James Talarico and the Bible’s silence on abortion, take 2

I have no doubt you’ve read about this already, but I can’t help it; I have to weigh in too. During a recent voter town hall, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico made the claim that the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion, something he had mentioned previously on "The Jamie Kern Lima Show," where he said Jesus never talks about abortion and that the text is silent on the matter.

And He’s right. Well, sort of. OK, actually not at all if the main thing you want to know is whether the Bible affirms the sanctity of the unborn’s life.  

With his remarks, Talarico follows a long line of others who believe they can disarm the religious objections to abortion. Take, for example, Planned Parenthood, which said many years ago: “The truth is that abortion is not even mentioned in the Scriptures — Jewish or Christian — and there are clergy and people of faith from all denominations who support women making this complex decision.”

Before I respond, let’s all get on the same page with what we’re discussing.

We’re not debating whether God exists. Nor are we asking whether the Bible is inspired by God and has supernatural authorship. What we want to know is whether the text itself speaks at all to the issue of the unborn’s life being equal to you and me.

To start, Talarico is right in that Scripture never uses the words, “thou shalt not commit abortion,” and that Jesus never mentions the subject explicitly. Case closed, right?

Not so fast.

Let’s first remember that an argument from silence is the weakest position a person can take. For example, Christ never calls out rape, child abuse, etc., by name, but does anyone believe Jesus approves of such things given what we know about His teachings and character?

One thing Jesus does say in the biblical text is that what Scripture says on any particular subject is correct. Jesus plainly stated, “the Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), and when speaking to the Father, Christ said: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17). So, if you’re looking to understand what Jesus believed on a subject He didn’t expressly speak about, He affirms what Scripture says.

So, what does the Bible say on this matter?

First, it says murder — the taking of an innocent human life — is wrong. “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13) is in God’s top ten, and Scripture says elsewhere that God hates “hands that shed innocent blood” (Prov. 6:17). On one hand, I feel silly even mentioning this fact, but recent events like the Lindsay Clancy trial and the muddled thinking that followed motivate me to call this out.

Next, let’s ask whether Scripture ever clearly references the unborn, and if so, how it mentions them. The short answer is that they and the sanctity of their life are equated with those already born.

For example, with respect to general references, the Greek term used for the unborn John the Baptist in Luke 1:41 and 1:44 — brephos — is the same term used for the already-born baby Jesus in Luke 2:12 and 2:16. So, whether inside or outside the womb, the Bible refers to a “baby” the same way.

When it comes to how Scripture views the unborn’s life, we find a compelling statement made in the Old Testament regarding the subject: “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life” (Ex. 21:22–23).

Here we have a pregnant woman whose premature delivery results from violence, with the passage making the unborn child central to the legal scenario, not incidental to it. The text says “if there is any further injury” without limiting that injury to the mother, followed by “life for life”: language that reasonably encompasses the death of the unborn child. To restrict this penalty exclusively to the mother requires assuming an exclusion that the passage itself never plainly states, even though pro-abortion critics have tried to detach the unborn child from the situation.

Commenting on the passage, John MacArthur says: “But if there’s any further injury” now, what would “any further injury” mean?  Well, it would have to mean something more severe, including the loss of life. “Then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life.” What’s the point?  The point is if you are responsible for killing an unborn child, you pay with your life. That’s the point.”

If that weren’t enough, Scripture is littered with references to the unborn being seen in the eyes of God as the same inside the womb as outside, with their lives planned out before being born.

A few of these include: “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward” (Ps. 127:3); “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, 'I, the Lord, am the maker of all things” (Is. 44:24); “Did not He who made me in the womb make him, and the same one fashion us in the womb?” (Job 31:15); “For You formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13); “Listen to Me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me” (Is. 49:1); “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5).

Lastly, it's helpful to understand what some early Christian church fathers, Jewish believers in God, and noted theologians believed about what Scripture taught concerning abortion. A few examples include:

“The law [the Old Testament], moreover enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and diminishing humankind” (Josephus).

“Thou shalt not kill a child by abortion, neither shalt thou slay it when born” (The Didache, 2:2).

“We may not destroy even the foetus in the womb. Nor does it matter whether you take away the life that is born or destroy one that is coming to birth” (Tertullian).

In the end, James Talarico can delude himself and others into thinking abortion is OK because Jesus never explicitly talked about it. But the cumulative case Scripture does present on the subject — and Christ’s affirmation that whatever the Bible says is true — clearly points to the practice being condemned.