The world of the ancient near east in which is Christianity was born was harsh towards children. Abortion and exposure were common practices, most often for economic reasons (Fox, Pagans and Christians, 1986). Even so, the Church has always prophetically spoken regarding the value of every child. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that conception and birth are sacred events in the theology of the church.
The Gospel of Luke gives a priority to the conception and the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was miraculously conceived within the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. The conception of John the Baptist to aged parents was also a miracle. The story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth reveals the significance of infants in utero.
Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:39-42).
It is significant that John the Baptist, while a fetus in his mother’s womb, responded to the presence of the Christ child in the womb of Mary. Here Holy Scripture testifies to the ability of children in utero responding to external stimuli, in this case the presence of the Holy Spirit. In other words, even in the womb the fetus is formed in the image of God, can respond to the presence of God, and it is certain that God knows the fetus as fully human. Luke’s theology is informed by the ancient Hebrew Scriptures.
Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward (Psalm 127:3).
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).
As the church expanded throughout the Greek and Roman world the message of the gospel was consistently pro-life and pro-child. In possibly the earliest post-canonical Christian text, The Didache, the theology of the post-apostolic Church maintained fidelity with the ancient teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Thou shalt do no murder; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not commit sodomy; thou shalt not commit fornication; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not use magic; thou shalt not use potions; thou shalt not procure abortion, nor commit infanticide… (Didache 2:2).
This pro-life and pro-child ethic has been consistently maintained throughout the history of the Christian church. Consider the writings of the ancient Christian theologians.
Tertullian
That the unborn child is alive: How are they dead unless they were first alive? But still in the womb an infant by necessary cruelty is killed when lying twisted at the womb’s mouth he prevents birth and is a matricide unless he dies. Therefore, there is among the arms of physicians an instrument by which with a rotary movement the genital parts are first opened, then with a cervical instrument the interior members are slaughtered with careful judgment by a blunt barb, so that the whole criminal deed is extracted with a violent delivery. There is also the bronze needle by which the throat – cutting is carried out by a robbery in the dark; this instrument is called an embryo knife from its function of infanticide, as it is deadly for the living infant. . . Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does (De Anima 25).
In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in the seed (Apologia 9:6)
Athenagoras
How then, when we do not even look on, lest we should contract guilt and pollution, can we put people to death? And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it. But we are in all things always alike and the same, submitting ourselves to reason, and not ruling over it (A Plea for the Christians 35).
Basil
She who has intentionally destroyed the fetus is subject to the penalty corresponding to a homicide. For us, there is no scrutinizing between the formed and unformed fetus… those who give the abortifacients and those who take the poisons are guilty of homicide (1st Letter).
Ambrose
The poor get rid of their small children by exposure and denying them when they are discovered. But the rich also, so that their wealth will not be more divided, deny their children [when they are] in the womb and with all the force of parricide, they kill the beings of their wombs [while they are] in the same fruitful womb. In this way life is taken away from them before it has been given (Hexameron).
The Reformed theologian, John Calvin, wrote:
. . . the unborn, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is an almost monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his most secure place of refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy the unborn in the womb… (Commentary on Exodus 21:22).
In recent times, no one was more prolific or prophetic regarding the issue of abortion and the dignity of human life than Pope John Paul II. In The Gospel of Life (1995), he wrote:
The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behavior and even in law itself, is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake… Especially in the case of abortion there is a widespread use of ambiguous terminology, such as “interruption of pregnancy”, which tends to hide abortion’s true nature and to attenuate its seriousness in public opinion… But no word has the power to change the reality of things: procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth.
It is true that the decision to have an abortion is often tragic and painful for the mother, insofar as the decision to rid herself of the fruit of conception is not made for purely selfish reasons or out of convenience, but out of a desire to protect certain important values such as her own health or a decent standard of living for the other members of the family. Sometimes it is feared that the child to be born would live in such conditions that it would be better if the birth did not take place. Nevertheless, these reasons and others like them, however serious and tragic, can never justify the deliberate killing of an innocent human being (58).
As well as the mother, there are often other people too who decide upon the death of the child in the womb. In the first place, the father of the child may be to blame, not only when he directly pressures the woman to have an abortion, but also when he indirectly encourages such a decision on her part by leaving her alone to face the problems of pregnancy: in this way the family is thus mortally wounded and profaned in its nature as a community of love and in its vocation to be the “sanctuary of life” (59).
Is abortion equivalent to the ancient practice of child sacrifice? I am aware of the necessity for certain abortive procedures when life is endangered. For example, an ectopic pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus. In such cases the death of the fetus is certain and the death of the mother is likely and an abortive procedure may be necessary. These events are tragic. However, an abortion for the sake of social or economic convenience is a crime against humanity. The ancient Hebrew Scriptures warned against the practice of child sacrifice.
You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the Lord (Leviticus 18:21).
The people of Israel were forbidden to follow the Canaanite practice of child sacrifice in which children were burned in fire to honor the Canaanite god, Molech. Such practices combined idolatry with murder and profaned the name of God, that is, to deny God’s holiness by wicked behavior (Sklar, Leviticus, 2013). The apostle Paul has written that the highest form of idolatry is the worship of self, or self-deification (Romans 1:21ff). We live in an age in which individual autonomy is the highest form of political freedom. The concept of individual autonomy has become the golden calf of the secular age. Abortion is child sacrifice before the idol of human autonomy. Christians must be reminded of the words of the apostle Paul:
. . . Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. . . Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? . . . the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. . . Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:13-20).
All humans, male and female, are created in the image of God. The human body was created to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, a sacred place. All forms of sexual immorality – fornication, adultery, homosexuality – profane the image of God in humanity. Likewise, abortion is a violent act against a sacred place and a sacred being. Paul insists that child bearing is a sacred act (1 Timothy 2:15). Neither male nor female have absolute autonomy over their bodies. Our bodies belong to the Lord; and in the case of a woman carrying the human fetus, the body she carries also belongs to the Lord.
What’s Next?
Since the United States Supreme Court decided that a woman’s right to an abortion is protected by the United States Constitution (Roe v Wade, 1973), the issue of reproductive health has become a political third rail. Hillary Clinton, past Democrat nominee for President of United States, has said, “The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.” Recently, the state of New York passed legislation that allows abortions up to the moment of birth. Similar legislation is being considered by the legislature of Virginia.
In an article published in the Journal of Medical Ethics (2012) entitled “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?”, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva have suggested:
Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.
It appears that as humanity embraces the secular religion of postmodernity that the future for children is dire. As reprobate politicians and apostate clergy proclaim the anti-gospel of human autonomy hell rejoices and Heaven weeps. The same Jesus who rebuked his disciples for prohibiting little children in his presence likewise rebukes reprobate politicians and apostate clergy with the words,
And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:5-6).
