Printer-friendly version  Abortion was an issue the early Christian church had to face and the leaders were very clear in speaking out against it. Abortion is not a new issue to confront the Christian community. It was one of the first social problems to have been
addressed by the early fathers of the Church. Abortion and infanticide were widespread ancient Roman practices, hence the early Christians wrote of this issue in their letters and documents.           The Didache ca120 AD: “Do not kill a fetus by abortion or commit infanticide.”           The Epistle of Barnabas 125 A.D.: “Do not kill a fetus by abortion or kill the newborn child.”           Clement of Alexandria ca 150-180 AD: “Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, in order to hide their immorality use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human feelings.”            Tertullian ca 160-240 AD:  “For us [Christians] we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing.”  Some other early church fathers who wrote to condemn abortion: Hippolytus (236 A.D.), Ambrose (339-397 A.D.), Basil (329-379 A.D.), the Quinisext Council (late 7th Century), John Chrysostom (4th Century), Jerome (340-420 A.D.), and Augustine (354-430 A.D.). Abortion was condemned at the Councils of Elvira (305 A.D.) and Ancyra (314 A.D.).            The Christian church has condemned abortion throughout the centuries, some reformers who spoke against abortion were: Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli.            Anglicans for Life has published a booklet Abortion and the Early Christians by Dael E. Smith, Jr. Please see our online catalog.