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Opposition to abortion is commonly assumed to be biblically based. The Bible is remarkably silent on abortion, however.

What Does the Bible Say about Abortion?

None of the books of the Bible mention abortion, Many, many laws are listed, but none forbid abortion. None even mention abortion.

A possible exception is in Numbers 5:11-31, a passage about a procedure to test for a wife’s unfaithfulness. In this case a priest administers a potion that appears to cause an abortion and loss of the uterus. If so, it is hardly a condemnation of abortion.

In addition to mentions of spontaneous miscarriages, two passages mention the death of a fetus before birth. One is in a list of laws in Exodus that specifies penalties for various violent actions. Exodus 21:22 addresses a situation where two people are fighting and they injure a pregnant woman causing a miscarriage but no additional harm to her. The law here treats this as a property loss and specifies that the woman’s husband be compensated. Any further harm to the woman is to be penalized according to the principle of “eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” The Hebrew and Greek versions of this law differ some. Other laws in the passage differentiate penalties for violence done to enslaved people and indicate a world very different from the present day.

The other mention of fetal death expresses a moment of the prophet Jeremiah’s intense despair in Jeremiah 20:14–17. In this passage, Jeremiah first curses the day he was born. Then, as if to say, “You know what else?” he goes further to curse the man who brought the news of his mother’s pregnancy to his father. He blames this bearer of the news for not killing him in his mother’s womb, envisioning his mother’s womb as his permanent grave. While this could imply that Jeremiah assumed that abortion was a permissible option, he makes no ethical statement and does not imagine a successful abortion. This passage instead offers a graphic poetic portrayal of the prophet’s despair.

Did People in Biblical Times Know about Abortion?

The biblical silence about abortion could lead us to wonder whether people way back then knew about abortion. Evidence indicates that abortion has been practiced for millennia. An Egyptian medical papyrus dated to 1650 BCE describes methods of abortion. Numerous texts from the Greco-Roman era also mention abortion and medications to induce them. Yet none of the biblical authors mention abortion.

What Does the Bible Say about a Pregnant Person’s Right to Choose?

The Bible does not mention abortion and likewise does not mention a woman’s or pregnant person’s right to choose it. What biblical authors say about bodily autonomy, the right of people to control their own bodies, is a question for further discussion. Yet we should note that even in times when slavery was assumed and women had few rights, some biblical writers supported the notion of human beings owning their own bodies.

What Biblical Passages Are Cited to Oppose Abortion?

In arguing that the Bible supports a view that a fetus is already a person before birth, opponents of abortion refer to passages that poetically express God’s intimate foreknowledge of a person. Biblical passages describe Isaiah and Jeremiah, for example, as called by God for their prophetic roles even before they were born (Isaiah 49:1; Jeremiah 1:5). Psalm 139 presents an encompassing view of the intimate abiding presence of a caring God and mentions God forming the psalmist in the womb (v. 13).

Just as Jeremiah in his outcry of despair was not making an ethical statement that abortion was an assumed option, however, these poetic expressions of an abiding divine presence are not ethical instructions. These passages portray God as an all-knowing being who sees all of time, and they emphasize an experience of an abiding divine presence. They are not statements about the status of a fetus as a person.

What Do Faith Traditions Say about Abortion?

Drawing from the Bible and from other sources for ethical reflection, faith traditions take differing stances on the issue of abortion. For some Christian traditions, opposition to abortion has become a major focus of faith. Other Christian traditions vehemently support the right to terminate a pregnancy. In Jewish traditions, support for choice is widespread although not unanimous. Islamic traditions are also diverse, and the Quran and Islamic laws are as silent as the Bible on this issue.

People from these and other faith traditions and those who acknowledge no faith tradition hold passionate views about abortion. Passionate as these views may be, none of them can be defined as biblical.