If you ask the Bible for a clear modern “pro-life” rule you will not find one. There is no verse that bans abortion no commandment that defines the fetus as a legal person and no consistent biblical timeline for when personhood begins. What you will find are diverse texts—law poetry prophecy ritual—each doing different jobs. Read in context they point to a consistent conclusion: in the Bible life is defined at birth when breath enters the body not at conception. Below I will walk through the main passages and the best historical evidence.
The one legal case in Exodus 21
The law in Exodus 21:22–23 says: “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. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life.”
If the woman miscarries the penalty is a fine. If the mother herself dies then it is life for life. The unborn are not given the same status as the mother’s life.
Breath and the start of life
In Genesis 2:7 we read: “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Adam only became alive when he breathed.
Job 33:4 says: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
Ezekiel 37:5–6 declares: “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live.”
Over and over Scripture links life with breath not conception.
The ritual ordeal in Numbers 5
Numbers 5:27–28 describes the outcome of the bitter water test: “When she has made her drink the water, then if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.”
This shows pregnancy could be divinely terminated as a judgment, and the loss of a fetus was not called murder.
Counting people and valuing lives
In Leviticus 27:6 the law of vows says: “If the person is from a month old up to five years old, the value shall be five shekels of silver for a male, and three shekels of silver for a female.”
Numbers 3:15 says: “Number the sons of Levi by fathers’ houses and by clans; every male from a month old and upward you shall number.”
Legal counting of life begins one month after birth. Fetuses are not in view.
Poetic descriptions of the womb
Psalm 139:13–16 says: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
Jeremiah 1:5 declares: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
These are poetic expressions of God’s care not legal statutes about abortion.
Murder statutes
The Ten Commandments state in Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.”
But the homicide laws like Exodus 21:23 clearly apply to born persons, not to miscarriages. The fetus is not equated with a person under these rules.
The New Testament
In Luke 1:41–44 we read: “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.’”
This is a theological story about John’s prophetic calling not a law against abortion. The New Testament contains no prohibition of abortion.
Jewish tradition on maternal life
The Mishnah Ohalot 7:6 says: “If a woman is in hard labor, one cuts up the child in her womb and brings it out limb by limb, because her life takes precedence over its life. But if its head has emerged, one may not touch it, for one may not set aside one life for another.”
This shows the mother’s life was considered primary until birth.
Christian history and ensoulment
Because the Bible does not specify a moment of personhood, Christians turned to philosophy. Augustine and Aquinas taught that a fetus was not fully human until “quickening” when movement could be felt. Abortion before that was sinful but not homicide. Only in 1869 did Pope Pius IX declare abortion at any stage to be homicide and attach excommunication.
Quickening in law
In English and American common law for centuries, abortion before quickening was not treated as a major crime. After quickening it could be punished more severely, but it was still not classified as murder.
Molech and child sacrifice
Leviticus 18:21 warns: “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.”
This passage condemns sacrificing born children not pregnancy loss.
Conclusion
The Bible consistently treats life as beginning at birth. Genesis ties life to breath. Exodus distinguishes between harm to the mother and the fetus. Laws count persons only after one month of life. Poetry and prophecy celebrate God’s care but never legislate against abortion. Jewish law upheld the mother’s life first. Christian theology for most of its history did not teach that life began at conception. Modern pro-life ideology is a political development not a biblical command. The consistent biblical picture is that life begins at birth when breath enters the body.
References
- Mishnah Ohalot 7:6.
- Augustine, On Exodus and On Marriage and Concupiscence.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I, Q. 118.
- Pius IX, Apostolic Constitution Apostolicae Sedis (1869).
- John T. Noonan, Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists.
- John Keown, Abortion, Doctors, and the Law: Some Aspects of the Legal Regulation of Abortion in England from 1803 to 1982.