What does the Bible say about abortion?

Author: Castin

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#1
Castin
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Here's another thread to keep you gonks yapping. Hopefully this'll give me good lurk-n'-read fodder for a while. What does it take to get a good supply of threads that weren't created by Shila or resurrected from 5 years ago, christ.

Nothing, actually, the Bible doesn't say a thing about abortion explicitly. It takes no direct stance on it. However, it does indirectly address the value of a fetus.

Let's look at Exodus 21:22-25. If men are fighting and they injure a pregnant woman, and she miscarries, then the responsible parties have to pay a fine determined by the husband and the judge. But if harm befalls the woman, then it is an eye for an eye, a hand for a hand, and even a life for a life.

Here the Bible seems to be suggesting the value of a fetus is less than the value of a born human, treating the fetus more as property than a person. Discuss.




#2
Savant
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@Castin
If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

Old Testament is meant to be confusing. For comparison, I'd he hesitant to start reading into the value of hands or testicles based on something like that.
#3
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@Castin
I think most pro life people also think a fetus is less of human than a pregnant woman, but they still think it's a human. 

Abortion violates God's command to be fruitful and multiply as well as his comman not to murder. The Bible says he formed us, even before we enter the womb, so theoretically we are still human even prior the fetus providing us a host
#4
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@Castin
Nothing, actually.

Let's leave it at that.
#5
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@Castin
the Bible doesn't say a thing about abortion explicitly. It takes no direct stance on it. However, it does indirectly address the value of a fetus.

Well depending on which god your fighting for at the time , it appears that life is cheap to the biblical god. Surely this verse must have also included pregnant women.
1 Samuel 15:3 
Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.’”
And  then there is all the the unborn that went down in the flood and all the other disasters "sent from god"  But no doubt we will hear that the rules are different for god.......because he's god.



#6
Lemming
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@Castin
Thoughts 1
One could argue that 'all people and property was/is seen to have varying values, depending on culture and/or Bible.
I'm just guessing here.
If for example the likelihood of the unborn dying before/during/right after birth was high in those days, it might be difficult to judge the cause,
The verse in post #1 also doesn't state 'intention to harm the child.
The likelihood of unborn dying, may have decreased their value as people to some cultures.

An example of difference in treatment between persons.
"Berean Standard Bible Deuteronomy 23:20
You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess."

Though there were also attempts at fairness I think,
Maybe some actions qualified as law and others as personal practice.

Berean Standard Bible Exodus 12:49
"The same law shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”

Thoughts 2
More guessing and speculation by me
"For as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy."

Berean Standard Bible Psalm 139:13
"For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb."

Berean Standard Bible Exodus 20:13
"You shall not murder."

When the Bible gives personlike qualities to the unborn,
Describes our 'formation as starting there,
Statements against murder.

Inclines a number of people against abortion, I would think.

Disclaimer
Of course, I'm not well read on the Bible,
And the amount of context in various parts is difficult for me.
. . .
There are also arguments on how 'applicable which parts of the Bible are,
Some Christians for example, I'd imagine argue some as less binding today, but more for past early generations of humans,
But argue their value as examples and history of human change under the Bible.
#7
Shila
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@Castin
Here the Bible seems to be suggesting the value of a fetus is less than the value of a born human, treating the fetus more as property than a person. Discuss.
The Bible affirms the personhood of the unborn.

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; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” God's call of the prophet Jeremiah is yet another example of the Bible acknowledging the personhood of the unborn.
#8
Best.Korea
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@Shila
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations
I am not sure if I am a prophet to the nations.
#9
Shila
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Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations
I am not sure if I am a prophet to the nations
Don’t let your size discourage you. Work on your IQ and pushups.
#10
Best.Korea
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@Shila
Don’t let your size discourage you
I grow like the Avatar.

