The word abortion is not mentioned in the bible and the practice is not clearly described in any biblical text. Therefore, like other issues which are not addressed directly, we must form our opinion based on biblical principles.
It is clear that the Bible values human life, prohibiting the taking of life and promoting the defense of life, particularly among the weak and vulnerable.
You shall not murder. Exodus 20:13
Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Psalm 82:3-4
As God values all human life, the key issue for abortion is deciding when life begins. The Bible does not give a scientific answer but repeatedly points to God’s activity in the womb.
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. Psalm 139:13-16
David talks about God knitting him together in the womb and ordaining the days of his life before he was born. The writer of Ecclesiastes also sees God at work in the womb.
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. Ecclesiastes 11:5
Jeremiah also sees his life as set apart for God from the womb.
The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “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
Later, in the midst of a rather depressing lament from Jeremiah he talks about wishing he had never been born! However, the language used declares that he must have been alive in the womb.
For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Jeremiah 20:17
Other biblical passages refer to unborn babies as people whom God is actively at work in, not just as ‘potential’ human lives.
The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Genesis 25:22
This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: Isaiah 44:24
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. Galatians 1:15-16
The case of John the Baptist is particularly helpful to view God’s activity in the womb. When John’s birth is prophesied, the promise includes the statement that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit before he is born.
for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. Luke 1:15
Later, the unborn John leaps in Elizabeth’s womb when she meets Mary who is pregnant with Jesus.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:41
The bible continually refers to God’s activity in the life of unborn babies in the womb and Christians should therefore work to protect these lives. There may be complex individual medical circumstances which will need to be thought through very carefully. However, the vast majority of abortions take place because the child is not wanted, which is not compatible with the biblical view of children.
Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Psalm 127:3-5
The Bible is a story about a God of grace, and that grace also extends to those who have had an abortion. That decision was sinful, but it is not beyond God’s forgiving mercy, extended to all on the cross of Christ.