These two topics seem intimately related in a way that’s in all our faces right now as it was when Savita Halappanavar sadly died.
Let’s have a little look into it…
First, let’s see what the Old Testament says upon the topic, shall we?
Exodus 21
22 When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine.
23 If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
So… if you punch a pregnant woman and in so doing murder her baby then you must pay up to the father what he demands; but if the man’s wife dies as a result of your attack then he may have you killed.
Fantastic this “moral guidance”, isn’t it? Now… if a man wanted the baby terminated he could get a friend to do it and demand payment of 1 shekel, could he not? But oh, no, that’s not the story from which some Christians derive their moral certainty to the point of firebombs and undermining democracy. Nor does it bother them that the good Lord Himself offered to perform abortions within the same texts.
HOWEVER… the thing is… they are not some odd new faction; some deviation from the rule; some modern invention… no, no… instead, you’ll find (if you dig into it) that Christians from the early days of Christianity have been staunchly “pro life”.
Consider a book I oft bring up because it is so instructive about what Christianity was (and to a degree still is): the Apocalypse of Peter. Consider it well and know that it was once in the Christian canon (as attested by the Muratorian Fragment) and that whilst its text was once lost to history it was so important in Christianity that we knew much of what it said from commentaries on it by early Christian writers.
Now, though, we’ve rediscovered the text. And what a doozy.
Here’s a choice sample:
17 And the dwellers in that place were clad with the raiment of shining angels, and their raiment was like unto their land.
18 And angels ran round about them there.
19 And the glory of them that dwelt there was all equal, and with one voice they praised the Lord God, rejoicing in that place.
20 The Lord saith unto us: This is the place of your leaders (or, high priests), the righteous men.
21 And I saw also another place over against that one, very squalid; and it was a place of punishment, and they that were punished and the angels that punished them had their raiment dark, according to the air of the place.
22 And some there were there hanging by their tongues; and these were they that blasphemed the way of righteousness, and under them was laid fire flaming and tormenting them.
23 And there was a great lake full of flaming mire, wherein were certain men that turned away from righteousness; and angels, tormentors, were set over them.
24 And there were also others, women, hanged by their hair above that mire which boiled up; and these were they that adorned themselves for adultery.
And the men that were joined with them in the defilement of adultery were hanging by their feet, and had their heads hidden in the mire, and said: We believed not that we should come unto this place.
25 And I saw the murderers and them that were consenting to them cast into a strait place full of evil, creeping things, and smitten by those beasts, and so turning themselves about in that torment. And upon them were set worms like clouds of darkness. And the souls of them that were murdered stood and looked upon the torment of those murderers and said: O God, righteous is thy judgement.
26 And hard by that place I saw another strait place wherein the discharge and the stench of them that were in torment ran down, and there was as it were a lake there. And there sat women up to their necks in that liquor, and over against them many children which were born out of due time sat crying: and from them went forth rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were they that conceived out of wedlock (?) and caused abortion.
27 And other men and women were being burned up to their middle and cast down in a dark place and scourged by evil spirits, and having their entrails devoured by worms that rested not. And these were they that had persecuted the righteous and delivered them up.
28 And near to them again were women and men gnawing their lips and in torment, and having iron heated in the fire set against their eyes. And these were they that did blaspheme and speak evil of the way of righteousness.
So be in no doubt among you that Christianity and abortion have a long history. And Christianity has always (and still does) incline people to the wrong side of this (and every other) moral debate that’s arisen since its real inception (in the sense we know it today) by the Romans after destroying the Second Temple in what we decided half a millennium later to call 70AD.
Now here’s a catch-22 for any Christians out there who are opposed to women’s rights to govern their own internal organs:
Do you want to leave the Bible as it is (with its pro-abortion stance) or would you prefer to include the Apocalypse of Peter (which also has lesbians condemned to Hell, BTWs)? OR… are you going to just merrily carry on with the Bible as it is and you lying about what it says?