Bible Remarkably Vague About God’s Will As To Abortion

It is interesting to me that my Christian brothers have chosen to attack me on my stand on the issue of abortion and when life begins. The issue is little mentioned in either testament.

The Hebrew people were greatly influenced by many of the customs of their Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian neighbors, all of which forbade abortion in any form. Yet there are no similar prohibitions in the Hebrew scriptures. I believe this is so chiefly because of the higher value the Hebrew people placed on women.

There is a reference to the termination of pregnancy in Exodus 21:22-25. If a woman, trying to stop a fight between her husband and another man, was injured by a blow so as to produce a miscarriage, the penalty for the loss of the fetus was a fine set by the judge and the husband. But if the wife died, the penalty was life for life.

There is in the Mosaic Law that which could be seen as “abortion on demand.” In Numbers 5:11-31, if a man suspects that his wife is pregnant by another man, the “Husband shall bring his wife to the priest” who mixes a drink that was intended to make her confess or be threatened with a miscarriage or death.

My opposites on this issue make much of the Psalms, particularly 36:9, which indicates that God is the fountain of life and 139:13-16, in which the writer indicates that God “knit him together” in his mother’s womb. I have no problem with the poetic image there, or when it is repeated by Isaiah or Jeremiah. Remember also that Jeremiah indicates that God “raped” him; I do not take that literally, either.

And if my literalist brothers chose to believe the Psalms as God’s “words,” perhaps their neighbors should be warned not to make enemies of them. Have you read Psalm 137 entirely?

Aside from the two passages above, the Bible does not deal with the subject of abortion. There is no condemnation or prohibition of abortion anywhere in the Bible in spite of the fact that techniques for inducing abortion predate the writing of the Hebrew scriptures.

Scott Bartchy, in his study of slavery in the first century, indicates that while the New Testament was being written and compiled a common way slaves became available in the Roman world was through exposure. If a child came and was unwanted for whatever reason, it would be left exposed to the elements and if anyone wanted it they could take it and raise it as a slave. Otherwise it would die - a kind of postpartum abortion. Yet there is no prohibition in any of the writings of the New Testament in reference to abortion.

The critical issue in the controversy is, “When does human life begin?” Again, the Bible is not much help.

If one takes a literalistic view, you could say that the issue is settled by Genesis 2, where God “breathed into his (Adam’s) nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.” It adds some to this point of view when you remember that the term for a living person in Hebrew scripture is “nephesh,” the word for breathing.

Remember also that in the Christian scriptures the Incarnation, or “the Word made flesh,” was celebrated at Jesus’ birth, not at a speculative time of conception. The Biblical tradition is followed today in the West, by counting age from the date of birth rather than from conception, a date people do not know or seek to estimate. The state issues no conception certificates, only birth certificates. Neither are there any death certificates when a miscarriage occurs.

To focus on the biological realities of genes and chromosomes present at conception or to think of personhood solely in materialist or biological terms neglects the spiritual nature and characteristics of human life, which the Bible describes as created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:26-27). This does not refer to biological similarities but to the abilities to love and to reason, self-awareness, transcendence and freedom to choose, rather than to live by instinct. The brain is crucial to such human abilities. It is not until after 28 weeks of gestation that the fetal brain has the capacity to carry on the same range of neurological activity as the brain in a full-term newborn. (This, from the testimony of 167 scientists before the Supreme Court in 1989.)

If the issue were as important to God as my detractors say, you would think that God would have said something a bit more direct. My prayer for them is that they will come to know the God of love and mercy made known to all in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord.

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