In September last year, it was projected that the ten millionth life was lost to abortion in England, Wales and Scotland since the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967. In 2021, the number of abortions taking place in England and Wales tragically reached a record high of 214,869.1 Approximately a third of pregnancies end in deliberate abortion.2 Abortion is available in the UK de facto on demand up to 24 weeks gestation and later in limited circumstances3 – including disabilities such as Down Syndrome4 and conditions such as cleft palate and club foot which can be rectified by surgery. This is in spite of the fact that the latest guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine establishes 22 weeks gestation to be the point of viability, and enables doctors to intervene with proactive perinatal care to save premature babies from 22 weeks.5 The majority of countries in the European Union limit abortion on demand, or on broad social grounds, after 12 weeks gestation, making the UK one of the most extreme when it comes to abortion time limits.
Attitudes in Parliament against unborn children have further hardened. As of March 2020, after the imposition of an extreme abortion law on Northern Ireland by Westminster, de facto abortion on demand also became legal in Northern Ireland for any reason up to 24 weeks, with the abortion limit again disgracefully extended up to birth for babies with disabilities. In October, MPs voted by a large majority to introduce ‘buffer zones’ around abortion clinics, and ban prayer and protests outside abortion clinics.6
Science and Scripture – Life begins at conception
Human development begins at fertilisation, which is the beginning of the development of a unique human individual. At conception, a person’s genetic make-up is complete and a unique individual is created. At around 21 days, the heart begins to beat. By the sixth week, an EEG can detect brain waves.
What can we learn from the Scriptures about this subject?7 Though the word ‘abortion’ is not used in our Bibles, there are many relevant and decisive Scriptures.
The genealogy in Matthew 1 is translated in versions like the KJV and NKJV using the word begat or begot; hence, in the NKJV, Matthew 1:2 reads: “Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.” ‘Begot’ translates the Greek ‘ghen-nah-o’, which means to procreate, and recognises the beginning of life at fertilisation.
The Greek word ‘brephos’ in the Bible is used for both a baby in the womb and a new-born baby or infant – the Bible makes no distinction in this respect. So, Brephos is used for John the Baptist when in his mother’s womb in Luke 1:41 & 44, but also for the ‘newborn babies’ killed by Pharaoh (Acts 7:19), the baby Jesus lying in the manger in Luke 2:16 and the infants blessed by Jesus in Luke 18:15-17.
Inspired before birth – Jesus and John
We can see in the stories leading up to Jesus’ birth the significance of the unborn babies. The passage about Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth is especially significant. It reads “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41). So, the baby prophet John, three months before he was born, recognised the presence of his Lord and Saviour, who had not long been conceived. John was already under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth’s husband had been previously told by an angel of the Lord that their son would be “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15 NKJV).
Jesus was God incarnate from the moment of conception in Mary by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). In Matthew 1:20 Joseph is told about Mary that, “…what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
Formed by God in the womb – David and Jeremiah
The Scriptures teach that God forms us in the womb. So, the prophet Jeremiah is told: “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.” (Jeremiah 1:5) This theme of life and personhood beginning in the womb at conception is repeated elsewhere (Cf. Psalm 51:5, Galatians 1:15).
Psalm 139:13-16, is a key passage in this respect. David writes:
“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.”
The phrase ‘knit me together in my mother’s womb’ speaks of human development from conception – or technically the “the continuum of zygote-morula-blastocyst-embryo-fetus-unborn child-born baby-infant-toddler-youth-teenager-adult.”8
Unborn babies in the Torah and Judges
It is very significant that in Genesis 1:27, we are told that “God made man in his own image” – a truth that is at the heart of the sanctity of life. The Bible consistently talks about those in the womb as human beings in the sight of God. Genesis 25:21-24 describes how Rebekah was pregnant with the twins Esau and Jacob, who were struggling with each other in the womb, and when she sought God for light on what was taking place, she was told “two nations are in your womb”. This was a prophecy recognising that these yet unborn babies would both be fathers of nations (fulfilled in the nation of Edom in Esau’s case, and Israel in Jacob’s case). Judges 13:2-5 tells us that Samson’s mother was told by the angel of the Lord that when pregnant she should not partake of wine or strong drink because her son would be a Nazirite from the womb. These Scriptures testify to the unique personhood of unborn babies. The importance of an unborn child’s life to God is also demonstrated clearly in the Torah in Exodus 21:22-23: “If people are fighting and 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.”
