Sanctity of unborn human life
The doctrine that the unborn child is a human person from conception, made in the image of God, and that intentional abortion is therefore the taking of innocent human life. This is the position of the historic church from the Didache (1st century) through Augustine, the Catholic Magisterium, and most evangelical and Orthodox bodies. Some mainline Protestant denominations have softened or reversed this position. Look for "pro-life", "sanctity of life", or by contrast "reproductive rights", "reproductive justice", "right to choose" as signals.
This doctrine distinguishes traditions but is not a boundary of orthodoxy.
Who binds this (creedal)
Every affiliated congregation inherits its denomination's position. Follow a chip to see the confession's language.
Key scriptures
- 1Cor 3:16 — Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
- 1Pet 3:15 — But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
- Eccl 11:5 — As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.
- Exod 21:22 — If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
- Gal 1:15 — But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
- Gen 1:27 — So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
- Isa 49:1 — Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
- Jer 1:5 — Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
- Job 10:8 — Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
- Job 31:15 — Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?
- Luke 1:41 — And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
- Luke 1:44 — For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
- Matt 18:10 — Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
- Ps 127:3 — Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
- Ps 139:13 — For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
What the confessions say
Articles of the historic confessions that address this doctrine.
- Reformed Canons of Dort 2.R5 — Of the Death of Christ and the Redemption of Men Thereby
- Reformed Belgic Confession Art15 — The Doctrine of Original Sin
- Lutheran Augsburg Confession Article 2 — Of Original Sin
- Reformed Canons of Dort 2.R6 — Of the Death of Christ and the Redemption of Men Thereby
- Roman Catholic Council of Trent (Canons) On Baptism · Canon 13 — On Baptism
- Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion Article 9 — Of Original or Birth-sin
The Church Fathers
The earliest Fathers who commented on the Scriptures above.
If you defile your flesh, you will also defile the Holy Spirit; and if you defile your flesh and spirit, you will not live.
Now, that the Word of God forms us in the womb, He says to Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou wentest forth from the belly, I sanctified thee, and appointed thee a prophet among the nations." And Paul, too, says in like manner, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, that…
What, then, shall we say of the Gnostic himself? "Know ye not," says the apostle, "that ye are the temple of God?" The Gnostic is consequently divine, and already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne. Now the Scripture, showing that sinning is foreign to him, sells those who have fallen away to strangers, saying, "Look not on a strange…
Therefore even Elisabeth must be silent although she is carrying in her womb the prophetic babe, which was already conscious of his Lord, and is, moreover, filled with the Holy Ghost. For without reason does she say, "and whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? " If it was not as her son, but only as a…
Now whether it is said to Jeremiah or to the Savior: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you"—when you have read Genesis and observed the things said concerning the creation of the world, you will find that Scripture, most precisely in its terms, did not say "Before I made you in the womb I knew you." For when the one "according to…
For inasmuch as the Apostle Paul says again, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? " -even although love urged us less to bring help to the brethren, yet in this place we must have considered that it was the temples of God which were taken captive, and that we ought not by long…