Historical Development
Although Catholic claims about abortion are not narrowly
religious, certain biblical and early Christian characterizations
of life in the womb no doubt have contributed to an
ethos in which abortion is viewed negatively. The Hebrew
Scriptures (Old Testament) did not treat the killing of a
fetus as the killing of an infant (Exod. 21:22), although the
Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew (early third
century B.C.E.) adds a distinction between the formed and the
unformed fetus, and presents abortion of the former as
homicide. This distinction reflects the ancient Greek view
(Aristotle) that the matter and form of any being must be
mutually appropriate (the hylomorphic theory), and that the
embryo or fetus could not have a human soul ( form) until
the body (matter) was sufficiently developed. Often quoting
the Septuagint, patristic and medieval theologians maintained
this distinction, which remained a key component of
Roman Catholic discussion of abortion until at least the
eighteenth century.
The Gospels do not address abortion explicitly, though
the infancy narratives manifest interest in the importance of
the individual before birth, at least in respect of God’s will
for him or her in the future (Matt. 1:18–25; Luke 1:5–45).
In Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (5:20) and in Revelation
(9:21), condemnations of magical drugs (pharmakeia) associated
with various forms of immorality, including promiscuity
and lechery, may very likely extend to abortifacients.
The connection is made clear in two early Christian texts,
the Didache and the Epistle to Barnabas. “‘You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery. You shall not corrupt boys.
You shall not fornicate. You shall not steal. You shall not
make magic. You shall not practice medicine (pharmakeia).
You shall not slay the child by abortions (phthora). You shall
not kill what is generated. You shall not desire your neighbor’s
wife’ (Didache 2.2)” (Noonan, p. 9).
Contraceptive and abortifacient drugs, as well as infanticide,
were certainly used widely in the ancient world, not
only to conceal sexual crimes but also to limit family size and
conserve property. Early Christian authors such as Tertullian,
Jerome, and Augustine in the Western church, and Clement
of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, and Basil in the Eastern
church, repudiated these practices. They did not, however,
challenge their patriarchal social context, with its requirement
that female sexuality serve the good of the family and
its assumption that women seeking to avoid pregnancy were
usually guilty of sexual infidelity. Local councils tended to
support this stand. In 303 C.E., on the Iberian Peninsula, the
Council of Elvira excluded from the church for the rest of
her life any woman who had obtained an abortion after
adultery. In 314, the Eastern church, at the Council of
Ancyra (Ankara), reduced the period of penance to ten years,
although it retained the lifetime ban for voluntary homicide.
Such church laws made no distinction between the formed
and the unformed fetus, but Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine
considered that the sin of abortion might not be
homicide until after ensoulment. (The fetus was considered
by many ancient writers to receive a soul only after the body
had “formed,” or reached an appropriate level of development,
at about three months.)