What Does the Bible Say About Abortion? A Biblical Case for Life
Pro-Life Biblical Teachings Demolish the Pro-Choice Rhetoric
Welcome to Original Pentecostal
Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.
In Short
The Bible consistently presents unborn life as God's creative work and precious gift. This Bible study examines twelve key biblical principles showing why I believe Scripture teaches a consistently pro-life view of abortion, affirming the sanctity of every human life from conception onward.
Key Takeaways
- The Bible consistently presents unborn life as God's creation and precious gift.
- God is actively involved in forming each child in the womb.
- Scripture repeatedly values children, birth, and the protection of innocent life.
- Jesus welcomed and blessed little children, reflecting God's heart for them.
- The biblical pattern consistently favors life over death and blessing over destruction.
- This study presents twelve biblical reasons for concluding that Christians should choose life.
Key Scriptures
Genesis 1:27–28; Psalm 139:13–16; Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 127:3; Proverbs 6:16–17; Deuteronomy 30:19; Matthew 19:4–6; Galatians 4:4; Exodus 20:13
Brief Bio
Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D., is a Pentecostal Bible teacher with more than 50 years of Spirit-filled ministry experience. His sermons and Bible studies are personally written and drawn from decades of service as a church planter, senior pastor, Bible college teacher and Dean, and as a trainer of ministers internationally in the Pentecostal tradition.
- [Historical Note: The Supreme Court's 2022 Roe v. Wade Decision] On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that had declared abortion to be a constitutional right. The Court's decision overruled that, declaring that there is no right to an abortion written anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, the Court ruled, the right to make legislation on abortion (for or against) was returned to the individual states, where the Constitution places responsibility for all issues not expressly granted in the Constitution to the federal government.
In sum: In overturning Roe v. Wade, the Courtdid not “ban” abortion, nor did it endorse abortion or legalize it . An all-important thing that the Court did do was to return full responsibility for abortion legislation to the individual states, where it constitutionally belongs. The Court declared that there is no U.S. Constitutional right to an abortion, but rather that the states have the right to make all such legislative decisions on abortion.
So now the ongoing pro-life/pro-abortion debate moves entirely to each individual state’s decision-making processes. The U.S. Constitution having been deemed by the Court to be silent on the subject, the battles now move from Washington, DC, to the state capitols. My fellow Bible-believing Christians, let’s not slacken our efforts tobring God’s clearly-revealed pro-life position (see article below ) into all areas of society. May God bless you in your continuing pro-life efforts, including sharing pro-life biblical teachings with others.
The Bible Is Consistently Pro-Life
“Pro-choice” — The term has become a euphemism for advocacy for abortion, the deliberate, forcible termination of the life of a developing baby in the mother’s womb. When you describe or illustrate the savagery of the abortion procedure, most people are rightly repelled by it. But today its shocking barbarity is cloaked in more tolerable phrases like “pro-choice” or “a woman’s right to choose” or (amazingly) “reproductive health” — despite the fact that abortion is fatally unhealthy to the developing baby! Let’s look at some Scriptural reasons why the pro-choice position cannot possibly be held by any true Bible believer. God is clearly, unequivocally pro-life. When you compare the pro-choice position versus Bible beliefs, God's Word in the Bible is the compelling position 100% of the time.
In the remainder of this Bible study, we'll examine twelve biblical principles that together form a consistent pro-life message throughout Scripture. No single verse uses the word abortion, but the Bible repeatedly reveals God's positive view of unborn life, children, and the sanctity of human life. Taken together, these passages present a clear biblical case for choosing life.
The ‘pro-choice’ position contradicts the biblical fact that reproduction was instituted by God Almighty for the bearing of children
Reproduction is a creative process instituted by God from the beginning. As Jesus rightly pointed out, “the Creator made them male and female…a man…[and] his wife” and intended them to “become one flesh.” In the very first chapter of the Bible, having created them male and female, “God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’.”
God’s marriage plan for a husband and wife includes sexual relations. And God designed that one-flesh relationship to include the bearing of children — Be fruitful and multiply, He said.
The pro-choice endorsement of abortion-on-demand directly contradicts and frustrates what Almighty God instituted for the bearing of children. The choice to abort babies in the womb terminates what God intends to bring forth to life.
