Peter,

<<There is no explicit statement about abortion in the Old Testament or the New Testament versions of the Bible. >>

The Matthew 5:21 statement by Jesus adds a new dimension to the commandment in Exodus 20:13, ‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment”’ (Matthew 5:21 NIV).

However, what does the Bible state about when human life begins? Isaiah 44:24 states, "This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb" (NIV). "You" are formed as a human being in the womb. It is not some piece of human tissue to be killed.

Exodus confirms the life of a human being in the womb: “Now suppose two men are fighting, and in the process they accidentally strike a pregnant woman so she gives birth prematurely. If no further injury results, the man who struck the woman must pay the amount of compensation the woman’s husband demands and the judges approve. But if there is further injury, the punishment must match the injury: a life for a life (Exodus 21:22-23 NLT). Therefore, the person in the womb is a human "life."

So, there is no need for explicit statements in OT or NT that mention abortion when the Lord forms human beings in the womb of a woman, He calls the person "life." This does not negate the union of a man and a woman.

Whether by firearm or by impregnation, SCOTUS has gleefully green-lit a war on women and children. Culminating in the unbridled sadism of Governor Kristi Noem, who says a 10yo rape victim should carry the child.

Here, with "godly" Morrison gone, ACT/NT can have assisted dying. There will be no extra privileges for Australia's "Christians" to target gay and trans. They must console themselves with the lush $13b funding they get for church schools, and the fake "chaplains" they are allowed to send into our state schools

There is a price to pay for living; it is a very high one which ends automatically in death.

The moral question is then; at what point of life is death acceptable?

To help with this question we must look at the extreme end of life IE: old age.

Surely, the same moral question arises from premature death at both ends of life.

I believe along with Bernard Gert (re above quote), the question of community acceptance or not of abortion, is a moral conundrum, and unsolvable from any moral position.

The default position to the moral high ground solution, (which is insoluble to the expectation of life), is to revert to justice and laws of the community.

Therefore, I conclude the question of acceptability or otherwise of abortion, should be a legal one entirely, which is effectively where the issue stands now in most countries.

I’m happy that abortion is legal if used for the purpose of terminating a forced pregnancy under conditions of rape for example, and for medical emergencies and similar contingencies mentioned in the article, where the child is diagnosed with medical implications that will impact on the mother and further burden the community in which it is born into.

Dan

Agree and well argued Peter! Moreover, the Exodus and the tablets from the mount with the forteen comandments, may be overturned by archological evidence as a non event/fable? And while the golden rule is a good code for cohabitation by human kind! It is not proven as a divinely inspired message.

We hold that all human life is sacrosanct! But it's our rule not that of our God? Inasmuch as he takes it with, one in three, cancer and myriad life ending diseases!

Created in his own image may not mean what many believe, given our God is everywhere present and all powerful. And we exist in that unified field of energy or, if you will, image as an integral part of it. In being the operative word!
Alan B.

Yes, Dan. And we cannot allow children to give birth to children. Nor where pregnancy was obtained without informed consent, i.e., date rape or in any situation, even marriage.

Marriage is a contract between two people not ownership as a sexual slave with no right to say no!

Besides, if one loves the partner, one would first ask, if it's ok sweetheart. If not and the need is urgent? Then lady palmer and her five daughter will as usual, "come" to the rescue?
Alan B.

"Clearly also, if a child is not wanted, it is preferable to terminate as a foetus. It is the lesser of two harms." Really? Does that apply to all children? Or just those who haven't yet been born? What about the elderly who have noone to care for them? Should they too be aborted?
I know many people who were adopted as children due to their biological parents not wanting them. I don't recall any of them moaning that they weren't killed in the womb.