What the Early Church Said About Abortion

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

38% : In fact, David Bercot, in A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, listed more than 20 relevant quotes under the heading of Abortion/Infanticide, indicating how these church leaders saw abortion and infanticide as two sides of the same coin.
36% : It mirrors the Didache, stating, "Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born" (Letter of Barnabas 19).
34% : Still, they recognized abortion for the evil that it is.
34% : Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder" (Letters 22:13).
34% : And this is just a sampling of the statements of these church leaders, for whom abortion was a deeply sinful practice.
33% : In the words of John Chrysostom, also in the late fourth century, abortion is "murder before the birth."
31% : And this includes the sin of abortion.

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