History of Christian thought on abortion

See also: Religion and abortion
Main article: Christianity and abortion
Part of a series of articles on
Abortion
and the Catholic Church
Official opposition
Philosophy and theology
History
Activism
Dissidence
See also
icon Catholic Church portal

Christianity and abortion has a long and complex history. There is scholarly disagreement on how early Christians felt about abortion. Some scholars have concluded that early Christians took a nuanced stance on what is now called abortion, and that at different and in separate places early Christians have taken different stances.[1][2][3] Other scholars have concluded that early Christians considered abortion a sin at all stages; though there is disagreement over their thoughts on what type of sin it was[4][5][6][7] and how grave a sin it was held to be.[4][6] Some early Christians believed that the embryo did not have a soul from conception,[1][8][9][10] and consequently opinion was divided as to whether early abortion was murder or ethically equivalent to murder.[3][7] Some early Christian texts nonetheless condemned abortion without distinction: Luker mentions the Didache, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Saint Basil.[3] Early church councils punished women for abortions that were combined with other sexual crimes, as well as makers of abortifacient drugs,[3] but, like some early Church Fathers such as Basil of Caesarea, did not make distinction between "formed" and "unformed" fetuses.[11][12]

While Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor held that human life already began at conception,[12] Augustine of Hippo affirmed Aristotle's concepts of ensoulment occurring some time after conception, after which point abortion was to be considered homicide,[13] while still maintaining the condemnation of abortion at any time from conception onward.[14]

Thomas Aquinas reiterated Aristotle's views of successive souls: vegetative, animal, and rational. This would be the Catholic Church's position until 1869, when the limitation of automatic excommunication to abortion of a formed fetus was removed, a change that has been interpreted as an implicit declaration that conception was the moment of ensoulment.[8] Most early penitentials imposed equal penances for abortion whether early-term or late-term, but later penitentials in the Middle Ages normally distinguished between the two, imposing heavier penances for late-term abortions and a less severe penance was imposed for the sin of abortion "before [the foetus] has life".[15]

Contemporary Christian denominations have nuanced positions, thoughts and teachings about abortion, especially in extenuating circumstances.[16][17] The Catholic Church,[18][19] the Eastern Orthodox Church,[20][21] Oriental Orthodoxy, and most evangelical Protestants oppose deliberate abortion as immoral, while allowing what is sometimes called indirect abortion, namely, an action that does not seek the death of the fetus as an end or a means but that is followed by the death as a side effect.[22] Some mainline Protestant denominations such as the Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, among others, are more permissive of abortion.[23] The Waldensian Evangelical Church has also favored the legal right to an abortion.[24] More generally, some Christian denominations can be considered opposed to abortion while others may be considered in favor of abortion rights.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference bakke was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Abortion and Catholic Thought: The Little-Told History" Archived 2012-02-18 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b c d Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood by Kristin Luker, University of California Press
  4. ^ a b Robert Nisbet, Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary (Harvard University Press 1982 ISBN 0-674-70066-X), p. 2
  5. ^ Ana S. Iltis, Mark J. Cherry, At the Roots of Christian Bioethics (M & M Scrivener Press 2010 ISBN 978-0-9764041-8-7), p. 166
  6. ^ a b J. Gorman, Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish, and Pagan Attitudes (InterVarsity Press 1982 ISBN 0-87784-397-X), p. 50
  7. ^ a b Stem cells, human embryos and ethics: interdisciplinary perspectives: Lars Østnor, Springer 2008
  8. ^ a b McBrien, Richard P. The HarperCollins encyclopedia of Catholicism
  9. ^ The Oxford companion to Christian thought
  10. ^ Paul A. B. Clarke; Andrew Linzey (1996). Dictionary of ethics, theology and society. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-06212-1.
  11. ^ M. Therese Lysaught, Joseph Kotva, Stephen E. Lammers, Allen Verhey, On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives on Medical Ethics (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 2012 ISBN 9780802866011), p. 676
  12. ^ a b Michèle Goyens, Pieter de Leemans, An Smets, Science Translated: Latin and Vernacular Translations of Scientific Treatises in Medieval Europe (Leuven University Press 2008 ISBN 9789058676719), p. 384, 399
  13. ^ The Janus face of prenatal diagnostics
  14. ^ Daniel Schiff, Abortion in Judaism (Cambridge University Press 2002 ISBN 978-0-521-52166-6), p. 40
  15. ^ See for instance Michèle Goyens, Pieter de Leemans, An Smets (editors), Science Translated: Latin and Vernacular Translations of Scientific Treatises in Medieval Europe (Leuven University Press 2008 ISBN 978-90-5867-671-9), pp. 390-396 Patrick J. Geary, Readings in Medieval History (University of Toronto Press 2010 ISBN 978-1-4426-0116-1), Vol. 1, p. 255. Karin E. Olsen, Antonina Harbus, Tette Hofstra, Germanic Texts and Latin Models (Peeters 2001 ISBN 978-90-429-0985-4), pp. 84-85 and John Thomas McNeill, Helena M. Gamer, Medieval Handbooks of Penance (Hippocrene Books 1965 ISBN 978-0-374-95548-9)
  16. ^ "Religious Groups' Official Positions on Abortion" Archived 2010-04-22 at the Wayback Machine Pew Forum
  17. ^ "Where does God stand on abortion?" USA Today
  18. ^ "Abortion". Catholic Answers. Catholic.com. 2004-08-10. Archived from the original on 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
  19. ^ The Catholic Teaching on Abortion, Allocution to Large Families, Nov. 26, 1951, Pope Pius XII
  20. ^ Vranic, Vasilije (January 2009). "The Orthodox Perspective on Abortion at the occasion of the National Sanctity of Human Life Day 2009". Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
  21. ^ Harakas, Stanley S. "The Stand of the Orthodox Church on Controversial Issues". Our Faith. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
  22. ^ Christopher Robert Kaczor, The Ethics of Abortion (Taylor & Francis 2010 ISBN 978-0-415-88468-6), p. 187
  23. ^ Glassman, Ronald M.; Swatos, William H.; Denison, Barbara J. (2004). Social Problems in Global Perspective. University Press of America. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-7618-2933-1. Among Protestants, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, the United Church of Christ (U.C.C.), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, among others, recognize the possibility of abortion under certain circumstances and support the rights of women to make this difficult decision in an informed and prayerful manner.
  24. ^ "Chiesa Evangelica Valdese - Unione delle chiese Metodiste e Valdesi". chiesavaldese.org (in Italian). 2006-05-09. Archived from the original on 2006-05-09. Retrieved 2023-02-21.