# Why are Christians typically so Anti-Abortion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 30, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456 "2003-10-30T15:40:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/1 "2003-10-30T15:40:39Z")
Why the link between religions, particularly fundamental Christians, and the Pro-life camp? I realize that there are athiest pro-lifers out there, but it seems that, for the most part, anti-abortion is mostly a Christian cause. The Bible (as far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong) doesn’t specifically forbid abortion [other than prohibiting murder, but being anti-murder is not a position that Christians have the corner on]. Reading from my KJV bible, the famously (and usually used out of context) Exodus 21:22-25: > [@](#): > > If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall surely be punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. > > And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for a life, > > Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for a hand, foot for a foot, > > Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. It seems to me that the OT doesn’t regard a fetus on the same level as a human. So why are Christians typically so anti-abortion? ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/2 "2003-10-30T15:53:11Z")
They consider the fetus a human being… thou the biblical backing for that I can’t venture on. I would add the factor that having free and independent women that won’t have babies is too much “modernity” and liberty for many. Housewives in the kitchen taking care of the kids is good I suppose… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/3 "2003-10-30T15:54:54Z")
Because there are other references that can be used to support the idea of humanity/existence as a person beginning either at conception or at least very soon afterwards. Plus the logic that abortion makes it easier to escape the consequences of extra-marital sex (although this can’t be the primary driver, or else we’d see a lot more opposition to contraception). ---
**Author:** ![sghoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@sghoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sghoul)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/4 "2003-10-30T15:54:54Z")
You are probably going to get a wide range of answers. The one I hear the most is that God wanted that life and by destroying it, you went against his will. This is usually followed up by someone saying “what if that unboon was going to be the next mother Teresa”. As a Christian, until I am shown when a fetus get’s a soul, I don’t know if abortion is ok or not (since a soul defines, to me, when murder occures). I also believe in mercy, and I don’t want to force a life into a world where it isn’t wanted, or would be be in a bad situation. As far as law goes, unless someone can proove that it is murder, things should be pro-choice. ---
**Author:** ![Svt4Him](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@Svt4Him](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svt4Him)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/5 "2003-10-30T16:04:41Z")
There are a few verses that describe how God forms babies, before they are born. Can’t get them there, but whether they will be the next greatest person in the world or not isn’t really relevant, as even if they live in some farm in the hicks, they are still humans. As for whether they have souls, show me anyone’s soul. (yes I beleive we have them). Watch a movie like silent scream and see if that baby had a soul…if the movie is still around. **sghoul** , that is not logical to say that either a baby will be aborted, or be brought into the world and be unwanted. There are more options than killing the baby. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/6 "2003-10-30T16:19:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rucksinator \* > \*\*It seems to me that the OT doesn’t regard a fetus on the same level as a human. > > So why are Christians typically so anti-abortion? \*\* You don’t have to believe that a fetus is on the same level as a human to believe that abortion is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/7 "2003-10-30T17:41:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rashak Mani \* > **They consider the fetus a human being… thou the biblical backing for that I can’t venture on.** I believe the Bible verse most often brought up to explain is this one: > [@](#): > > Jeremiah 1:5 > Before I formed you in the womb I chose you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. ---
**Author:** ![sghoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@sghoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sghoul)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/8 "2003-10-30T17:51:30Z")
When something has a soul is important to me, because until that time, it’s just meat. Our souls are what make us different that animals. Now, if you don’t believe in souls, there’s no reason to continue, as this thread was in regards to Christians, whom pretty much all believe in an immortal soul. As for other options, yes there are. I am of the mind that life is difficult enough, even when brought into it under good conditions. Gambling that adoptive parents will do ok, or that the person won’t go through extra pain when they find out they weren’t wanted or whatever other possibilities there are. In the end though, I was reffering to laws. I don’t believe that my beliefs as a Christian should dictate other people’s actions. While I think it would be a much better world if everyone loved their neighbors, I don’t feel that God wants us to FORCE people to do His will. If He did, He would have forced us Himself and cut out the middleman. As such, I don’t think the government in this country has any right telling someone what they can’t and can’t do with their bodies and force children into the world. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/9 "2003-10-30T18:08:09Z")
For me, it is because I believe that the merging of the sperm and the egg is done for only one reason. To create human life. It has no other purpose. So for that reason alone, I am pro-life. I figure that once the process starts, the intended end result is a human with a soul, therefore, any intentional human intervention would be wrong. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/10 "2003-10-30T20:42:05Z")
