Of course, the Bible says nothing directly about abortion, since ancient medicine did not know this procedure. Nevertheless, the biblical position on this question can be identified quite clearly.

In biblical texts, the human embryo at any stage of development, even the earliest, is regarded as a human being who has basic human characteristics. The embryo's development takes place before God's eyes, and every stage of this development is part of God's design for a person. Before the human embryo comes into being, all the days of a person's life are "written in the book"; that is, God's design for a person precedes his conception. This is clearly shown by the words of Ps. 139:14-17; it is also shown by the words God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about his calling before God formed him in his mother's womb (Jer. 1:5) and by words of similar meaning from the apostle Paul (Gal. 1:15). The prophet Isaiah of Babylon says several times that God's design for a person exists not only from the moment a person is formed in the mother's womb; more than that, from conception itself God takes part in a person's life, helping and protecting him.

The Law of Moses provides for liability for actions that lead to the death of a fetus in the mother's womb; this liability differs from liability for intentional killing, but the law is considering only a case of unintentional actions.

Words that speak about the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ hold a special place among the texts that express the biblical attitude toward the embryo. The key fact here is that in the Incarnation the Son of God takes on the whole of human nature, including the period of development in the womb. This is shown by Isaiah of Babylon's prophecy about the birth of Christ (Isa. 49:1). The evangelist Matthew states this especially clearly (Matt. 1:20): according to his words, the embryo in the womb of the Virgin Mary is already Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man. Finally, the evangelist Luke testifies (Luke 1:41) that John the Baptist carries out his prophetic ministry while still in his mother's womb and in this sense is fully human.

Thus, despite the incompleteness of its biological development, the human embryo is a human being in the Bible's view. From this it clearly follows that the intentional killing of an embryo is the same kind of murder as the killing of an adult person, aggravated by the embryo's defenselessness. The Bible explicitly forbids every murder (see the topic "murder").