The Holy Fathers on Abortion

The Holy Fathers on Abortion
“You shall not slay (murder) the (or a) child by abortions.”
(Didache) (60-70 AD):
“The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure (an) abortion, nor destroy a newborn child.” (Didache 2:1) (150 AD)
***Didache (from a Greek word related to "doctrine," "didactic," etc.) was also called The Teaching (or Doctrine) of the Twelve Apostles, and is a short treatise that dates back to the early Christian Church and was accounted by some of the Holy Fathers as next to (importance with) Holy Scripture.
“Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born."
“And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder?"
“The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed. The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being, which has imputed to it even now the condition of life and death, since it is already liable to the issues of both, although, by living still in the mother, it for the most part shares its own state with the mother."
“And near that place I saw another strait place into which the gore and the filth of those who were being punished ran down and became there as it were a lake: and there sat women having the gore up to their necks, and over against them sat many children who were born to them out of due time, crying; and there came forth from them sparks of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion."
(Ante-Nicene Fathers)
***Ante-Nicene Fathers are a collection of extant (existing) writings of the Church Fathers, from the Apostolic Fathers up to the date of the first Ecumenical Council that was held at Nicea in 325 AD.
“Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.”
(St. Jerome)
“Women who were reputed believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!”
(St. Hippolytus of Rome)
“He that kills another with a sword, or hurls an axe at his own wife and kills her, is guilty of willful murder… so are they who take medicines to procure abortion...”
“Let her that procures (causes) abortion undergo ten years' penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not.”
“The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice inquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events if we regard it as done with intent. The punishment, however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years. And let their treatment depend not on mere lapse of time, but on the character of their repentance.”
(St. Basil the Great)
“Where there are many efforts at abortion? -- Where there is murder before the birth?… You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter?… so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire.”
(St. John Chrysostom)
Reached capacity:

[@stephaniebailey864]

Thank you "Holy Orthodoxy " for these sobering reflections of the Saints on abortion. The icons are very profound too .
God will forgive all who truly repent ❤

[@HolyOrthodoxy]

Glory be to God! ☦️

[@user-wc5pl2wf4t]

ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕСЕ🙏🙏🙏
Во истину Воскресе🙏🙏🙏

[@KirstinReese-iw8fr]

Amen