Pro-choice Christian here, because I don’t believe in coercing others into my understanding of right and wrong. However life is a precious gift from God that you should be legally free to reject, (just as God made us free to reject Him) when you don’t believe it is a precious gift. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/11 "2003-10-30T21:11:16Z")
You’ve mis interpretted that verse : Exodus 21:22-25 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/12 "2003-10-30T21:25:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sghoul \* > When something has a soul is important to me, because until that time, it’s just meat. Our souls are what make us different that animals. Now, if you don’t believe in souls, there’s no reason to continue, as this thread was in regards to Christians, whom pretty much all believe in an immortal soul. I have a hard time understanding this. If you don’t know when the soul comes into being, wouldn’t it be wise to err on the conservative side? I mean, if you believe in a soul. I don’t, and so I’m OK with abortion-- at least until the fetus is viable. But if I were a Christian and believed in an immortal soul, I sure as hell wouldn’t support abortion. I’d hate to be standing at the proverbial Pearly Gates with St Peter (or whoever) looking over my actions and having to plead: “Well, we didn’t know if it had a soul, so we killed it assuming that it didn’t. Was that wrong? Oh, we should’ve assumed it **did** have a soul? D’oh!! :smack:” ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/13 "2003-10-30T21:35:12Z")
> [@](#): > > [21:22"If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges {decide.}](http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=Exodus+21%3A22§ion=0&version=nas&new=1&oq=&NavBook=ex&NavGo=21&NavCurrentChapter=21) ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/14 "2003-10-30T23:31:26Z")
I recall reading in the book, “Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven”, by Uta Ranke-Heinemann, that the Catholic Church had, at one time early on, a rather definite position on when bodies become soul-infused. Church teachings said that souls in babies were infused 40 days _after_ birth, for a boy, and 80 days, post partum, for a girl. If I indeed read this passage correctly, when did it change? If it was once believed, why not any longer? And why the discrepancy between the sexes? If this was still held to, wouldn’t this be a too-convenient end run around the prohibition against abortion? Many teachings and opinions have changed over the centuries, is this just another one to add to the list? ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/15 "2003-10-30T23:37:26Z")
Further explanation of the passage in question can be found [here](http://www.str.org/free/commentaries/abortion/whatexod.htm). Suffice to say that it does not mean what **Rucksinator** claims it means. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/16 "2003-10-30T23:58:56Z")
Are Christians the only religion that frowns on Abortion? And, it doesn’t really seem to be Christians so much as “pro-lifers”- they do not have a one-to-one correspondence. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/17 "2003-10-31T03:43:15Z")
I am not a Christian or a pro-lifer. But from what I know of religious history, Christianity did bring something entirely new into the Mediterranean world: The idea that all human souls are equally precious. All are children of God, none more so than another, and all are important in His eyes. That’s not unique to Christianity. of course – a Buddhist _boddhisatva_ vows, “Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them all.” And they’re talking about people **and** plants and animals! But in the ancient Roman world, it was a very new thing. All the pagan religions had more or less divided humanity into the noble (natural masters), who mattered, and the ignoble (natural slaves), who did not matter. Judaism took a long, long time to come around to the idea that gentiles are as important to God’s universe as Jews, and I think some Jews haven’t reached that point even yet. (One of the classic puzzlers of Talmudic scholarship: “Why did God make goyim?” The commonest answer is, “ **Somebody** has to buy retail!”) I see Christian pro-lifers as taking Christianity’s basic attitude to one of its arguable logical conclusions: If fetuses have souls, then they are no less important than persons who have already been born, and no less deserving of protection. ---
**Author:** ![JXJohns](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jxjohns/32/469_2.png) [@JXJohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JXJohns)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/18 "2003-10-31T04:43:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rashak Mani \* > \*\*…I would add the factor that having free and independent women that won’t have babies is too much “modernity” and liberty for many. Housewives in the kitchen taking care of the kids is good I suppose… \*\* Actually much of that sounds like the opinion on women in Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![SunTzu2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@SunTzu2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunTzu2U)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/19 "2003-10-31T05:36:30Z")
Simple, because killing is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456/20 "2003-10-31T06:14:23Z")
I believe that killing is wrong, but I am consistent. I also believe that that fetus’s life continues to be valuable when it is an adult – an adult woman, perhaps pregnant – or someone on trial for a terrible crime – or someone who sees himself as my enemy and wishes to destroy me. That life remains valuable. [quote] **SunTzu2U** : Simple, because killing is wrong. Okay. Then let’s negotiate. No abortions unless the life of the mother is endangered, no war, no death penalty. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christians-typically-so-anti-abortion/210456.md?page=2)