by Robert Robertson

Created on: February 05, 2010

I contend that abortion is a sin because, as I will show, abortion is killing a human being.  The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia defines sin as “the transgression of God’s law”.  The Holy Scriptures tell us not to kill (Exodus 20:13 also known as the 6th commandment) thus making killing a sin.  The Hebrew word for kill means more than just premeditated murder.  According to Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions the Hebrew word for kill/murder also means negligent homicide and accidental killings.  To determine if abortion is a sin we need to find biblical evidence that abortion fits the definition of the Hebrew word used for murder or killing. 

First we need to determine if a fetus is considered person by God.  Scripture tells us that God knitted us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).  God can make one woman fruitful and another barren (Genesis 23:31).  Children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3).  I contend that these three verses, plus many more that I haven’t cited, clearly show that to God a child in the womb is a person and as such killing that person is a sin.

I can understand that for some those verses may not be definitive proof and that you may still have doubts as to whether or not abortion is a sin.  To answer your doubts, we need to look at Exodus 21:22 (ESV) "When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine” .  God told the Israelites that hitting a pregnant woman and causing her to give birth is a sin that needs to be punished.  The punishment is a fine, but it is punishment.  We also need to look at the three verses immediately following this one.  “But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exodus 21:23-25).  Here God is clearly telling the Israelites that if the baby in a mother’s womb is injured and dies, that He considers it killing and the penalty for the attacker is death.

If forcing an unborn child out of the womb so that it dies is a sin, punishable by death in the Old Testament, then killing that unborn child while it is still in the womb is killing and thus a sin.

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