Christian Scholars Review (Fall, 1971) 42-58. Copyright © 1971 by Christian Scholars Review. Cited with permission. In this essay, C. E. Cerling, Jr., a United Methodist clergyman, re-examines abortion and contraception in the light of biblical revelation. Abortion and Contraception in Scripture C. E. CerlingTHE PURPOSE of this paper is the examination of the biblical teaching relating to the problems of abortion and contraception. This exam-ination it is hoped will provide a necessary foundation for discussions of the problems in the ethical realm, particularly the problem of whether abortion is equivalent to murder. Before one can consider the problems in terms of specific situations it is necessary to establish general principles that can be applied to all situations.1 By focusing attention on the problems of overpopula-tion, poverty, and other matters relating to these problems, one moves from the area of theology to situation-dominated ethics.2Is it fair to ask of documents as old as the Bible questions concerning abortion and contraception, questions that appear to have such modern origins? The questions are fair, because they are not really questions unique to the present age. Noonan,3 who gives the most thorough discussion of the early Church's attitude toward contraception as it developed historically,4 devotes 1 Helmut Thielicke, The Ethics of Sex, trans. J. W. Doberstein (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1964), p. 232 states that ethical principles may even present situations where a principle is more important than a life. But he also affirms the importance of difficult cases to test one's ethic (p. 199). 2 J. W. Montgomery, "How to Decide the Birth Control Issue," Christianity Today X (March 4, 1966), 9. William E. Hulme, "A Theological Approach to Birth Control," Pastoral Psychology XI (April, 1960), 26-7. It should also be added that these secondary considera-tions may force re-examination of one's original position because of factors not considered in scripture because not applicable to the biblical mileau. 3 J. T. Noonan, Jr. Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theolo-gians and Canonists (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965), chapter one. 4 Noonan writes from the Catholic perspective, but since much of the teaching of the Church is the teaching of the Catholic Church during the early years of development, treatment from the Catholic perspective is valid. See also Lloyd Kalland, "Views and Positions of the Christian Church--An Historical Review," Birth Control and the Christian, eds. Walter 0. Spitzer and Carlyle L. Saylor (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1969), 417.42Cerling: Abortion and Contraception 43much of his first chapter to a discussion of methods of contraception and abortion in the ancient world. Whole treatises were written on the topics in cultures having intimate contact with the children of Israel.5A paper on the biblical teaching on birth control automatically excludes anydiscussion of birth control for the unmarried. The Bible never entertains the idea that sexual intercourse apart from the marital relationship is justified (Ex. 20:14; I Cor. 6:13-20). For this reason the morality of birth control for the unmarried is like the question of whether a bank robber should use a Ford or a Plymouth as his getaway car. The more important question is whether he should ever rob a bank. The question of birth control for the unmarried is also a question of protection in sin, a question never raised.The question of abortion for the unmarried poses a different problem. Abortion for those involved in pregnancies induced by rape or forced incest and those women whose health would be endangered or who may produce a genetically damaged child should be considered under the sections dealing generally with abortion. This discussion, though, will also not consider the problems involved in the pregnancies of women who have co-operated in illicit intercourse, except for cases covered by the problems stated above. Unmarried women involved in illicit intercourse are not a subject for this study for the same reasons as given in the preceding paragraph concerning contraception and the unmarried.THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN POSITION ON CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION6One cannot discuss the biblical teaching on contraception without consid-ering at the same time the teaching of the Church and its development.7 Traditional teaching needs to be understood in the light of scripture (sometimes misunderstood), the philosophical climate, the religious climate, and current medicinal practices.8 For example, Paul writes in Romans 1:26-7 of "unnatural 5 See below pp. 48-49. 6 Noonan, Contraception .... ch. one, on whose work this section is based, treats the development of the Catholic Church's teaching from the dawn of the Church age until the modern era.In this paper the patristic material is examined first because it shows the source of many present day attitudes. We can also see how and to what the fathers reacted in forming their teaching to see if our teaching should be formed through the interaction of scripture and ideas similar to those of the fathers. Since the I.U.D.'s status as contraceptive or abortifacient is still being debated, further medical research needs to establish where it should be included. 7 Generalizations about the Church do not indicate that the author thinks all churchmen agreed on a given position. What is assumed is that the majority of people writing on a topic agreed on a basic core of teaching that can be fairly called the teaching of the Church. 8 Noonan, ch. two.4344 Christian Scholar's Reviewacts." The early Church fathers thought that "natural" was the obvious function of an act; they thought the function of sexual relations that is most natural is the procreation of children.9 This view is now considered a misinterpretation, but it was used to develop the view of sex that dominated the Church for almost two thousand years. Current medical practice also affected the development of early Church teaching. Contraception and abortion were treated together because of the difficulty of differentiating them in the early stages of pregnancy.10 Many of the contraceptive methods used were powerful enough to cause an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. By combining this difficulty with the known fact that abortion and contraception were frequently connected with the work of