It is God who enables a man and his wife to conceive and bear children
Eve recalled God’s exhortation to her and Adam — “Be fruitful and multiply” — and she acknowledged that bearing children involves the Lord’s creative power. The deliberate choice of abortion spurns God’s divine involvement, His supernatural help, in producing children.
The pro-choice extinguishing of a life in the womb directly interrupts and terminates an ongoing, creative work of God
God Himself forms the child in the womb. It is He who “knits us together” in our mother’s wombs. God’s direct involvement — this is important! — in the reproductive process begins at conception, not at birth. Abortion interrupts and abruptly terminates this ongoing, creative work of the Lord.
Abortion also interrupts God’s intended futures for babies who are still in the womb. For example, considering the verse above, abortion would have frustrated Jeremiah’s calling by God to be a prophet.
The choice for abortion is a choice to devalue & reject what the Lord intends to be ‘a gift’ and ‘reward’ to parents
Children are a “gift…a reward” from the Lord. To take their lives while in the womb is to despise the Lord’s good gift and reward. My wife and I have 7 adult children. Each one is a blessing to us, and we readily acknowledge them as God’s gracious “gift and reward.”
Sometimes you’ll hear the defenders of abortion-on-demand say something like this: “How can I bring a child into the terrible circumstances he or she will face in this world?” Let me illustrate the error of that attitude from the history of my first pastor, the late Richard C. “Dick” Benjamin (1925-2019). Dick grew up in Depression-era Montana in a tiny town of 60 residents. The large family he was born into lived in a very small house that they jokingly called “2 rooms and a path” [to the outhouse!] Many pro-choicers would question the wisdom of bearing children into such difficult circumstances. Well, here’s the rest of the story. Dick grew up, turned his life over to Jesus Christ as a late teen, and spent more than a half century in Christian ministry. The church he founded and pastored in Anchorage, Alaska, served many thousands of people over the years. And that church sent out teams to plant about 80 churches in the USA and overseas. Pastor Benjamin’s ministry in the Alaska church became the inspiration for the establishment by Dr. Berin Gilfillan of ISOM, the International School of Ministry, which has become the world’s largest video Bible School. ISOM is now in over 110 languages and in more than 150 nations. Pastor Benjamin’s mother obviously made the right “choice” — the choice to bring him to birth, raise him, and let him go forth to make his mark on the world and on the lives of tens of thousands for all eternity. Abortion would have canceled out the remarkable fruit for eternity of Dick’s life. He was my esteemed spiritual father, and I thank God that his mom considered him to be a gift and chose life for her son.
Someone might ask you what the Bible says about abortion. While the practice was not unknown in the ancient world, the specific word abortion does not even occur in the Bible. My reply to the questioner would be that the Bible is so overwhelmingly pro-life that a choice for abortion does not even deserve mention.
Abortion deprives the elderly of one of God’s greatest blessings: grandparenthood !
My wife Linda and I share the joy of having 24 grandchildren. They are a daily blessing to us. We think of them and pray for them every day. 15 of the 24 live in driving distance of us, so we have the joy of watching their sporting events, their school plays, and more.
I can’t imagine not having those grandchildren in these, our senior years. Tragically, abortion deprives millions of the elderly of one of God’s great intended blessings — being grandparents!
God hates & detests what abortion does; it ‘sheds innocent blood ’
God hates and detests “hands that shed innocent blood.” And I ask you to ponder sincerely: what on earth is more innocent than a baby being formed by God and growing safely in his or her mother’s womb?
One of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not kill” (in the sense of, thou shalt not murder). That child in the womb is a “baby” (see my article here) — not just “fetal tissue” or the “products of conception,” which are terms used in the pro-choice camp to hide the hideous reality of the barbaric execution of human babies in the womb — now in some locales even up to the moment of birth!
The choice for abortion runs intrinsically contrary to the nurturing, maternal instinct God has placed in women
Two women were arguing before King Solomon, each insisting that the living baby before them was theirs. The king said to bring a sword and divide the baby in two, then give each woman one half. The real mother cried out not to cut the baby, but to give it alive to the other woman. But the other woman, who was not the true mother, was OK with the king’s proposal to execute the baby. The reactions of the two women revealed to the king which one was the true mother.
