answer 7

Sorry, you're wrong. The Bible says that for any man that causes a woman to lose her unborn child, the punishment is death. Hang on a sec and I'll get you the scripture.



(Edit: J.P. you're wrong...read the actual scripture below because you're memory must be failing you...it literally says "LIFE FOR LIFE" not just a fine like you incorrectly said.)



Exodus 21:22-25 - 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.







Sorry, there's TONS more of Biblical pro-life. That was just one example. Here are more:



The Bible always refers to the Unborn as persons:



Psalm 51:5 - Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Psalm 58:3 - Even from birth-the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies.

Psalm 139:13-16 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise

you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven

together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me

were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Luke 1:41.44 - When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was

filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “ . . . As soon as the sound of your

greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

Genesis 25:21 - Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered

his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant.

Exodus 23:25-26 - Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will

take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give

you a full life-span.

1 Samuel 1:1-20 - (Hannah praying to the Lord because she was barren, and the Lord granting her request.)

The incarnation of Jesus begins with conception.



So as you see above (and that's just barely a few of the pro-life scriptures), God sees the Unborn as Human Life, and He expressly forbids taking a Human Life. God alone has the right to decide life and death!



Genesis 9:6 - Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God

has God made man.

Exodus 20:13 - You shall not murder.

Children are a gift from the Lord

We are conceived and born in sin and are therefore under God’s wrath

Our life is our time of grace.



Another that shows that it is HIS decision, not ours regarding our unborn children:

Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the

potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?” Does your work

say, “He has no hands?” Woe to him who says to his father, “What have you begotten?” or to his

mother, “What have you brought to birth?”



Psalm 139:13-15

"You did form my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother's womb...you knew me right well; my frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret..."

Jeremiah1:4-5

"Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I k(Living Bible Version)



Proverbs 24:11-12

"Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don't stand back and let them die. Don't try to disclaim responsibility by saying you didn't know about it."



Jeremiah1:4-5

"Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."

Proverbs 24:11-12

"Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don't stand back and let them die. Don't try to disclaim responsibility by saying you didn't know about it."



Proverbs 6:16-17

"The Lord hates hands that shed innocent blood."



Matthew 5:21

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill..."

Psalm 127:3

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward."



Oh, and the Old Testament stuff was only applicable before Jesus, the PERFECTION, died on behalf of all of our sins. So that doesn't pertain any longer. You can't pick and choose and twist it how you want it. God isn't for abortion, and any that would in any way support it WILL answer to Him for their disobedience and cowardice one day. You may not think so now, but you will know you are so very wrong one day.



Oh, and the stoning the disobedient thing has nothing to do with abortion...you're talking about murdering innocents that are sinless when you say abortion...not those that knew and chose to disobey. An unborn baby is without any sin.