Jesus talked about a lot of things.
He talked about immigration, wealth distribution, the poor, the sick, and other marginalized populations.
He even had a few things to say about religious structures and leadership.
But for all the words that Jesus did say, there was one that he didn’t.
Jesus never mentioned abortion.
And what you might not realize?
He could have.
The language existed. Dr. Melanie Howard writes:
The Bible was written in a world in which abortion was practiced and viewed with nuance. Yet the Hebrew and Greek equivalents of the word “abortion” do not appear in either the Old or New Testament of the Bible. That is, the topic simply is not directly mentioned.
As we know, Jesus directly mentions quite a few topics…just not this one.
And he didn’t shy away from addressing women’s issues either.
Like when he spoke to the woman at the well and modeled the equal treatment of women with a simple discussion.
Or when he invited women like Joanna, Susanna, and “many others” to fund his movement, affirming their ability to lead and validating their worthiness outside of marriage, house management, and childbearing, the socially acceptable roles for women in his culture.
Or when he allowed the bleeding woman who was “unclean” to touch him, revealing the absurdity of a system that labeled and ostracized people, a system that heavily affected women as they were considered unclean during menstruation and after childbirth.
Or when he praised a “sinful” woman who physically expressed her devotion with her hair, her mouth, and some perfume at a dinner party, showing that he was not off-put by her intimate gestures—and he wasn’t just chill about it, he told everyone in the room to take notes.
In fact, some might say that Jesus did more to challenge patriarchal norms and address women’s issues at this time in history than any other spiritual leader.
And still, he never mentioned abortion.
Dr. Howard writes, “The absence of an explicit reference to abortion, however, has not stopped its opponents or proponents from looking to the Bible for support of their positions…But it is important to recognize that although the Bible was written at a time when abortion was practiced, it never directly addresses the issue.”
So if it was really that important to him, and he knew it was happening in his world, wouldn’t he have mentioned it?
He could’ve said like one sentence and called it a day.
Thank God (me) that I finally got that abortion topic covered!
But he didn’t.
As a rabbi, or a spiritual teacher in the Jewish tradition, Jesus would’ve been expected to take a stance on the most pressing issues of his time.
Maybe he simply didn’t see abortion as a pressing issue.
At the time, rabbis had different views on abortion citing various Jewish teachings.
Some taught that abortion shouldn’t be forbidden until after the 40-day mark, others used scriptures like Exodus 21 to place a higher value on a woman’s life than on that of her unborn child.
More often than not, rabbinic law and teaching varied by woman and circumstance.
But get this…
As a Rabbi, Jesus didn’t even take a stance.
Abortion happened.
People knew it happened.
Rabbis were talking about it.
And still, Jesus talked about other things instead.
So when it comes to a Christian stance on abortion, let’s ask ourselves…
WWJD?
Well, he already did.
He left us to hold the nuance and complexities of a topic that are as individual as every woman who is encountered with the choice.
And because it would have been so easy to mention it, we can speculate this omission was intentional.
Maybe he believed women should be given the dignity of the decision because, for some, the choice could be the right one, and for others, it might not be.
Who knows?
Any talking points that we come up with around Jesus and abortion are mere conjecture.
We don’t know why Jesus didn’t mention it.
We just know that he didn’t, which is why the anti-abortion movement’s sole reference to scripture in defense of their position is a verse where Jesus tells us not to murder each other because abortion is murder!
It’s true, Jesus did mention murder, and while he was on the topic…
He still didn’t mention abortion.
Which he could have if he thought it was in the same category.
We could also use context clues and assume Jesus meant murder as it was understood at this time in history—i.e. don’t kill that guy you hate next door…
Even if he sleeps with your wife.
Or don’t kill that Roman soldier just because he’s unarmed and oppressing you and your family.
Even if you really want to.
Apparently, there was a lot of murder going on that Jesus needed to be crystal clear about.
Murder aside, Jesus advocated for women’s rights at a time when no one else was.
Some have even been so radical as to call him a feminist.
But even as a rabbi who was active in addressing the most pressing issues for women, he didn’t mention abortion.
Words for abortion existed.
Abortion was happening in his world.
Other rabbis took a stance on the topic.
And still, he chose not to mention it.
So maybe it’s time we cool it.
Maybe it’s time to leave the morality of abortion in the hands of the women who are entitled to the dignity of decision regarding their own lives.
Maybe it’s time we follow Jesus on the matter because we don’t have to wonder.
WWJD?
He already did.
If you’re curious about how abortion became a political point of emphasis, you can read more about what happened about fifty years ago in American Politics on NPR, the NIH, and inThe GOP’s Abortion Strategy: Why Pro-Choice Republicans Became Pro-Life in the 1970s.