You see, God has built into women a nurturing, protective nature. Wise King Solomon used that fact to discern the true mother of the baby and to return the child to her. Abortion goes drastically contrary to that nurturing, maternal instinct implanted in women by God Himself. I once learned the sad story of a lady who, as a young woman, had agreed to have the baby in her womb aborted. For the rest of her life that decision haunted her, and she spoke of it with great sorrow decades later. Abortion radically assaults that protective, maternal instinct implanted in women by God Himself.
The Savior Jesus — thank you, Mary! — was ‘born of a woman,’ He was not a ‘pro-choice’ casualty
What an honor! Mary was selected by God to carry and give birth to Jesus. The Savior of the world was to be “born of a woman.” She declared, “All generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). Her very special pregnancy and childbearing would be a blessing, not just for her, but for the whole world.
More broadly speaking, in the apostle Paul’s words, every man (and woman) since Adam and Eve is “born of woman … [and this] comes from God.” God’s intention from the beginning has been that pregnancy should culminate in birth. To exterminate by abortion that which the Lord intends to be “born” is an affront to God and His divine plan.
An angel announced to Joseph that his intended wife Mary would miraculously “conceive … from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21). Our very salvation by Jesus began with a birth in Bethlehem. Imagine if Mary had terminated her pregnancy while the Savior was still in her womb. The theological ramifications are staggering!
While on earth, Jesus showed His great love for little children
Jesus loved little children. He was not too busy for them. Rather, He commanded His disciples to let the little children come to Him. He took them in His arms and blessed them. Imagine how the Lord must feel when their lives are snuffed out in the womb! Imagine the wrath the abortion doctors and their willing staffs will face when they are confronted by the Lord at the Last Judgment.
Jesus’ heart is to receive and embrace and bless little children. You’d better not hinder any of them from the opportunity to come to Jesus. A most savage, barbaric way of hindering them is to kill them in the innocence and sanctity of their mother’s womb. These vicious murders will surely be the subject of Jesus’ wrath at the judgment seat of Christ.
In multiple contexts, when you’re faced with life versus death, blessings versus curses, God’s Word says to choose life !
The speaker was Moses. He was relaying God’s message to Israel prior to their entering the Promised Land. He set before them contrasting pairs: life and blessings versus death and curses. And what was God’s exhortation? — “Choose life!”
In principle, the Lord’s words surely apply in many other contexts, and clearly to the pro-life versus pro-choice issue. A pro-choice position embraces death. God says to choose life.
Jesus said that the devil, Satan, has been “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). His successful temptation of Adam and Eve introduced death into the human race (Genesis 3). Consistently in the biblical record we see Satan focusing on death. By sharp contrast, God is a life-giving God. In the creation “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). Spiritually also, God’s vision for mankind is life, eternal life — “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). In every aspect of your life on this earth, don’t choose the devil’s way, which is death, but God’s way, which is life.
Every single one of you reading this today is alive on this earth because your mother chose to give you life, not death at the hands of an abortionist. You were “born of [a] woman,” not surrendered by her to execution. Life is the plan and the heart of God Almighty, who commanded our earliest parents to be fruitful and multiply.
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture consistently points God's people toward life rather than death. That consistent biblical emphasis explains why Christians committed to obeying God's Word should choose life for the unborn as well.
Summary: Twelve Biblical Reasons to Choose Life
1) God is for the bearing of children.
2) He divinely enables it.
3) God forms and “knits together” the baby growing in the womb.
4) Pregnancy is an ongoing, creative process of the Lord, not for us to interrupt.
5) God intends children to be His gift and reward to parents.
6) The newborn children are a “crowning glory” to their grandparents.
7) To abort these little ones is to incur God’s hatred by shedding innocent blood.
8) Abortion is a horrible assault on women’s God-given nurturing, protecting, maternal instincts.
9) The Savior Jesus was born of a woman.
10) Jesus the Son of God greatly loves little ones.
11) Satan’s focus is death; God’s focus is life, as His people’s focus should also be.
