Conversations about abortion: How, not what?

How should Christians think about abortion? And what does Scripture say? One could point to passages of scripture like Psalms 139:13-14 that, on the surface, appear to affirm that a valuable life begins in the womb. Christian pro-lifers often appeal to the “sanctity of life” in this sense. The commandment not to kill/murder is often brought up as applying to abortion.

On the other hand, one could point to many passages in the books of the law, the books of history, and the prophets that suggest that the life of a fetus (or even an infant) is not equivalent to that of a grown person. Exodus 21:22-23 orders a mere fine to be paid if a fight causes a woman to miscarry. In Leviticus 27, there is a list of the monetary worth of people of differing ages. There is no mention of fetuses, and even infants under one month of age don’t have a value placed on them. Furthermore, there are instances when God is attributed with the command to kill women and children, including infants and presumably fetuses (when all non-virgin women are supposed to be slaughtered in Numbers 31:15-17). Curses include having babies dashed upon the ground and the bellies of pregnant women being ripped open (Hosea 13:16). And in the Passover, God directly kills the firstborn son of every Egyptian family, which would include infants. (This passage has always made me upset, even in elementary, seeing as I am the oldest child in my family…)

The point is, there isn’t necessarily a single “biblical” answer to the abortion question. The Bible is composed of a cacophony of voices, often with very different things to say about the “issues” evangelical subculture thinks about. The issue is far too complex to assume that what Christians think about abortion will be homogenous. However, how we should discuss abortion seems pretty clear to me. In a conversation dominated by certainty and violence towards the other, Christians should talk about abortion in a way that demonstrates charity and humility, with the goal of understanding why people think differently.