"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." (Psalm 139:13)
"Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God." (Psalm 22:9-10)
"Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?" (Job 31:15)
Also, when Mary visits her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, she says "For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy." (Luke 1:44)
These are only a few examples. In Genesis, when God made ADAM, the first man, *his* life began with the breath of God. After that, we see a great deal of examples in the Bible that either outright say or heavily imply that God forms us and knows us IN OUR MOTHER'S WOMB.
And just as a disclaimer, I am not disagreeing with your stance on abortion - I am saying your arguments that use Scripture need strengthening, because what you are currently saying is not true. Wishing you a good day, and God bless.
Okay, but literally none of those are about abortion. They're mentioning that babies are developed in the womb.
Exodus 21:22 is, however, a part of the Bible that actually does mention the fetus.
“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. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”
This is fascinating because it outlines specific punishments for specific crimes. If a pregnant person is hurt in a struggle and then has a miscarriage, the penalty is a fine, a mere financial payment. But, if there is further harm, likely meaning the person has long-term and serious injuries or even dies, then the culprit could be killed.
Granted, the story has somewhat limited application to the current abortion debate since it deals with accidental and not willful pregnancy termination. Even so, the distinction made between the pregnant person and the fetus is important. The pregnant individual is valued as a person under the convenant; the fetus is valued as property. Its status is certainly inferior to that of the pregnant person.
This passage gives no support to the parity argument that gives equal religious and moral worth to the pregnant person and fetus.
In other words, the life and well-being of the pregnant person, is of much greater significance than those of their unborn child.
Furthermore, an excerpt from Numbers 5:11-31 actually mentions a ritual involving "bitter water" that will induce a miscarriage. This ritual, by the way, was conducted by a priest:
"He shall make the woman drink the bitter water... The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as an offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. When she is made to drink the water... it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry"
In terms of the Bible, other than the bit about life beginning at first breath, that is about it. We can dig away at some other scriptural references to try to justify various positions on this issue, but they’re all somewhat tenuous and none of them make an ironclad argument. It’s not that the Bible demands abortion rights, more that it simply doesn’t have anything pertinent to say about the subject.
Of course, if opponents of abortion were genuinely to live by the commandment that we must never kill, they would oppose wars, the military, the death penalty, and policies that lead directly to poverty, hunger, ill health, and death. To the contrary, the anti-abortion movement has become increasingly politically conservative over the years—it was, for example, one of the bulwarks of the Donald Trump presidency—and tends to be solidly behind the military and an aggressive foreign policy. It’s usually supportive of the death penalty as well. Contradiction and inconsistency. Abortion isn’t murder, murder is murder. Abortion isn’t a holocaust, the Holocaust was a holocaust.
A person's right to choose is a person's right to choose, and it’s downright unbiblical to try to twist scripture to argue against it.
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