#11
Shila
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@Best.Korea
Don’t let your size discourage you
I grow like the Avatar.
Wouldn’t you like to be the size of those Microphones in front of your face?
#12
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@Shila
I was talking about Avatar the incarnation of God, not that blue thing in a movie.
#13
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@Shila
But yes, it would be nice if my dick was big.
#14
Shila
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@Best.Korea
But yes, it would be nice if my dick was big.
Wouldn’t that look odd on a trans?
#15
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@Shila
Wouldn’t that look odd on a trans?
If men can get pregnant, why would it be weird that women have big dicks?
#16
Shila
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@Best.Korea
Wouldn’t that look odd on a trans?
If men can get pregnant, why would it be weird that women have big dicks?
Men cannot get pregnant. That is biologically impossible.
#17
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@Shila
Men cannot get pregnant. That is biologically impossible.
Some women transition to being men while keeping their reproductive abilities. Thus, some men can get pregnant.
#18
Shila
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@Best.Korea
Men cannot get pregnant. That is biologically impossible.
Some women transition to being men while keeping their reproductive abilities. Thus, some men can get pregnant.
So basically they are still women.
#19
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@Shila
So basically they are still women.
No, they are men who were women.

#20
Shila
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@Best.Korea
So basically they are still women.
No, they are men who were women.
So what makes them men?
#21
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@Shila
So what makes them men?
Their desire to be men, I guess.

#22
Shila
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@Best.Korea
So what makes them men?
Their desire to be men, I guess.
But biologically they are still women.
#23
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@Castin
From a Catholic apologetic standpoint, the passage in Exodus 21:22-25 is frequently misread as assigning lesser value to an unborn child. However, close attention to the Hebrew text and its nuances reveals an ambiguity in translation—especially in older versions that speak of a “miscarriage” rather than a “premature birth.” In the original language, the key phrase is that the child “comes out,” not necessarily that the child dies. If there is no further harm (i.e., both mother and child remain unharmed), the penalty is a fine for endangering them. Should there be additional injury—either to the mother or to the child—more severe penalties apply, up to “life for life.” Many biblical scholars and Catholic commentators thus conclude that the law actually reinforces the seriousness of harming both pregnant mother and child, rather than discounting the unborn as mere property.

Moreover, the broader witness of Scripture and Church tradition consistently affirms the inherent dignity of every human life, including the unborn. Passages like Jeremiah 1:5 (“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you”) and Psalm 139:13 (“You knit me together in my mother’s womb”) reflect the biblical view of the unborn as treasured persons under God’s care. Early Christian writings like the Didache explicitly condemn abortion, and for two millennia the Church has upheld the sanctity of life from conception. Thus, even though the Bible may not reference abortion in the modern clinical sense, Catholic teaching—informed by Scripture, Tradition, and moral reasoning—has always held that the unborn child is fully human and deserving of full protection.
#24
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@CatholicApologetics
Let's just remember that you are quoting, or rather, paraphrasing human words.

Human words that have been transcribed, translated and paraphrased many times previously.


What does the Bible say about digital technology.

Well, I'm sure that we could make something up.

If GOD was truly a Universal agent, they would certainly have been conversant with such technology.


But I'm guessing that GODDO was also the creation of humans.
#25
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@zedvictor4
I'm not really sure what you're trying to say. Are you to say the Scriptures are unreliable? As in, humans have changed what was initially written?
#26
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@Shila
But biologically they are still women.
No, they are men.

#27
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@Castin
No that's not correct. It's equal value because without a fetus there is no born person.
#28
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@Savant
"The old testament is meant to be confusing." Well the scripture does teach to those that it's not given to , the mystery, the spiritual representation, they having eyes, see not, having ears, hear not  nor understand.
#29
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@Best.Korea
But biologically they are still women.
No, they are men

What determines whether you are a male or female?
Sex chromosomes usually determine whether you are female or male. Women are XX. Men are XY.

#30
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@Shila
Sex chromosomes usually determine whether you are female or male. Women are XX. Men are XY.
No. It works like this: if you want to be a man, then you are a man.