For over fifty years the Christian right in the United States has been attempting to ban abortion. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the faux pro-life conservative Christians have been doubling down in their misogynistic attempts to control women’s bodies. Take the 2023 “Statement on Christian Nationalism and the Gospel,” a manifesto of sorts for theocratic Christian nationalists like Oklahoma state senator Dusty Deevers and former Trump official William Wolfe. In the document, of which Deevers was one of the authors, and Wolfe a contributing editor, it states, “We affirm that lesser magistrates may and must disobey a lawless higher magistrate to obey God. For example, lesser magistrates -such as State governments, counties, municipalities – must disregard any order, statute, or ruling from a higher magistrate- such as the Federal government- instructing them to allow abortion.” In their view, according to the document, they believe that they can force others to follow their interpretation of the Bible because they deny that the Bible is “only authoritative over confessing Christians” (1) –the first amendment be damned.

The temerity of right wing Christians, and in particular Christian nationalists, to claim to speak for God is nothing new. Authoritarian Christian movements have done so for many centuries now since abandoning the teachings of Jesus in order to curry favor with the Roman empire. And so it goes. They often do so while completely ignoring the parts of the Bible that tell Christians to love their neighbors, love their enemies, practice the golden rule, welcome the stranger, feed and clothe the poor, and to eschew earthly power while being servants of the “least of these” instead. In the case of abortion, they ignore completely the little the Bible has to say on the matter. With that in mind, let’s get biblically literal about abortion and show the Christian nationalists how wrong they are to claim God commands that abortion be banned.

To begin with, let us remember that in Judaism, life is said to begin not at conception as conservative Christians claim, but rather with the first breath. This belief is likely traced back to Genesis 2:7 which states, “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” (NRSV) As the text clearly states, life only began with the first breath. Perhaps there are those who dispute this by pointing out that Adam was not a woman carrying a gestating fetus in the womb, thus nullifying Genesis 2:7, at least in regards to the abortion debate. Whether or not life begins at conception is moot if murder is wrong. After all in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:13 it says, “You shall not murder,” so why would that commandment not apply to a fetus as conservative Christians vehemently claim? In short, because one chapter later in Exodus, it is made clear that killing a fetus is not murder according to the Torah.

In Exodus 21:22-23 the death of a fetus is directly addressed. “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, stripe for stripe.” It’s literally right there in black and white and perfectly unambiguous — the death of a fetus is not considered murder even when the miscarriage was caused by violence.

Beyond the above passage dealing with the death of a fetus, there is very little else said about abortion in the Bible. In Numbers 5:12-28 (2) a ritual is described in which a woman suspected of adultery by a jealous husband is forced to endure ritual humiliation that may in end in a miscarriage. The women subjected to the ritual in Numbers 5:12-28 were told “the Lord make you an execration and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your uterus drop, your womb discharge,” thus showing that according to the Bible, God sanctioned abortion in some circumstances in the Ancient Near East. This, while not directly analogous to present arguments in favor of a pregnant person’s right to choose, in my opinion puts paid to the conservative argument that there should be no exceptions on abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

Christians should realize that Jesus never said a word about abortion according to the Gospel narratives. He did however over turn the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” practice of retribution in Matthew 5:38. He also healed those who asked him for healing. Contrast that with the views of Christian nationalists like Ben Zeisloft and others who claimed that Katie Cox “murdered her disabled child” (3) after the State of the Union address. This was despite the fact that Cox’s pregnancy was determined to be a high risk for trisomy 18 and that if carried to term may have harmed her. (4) She was forced to leave Texas to have an abortion because of Texas’ draconian laws which seek to control women and others who can become pregnant. There is nothing truly Christian about these laws. As I have written elsewhere, this is about control and outlawing abortion is a crime against humanity — see my essay “Crimes against humanity” here : Theological Musings Volume 1.

Anti-abortion Christians who use the Bible as a weapon against women don’t have a leg to stand on when faced with what the Bible actually says. As I have shown, the Bible says that life begins with the first breath, the death of a fetus even by violence is not murder, and even God sanctioned abortion under some circumstances. We are thousands of years removed from when these texts were written and humanity has advanced greatly in the realms of science and medicine. Abortion is a medical procedure and as such should be left to the pregnant person, their doctors, and if they so decide, family members. There is no reason, theological or otherwise, why the government should be forcing women and others capable of becoming pregnant, to remain pregnant. Doing so literally violates Matthew 7:12 (5) and does nothing but cause harm to those who want bodily autonomy. Being pro-fetus is not pro-life. Christians of every stripe should fight for true pro-life policies such as social safety nets to eliminate poverty, fully funded schools, abolishing warfare and the death penalty, and ensuring that the planet remains habitable rather than coercing people to become and remain pregnant.

(1) https://www.statementonchristiannationalism.com/

(2) Numbers 5:12-28 NRSVUE

(3) https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft/status/1766192632374432051

(4) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/11/texas-abortion-kate-cox-lawsuit

(5) Matthew 7:12