The Early Church – opposed to abortion
It is thus no surprise that Jews and early Christians were united in their opposition to abortion. Josephus, who was contemporary with the New Testament period, commented: “The [Jewish] law orders us to bring up all our children, and forbids women to cause abortion of that which is begotten; and if any woman seems to have done so, she will be a murderer of her own child, by destroying a living creature.”9 Abortion was thus regarded as infanticide. The Didache is the earliest Christian document outside the New Testament (dated AD 50-120 but likely written before AD 70). It states: “You shall not kill a child by abortion nor kill it after it is born.”10
Shedding of innocent blood
Thus, abortion would be regarded as the shedding of innocent blood, and the Lord’s attitude to this is described in many parts of the Old Testament, including Psalm 106 which addressed child sacrifice committed by the people of Israel in their wicked rebellion. It states:
“They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds. Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage” (Ps 106:37-40).
From the first shedding of innocent human blood, when Cain killed Abel, we learn that innocent blood ‘cries out’ to the Lord, and a curse follows:
“The Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand’” (Gen 4:10-11).
The shedding of innocent blood is ‘an abomination’ to the Lord (Pr 6:17 NKJV). It was a repeated sin that brought severe judgment on Israel and Judah, and included the persistent horror of child sacrifice to idols including Molech. So detestable and unthinkable was this sin, that the Lord declared “nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination” (Jer 32:35 NKJV, Cf Lev 20:2, Ezek 23:39).
Confronting abortion today – helpful resources
There is merciful forgiveness from the Lord available for anyone who sincerely repents of the serious sin of having an abortion. But this issue needs to be addressed properly in the Church, both to help those individuals seeking forgiveness and healing, and to teach Christians how to address this nationally damaging sin.
Many church leaders, for various reasons, such as fear of causing offence, have backed away from addressing the abortion issue. Thus, many in congregations woefully lack teaching on this issue and thus often tragically take on board the relentless ‘pro-choice’ views routinely promoted by the media. Thankfully, there are church leaders, teachers and organisations who do tackle the issue, such as Dave Brennan who leads the organisation ‘Brephos’ which is dedicated to helping churches to respond to abortion.11 In standing up for the rights of unborn children, such believers honour the teaching of Proverbs 24:11-12 which says: “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done.”
The serious negative spiritual effects of abortion on individuals and the nation are among many issues covered in S. Nye’s deeply insightful and sobering book, ‘Whose Child? UK Abortion a Gospel Matter.’12 Helpfully, the book cites some Christian organisations that support those with unplanned pregnancies or help those facing emotional difficulties after an abortion.
I also recommend Camilla Olim’s insightful and compassionate book ‘For Those Being Crushed’13 which is written to ‘encourage and equip and persuade Christians to confront what may be our biggest ‘social justice’ blind spot: abortion.’ Those belonging to the Lord are urged to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31:8). There are undoubted deeply deleterious spiritual effects of abortion on the nation and individuals, arising from the wicked ongoing slaughter of multitudes of unborn children. It is surely time, in the light of the above Scriptures, for the Church to repent of turning a blind eye to the horrors of abortion and for the nation’s church leaders to treat this issue as an urgent priority.
Notes
1. Righttolife.org.uk
2. In this article in referring to ‘abortion’, I am referring to deliberate choice to end a life - what the medical profession calls ‘elective abortion’ - rather than ‘spontaneous abortions’ more often called miscarriages.
3. Abortion time limits | Knowledge Base | Right To Life UK
4. Woman with Down's syndrome loses abortion law appeal - BBC News
5. Babies born at 22 weeks 'can now survive' - BBC News
6. MPs vote to introduce buffer zones around abortion clinics in England and Wales | ITV News
7. Summarised in Brian Melia's brief video 'Is the Bible against abortion?” under Questions on https://unfoldingyourwords.online
8. ‘When does human life begin?’ by John R Ling. The Christian Institute. 3rd Edition 2017. Page 13
9. Flavius Josephus, “Against Apion 2:202”
10. Didache 2:2
11. https://www.brephos.org which is a project of Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. UK CBR UK educates society on the humanity and value of unborn children and the reality of abortion.
12. Whose Child?: UK Abortion, a Gospel Matter : Nye, S
13. For those being crushed: Amazon.co.uk: Olim, Camilla