12) A prevailing principle of God Almighty in multiple Scriptural contexts is: “Choose life!”
The pro-choice/pro-abortion position is a direct affront to all the above Scriptural considerations and cannot possibly be embraced by any who consider themselves to be God-honoring, Bible-obeying believers. The lives of the most innocent of God’s blessed creations are at stake. I hope that the above 12 pro-life arguments from Scripture will help you advocate for the innocent unborn who are so beloved by God Almighty.
A closing appeal
The lives of millions of precious, yet-to-be-born babies hang in the balance. “Pro-lifers” are aligned with God’s consistent pro-life emphasis from the Garden of Eden to today. Many who support abortion rights have not recognized how consistently Scripture values unborn life and calls God's people to choose life rather than death. I believe that many who approve of abortion, including some who identify as Christians, have simply failed to see God’s unwavering support of life and blessings, rather than death and curses (Deut. 30:19 - “Choose life!”). If our life-affirming message today speaks to your hearts, please consider sharing this article in whatever way you can — email, Facebook, X, WhatsApp, and other social media. Your help in sharing this vital biblical message may save one or more innocent babies’ lives in the womb. Thank you for sharing God’s Word on behalf of His beloved little ones.
Pastor Jim’s Perspective (a heart-touching must-read!)
Many years ago my wife miscarried our child in the womb. What happened in that sad experience left a lifelong memory of the great value we must put on precious babies in the womb. Just days earlier my wife had had a good office visit, where her obstetrician happily reported hearing a good heartbeat from the baby in her womb.
Then not long thereafter, at home she began to hemorrhage severely. We rushed her to the ER, where our obstetrician addressed the emergency, listened for the baby’s heartbeat, and this time found none. Believing in his professional judgment that our baby was deceased, the doctor prepared to take her to the operating room to do the “DNC” procedure necessary to stop the hemorrhaging and prevent any further health dangers from the miscarriage.
But he decided we would stop on the way to the operating room and do an ultrasound first. And on the screen we saw a small dark oval, which the doctor defined as our miscarried baby. BUT… just two inches to the right on the same screen we saw a LIVING BABY happily, actively moving his limbs. I asked the doctor what came next. Of course the intended DNC was canceled, and the doctor said now he would just continue to treat the mother and living baby to full term. After good medical care and much ongoing prayer over the next few months, our son was born healthy and strong.
Our grief over the loss of his twin in the womb was greatly relieved by our joy over our newborn son. I write this to tell you how vividly the image of my living son in the womb stays in my mind. Today he is a strong Christian, with a wonderful wife and family, having earned a Harvard MBA and success in the business world. All thanks to the Lord for an unplanned ultrasound on the way to the O.R. Without that ultrasound my son’s life would have been accidentally extinguished by a procedure very much like what abortionists use to terminate unborn babies' lives. Instead, my son and his family bring great joy to me and my wife in these our later years.
Study This Topic More Deeply
Pro-life or Pro-choice? 7 Bible Reasons Why I'm Pro-life
The Most Dangerous Place in America Is the Womb
Fetus in Utero or Unborn Baby? Fetal Tissue or Human Baby?
Executing Babies: America's Fall into Heartless Barbarity
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Bible say about abortion?
The Bible does not use the specific word abortion, but it consistently presents unborn babies as God's creative work and precious gift. Scripture teaches that God forms children in the womb, values innocent life, calls children a gift and reward, and repeatedly urges His people to choose life rather than death.
Does the Bible teach that life in the womb has value?
Yes. Passages such as Psalm 139:13–16, Isaiah 44:2, and Jeremiah 1:5 describe God as actively forming and knowing people while they are still in the womb. These Scriptures present unborn children as part of God's personal creative work.
Why do Christians believe abortion is contrary to Scripture?
Because the Bible consistently affirms the value of human life, condemns the shedding of innocent blood, describes children as gifts from God, and presents God as the One who forms life in the womb. Taken together, these teachings form a strong biblical case for protecting unborn babies.
What does “choose life” mean in this Bible study?
Deuteronomy 30:19 calls God's people to choose life rather than death. This study applies that biblical principle to unborn children, concluding that Christians should affirm and protect life in the womb rather than intentionally end it.
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